Tailwheel tires going flat

[Neal]

I haven't flown in about a month or more as I had the unfortunate circumstance of taking care of a family member. I returned to the plane today and the tailwheel was flat. This is a new tire and tube I installed a few months ago. In fact it was even an upgraded tube to prevent flats. I had a prior tube go flat on me on the prior setup, and my spare tire/tube in the hangar also is leaking air. What in the heck is going on with these things?

I have spare tubes, I've just never seen tubes go bad so fast and/or so frequent. Anyone else experiencing this? I think if my plane is going to sit I'm going to jack the tail to get weight off the wheel.

 

[ve6yeq]

My tailwheel definitely loses air pressure quite quickly, and I recently replaced the tire and tube as the tire was cracking on the sides. I have had some people say this was because I was operating with too little air in the tire, but it also appeared to happen much faster when I had it tied down outside in Florida over the winter.
So for now, I will get a tailwheel tire cover and check the air pressure monthly.

 

[Cactus Charlie]

What in the heck is going on with these things?

Take out the inner tube, inflate it enough to make it feel firm but not enough to rupture it, then hold it under water.

That will tell you if you have a discrete puncture, general porosity, or a leaking valve. Worse thing you may find is a valve stem partially torn from the tube.

A standard tube tail wheel has very low volume and it doesn't take much of a leak to drop the pressure quickly.

 

[Neal]

I removed it and sprayed it and really couldn't tell where the leak was coming from. I think it was the valve stem.

Yes, low tire pressure is the leading cause of failure in most tires with tubes. I do keep mine on the high side of inflation, not low side. I'm using a larger 11x4x5.00 tire on my TK1 tailwheel. My guess is it was my poor installation as the cause. I have spare tubes and keep one in the plane and did a more careful job of installing this one so we'll see how long it lasts.

 

[Cactus Charlie]

I removed it and sprayed it and really couldn't tell where the leak was coming from.

Put it under water.