Little bit of tire rubbing on pilot side of nose gear when we towed the aircraft for the first time today. Rubbing is slight and against about 1/2-2/3 if tire wall.
Ideas:
1. Pressure of tire: 15 lbs PSI - is this correct?2. Nose wheel tire slightly out of round due to sitting or manufacturing tolerances? A local 701 owner suggested this when I showed it to him at 2W6 today.
3. Tire rubbing issue appears that it would be resolved by shortening the copilot side wheel spacer 3/32" while lengthening the pilotvside spacer.

We are 5-7 hours from completion after moving to 2W6 from the garage and re-assembling (left to do: gelcoat the cowling and reinstall it, renstall seats, rivet rear windows in, rivet inboard top wing panels in place, re-install prop.)

Lots of folks loved the plane at the airport open house today. Lots of interest in experimental aviation, Zenith and our Viking 130 (which runs like a dream!).

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I had to invert the fork attachment bolts, as they were rubbing new grooves into the tire. Is the wheel twisted or bent? Have you rocked it side-to-side to see if anything's loose? Is it cocked to one side slightly when you look at it head-on? Give these ideas little credit, as I'm not even a builder. Which fork do you have?

I'd like to know how much the Viking 130 actually costs . . . Can I trust the $18,000 figure to cover everything? 

WT

Wayne, for $18,000 you are talking engine and firewall forward components.   Samantha at Viking provides a detailed list and cost of material that I found to be accurate. 

Our experience did not include any surprises as far as what was included vs. needed.  You can buy just the engine, or the engine and some of (or all of) the firewall forward items...  Additional items, like header tank - or tanks with internal fuel pumps are also available...  We purchased the engine, FWF kit, and then we added the Viking steel bungie and then the gearbox venting upgrade when those became available.

Check out the site, call Samantha and also talk to Jan.  We bought one of the earliest 130s, so the Viking View was back-ordered for a while as were a few other installation parts, but Jan and Samantha were upfront about the delay..and we had lots of work to do in any case!

Jan and Samantha have been as responsive as the wonderful folks at Zenith, EarthX, and Whirl Wind.

 - Bill

The sidewall of your tire should say how much psi. 

The sidewall only states maximum psi,
The airframe manufacturer is the one who advises tire pressures,

True.  My recollection is that the correct pressure is 15 PSI, but I cannot find that in writing anywhere!

Decided to look it up.  Found it in two places.  One in sample maintenance manual.  30 PSI  And in 601 SLSA manual 28-30 PSI.  Guess my memory was wrong about the 50 PSI.  Even 30 seems high to me.  My 172G was 24 PSI for nose and 26 for mains.  Gross weight for 172 was 1,000 lbs more than 601 and tires were not much bigger.  But 15 seems low.  :-)

You sir, are correct.  However, I sometimes question their judgement.  Unless I am mistaken Zenith recommends 50 psi for a 601 and I just don't know why it should be so high.  I spoke with a tire manufacturer and he gave me a formula for pressure based on tire size and gross weight of plane and then said but you should go with your manufacturer's recommendation.  If my memory is correct about the 50 psi recommendation, do you have any idea why a 601 should have such high pressure?  I am using 25 and seems to work very well.

Because I do not know what tire he uses, I did not feel it right to say that the sidewall only states max pressure.   Also, since I've not seen anything from Zenith advising tire pressure, and my tires only provide the max pressure of 20 psi, seems logical to set is there.  

I think your tire looks too big for that fork and for the rim as well.

Also looks like the fork is on backwards.

That is the same tire we have.  Perhaps it's just the photo, but looks as if the tire is either overinflated or the fork may be pulled in to much, as if you don't have the right length spacers on each side.   Can you provide another set of photos not so close, and both sides from the front?  Set tire pressure to 20 psi.  By the way, the fork looks to be on per the plans.

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