I just bought a set of tires from Wicks Aircraft Supply for my 360.  I have bought many sets of these tires over the past 12 years (1230 hobbs hours) of flying since my first flight in 2002. Twelve years ago, they cost only about $16 each, so I would replace them once a year. Now I go two, or a little more, since they have more than doubled in price, and they really don't need to be replaced that often. Every time I have ordered these tires in the past, they come out of the shipping box looking like the picture in the catalog. This time they look deformed and distorted. One of the tires has 6 band-clamp depressions around the edge. I am going to reject this one. They all appear to have been band clamped together. In fact, they appear to have been clamped together so tight that the curved edges and lines from one tire have transferred as grooves and depressions into the other adjacent tire. I have tried to open them up but they just spring back to the distorted shape.

Has anyone else received tires that look like this? Would you accept these?

I have emailed Wicks (with pictures) three times and called twice over the past week, but I don’t seem to be able to get anyone who has any authority to accept a return. I am not very impressed with the customer service so far. I’m going to start pushing a little harder on Monday, unless the consensus here is that they are okay to use.

Thanks for the help.

Mike Reinath

LNC2 320MKII 1230 hrs