This is my first post on BCP although I have been reading posts on this site for the last year or so. I appreciate the knowledge base of the membership. I have a 58 C180A. I have been using 8.5 X 6 Goodyear tires since 2012. I will be placing a third set of tires on the aircraft during the next annual. I am curious how long other members are going between needing to change the tires. My mechanic says for the type of flying I do he excepts about 200 hours time to be acceptable. I fly on both paved and grass surfaces. Some of the places I fly are rough but I do not land on gravel bars or off field. I primarily do wheel landings with minimal braking. I like the 8.5 because it is reasonably sized for landing on rougher strips but I don't get too big of a speed penalty. The tires aren't that expensive but I talked with some other pilots recently who think I may have an alignment problem. There is more wear and tear on the inner region of the tires but there are no bald spots from hard braking.


Josh

I flew super hawks on my maule and I just think they last longer than Goodyears. So much so that I put them on my Cessna. They stand a little taller too.

Jim

P.S. Welcome! Great group of pilots here!

"Flight hours" is not a good measurement for tire wear...it's all about the number of landings, taxi distance, runway surface, etc.. If the aircraft tracks straight, I wouldn't worry about alignment. That said, all my tires wear from the outside in, since it's the outside of the tire that scrubs on touchdown. If it's worth it to you, you can remount the tires at their half-life...turning the outside to the inside. Rarely worth the effort, unless you like doing that sort of thing.

I like the Goodyears more than the other 8.50's because they have fewer and larger grooves...less rock throw in my experience.

Welcome, by the way!

I have Desser recapped 850 GY's on my 180.
Dunno how long they been on there, but in the 3-1/2 years I've owned it,
I've flown it close to 350 hours worth of usually pretty short flights (in other words, lots of landings- most on pavement).
The recaps are showing some wear, but are still going strong.
I'll probably have to replace them next fall, and plan on getting 850 Airtracs.
Some folks don't seem to like them,
but I ran Airtracs on my last two airplanes (C170 & C150/150TD) and always got what I considered good service out of them.
Plus they're reasonably priced, and I like the way they look.

FWIW I "rotate" the tires on wheels every annual or two,
it evens out the wear & gets me longer service life out of them.

Wear on the outside seems to be pretty common. Mine seem to wear just a little more on the outside of the tire than the middle/inside. I just put a new set of superhawk 8.50s on. They seem to stand just a little taller but slighty narrower than the GYs and similar tread pattern. The Desser guy suggested them. I'm planning on flipping them at each annual to keep wear symmetric. They wear more evenly near full gross but not so much in the middle of the envelope. I had considered buying new shims and knocking the camber out another 1/2 a degree but the airplane taxis and lands straight and I rather flip the tires regularly than mess up the alignment.

BazzLow wrote:Wear on the outside seems to be pretty common. Mine seem to wear just a little more on the outside of the tire than the middle/inside. I just put a new set of superhawk 8.50s on. They seem to stand just a little taller but slighty narrower than the GYs and similar tread pattern. The Desser guy suggested them. I'm planning on flipping them at each annual to keep wear symmetric. They wear more evenly near full gross but not so much in the middle of the envelope. I had considered buying new shims and knocking the camber out another 1/2 a degree but the airplane taxis and lands straight and I rather flip the tires regularly than mess up the alignment.

OoooWeeeee! Dont mess with the shims in an attempt to reduce wear if the airplane tracks straight AND the camber and toe in is within spec. Also, when removing axles from gear legs be VERY careful to re install shims exactly, most have a taper to them which can be very slight and hard to see and if you flip them around on reassembly and get it wrong you WILL have issues! The maintenance manual spells out how to check gear and axle alignment, I highly recommend every one do this, you may be surprised. I have flown 185's that were monsters on the ground and after this simple check it was discovered the alignment was out of whack, after fixing they were much better. Many owners and mechanics are clueless on this issue. The check is easy to do.

Kurt

Goodyears for about 300 hrs and they look great, I do lots of landings in an hr, gravel bars, grass, dirt, pavement, sand, I run them at 18 psi.
So far very happy with them.

Alinement is vary important and as said so often overlooked and pretty easy to fix might keep you out of ditch

Welcome, Josh!

Dog is my Copilot wrote:There is more wear and tear on the inner region of the tires but there are no bald spots from hard braking.

Not sure if this was a typo, but normally on the 180 and most taildraggers, you should expect more wear on the outer portion of the tires, due to positive camber of the wheels. I have a 1959 180B and that's the portion of my tires that wears first.

Goodyear 8.50's seem to last me a pretty long time.

I appreciate the feedback from everyone. The wear is on the outer part of the tire (typo from the OP). The last time I replaced the tires it was worn down on the outside of the tire to the point where you could see part of the belt. I am not letting it go that far this time. I think I need to start rotating the tires regularly. I would assume once you get a little wear going the tires degrade exponentially faster. Hopefully rotating the tires can extend the lifespan. I think the alignment is okay because it taxis straight but I will check it out on the annual. Consensus so far is that the Goodyear tire is superior. I read some other posts about the Desser smooth tire without any tread being a great backcountry tire.

You need to put the airplane on grease plates (2 sheets of aluminum with grease in-between and placed under tire) to get a true accurate check of alignment.

Kurt

Also, determine you typical loading. Set the alignment at that weight and CG. Lighter and heavier loads will compromise the alignment, but it will be closest at your normal weight.

G44 wrote: You need to put the airplane on grease plates (2 sheets of aluminum with grease in-between and placed under tire) to get a true accurate check of alignment. Kurt

I've heard of some people using a folded-up plastic trash bag instead of greased plates.
Just as "squirmy" but less messy.

hotrod180 wrote:

G44 wrote: You need to put the airplane on grease plates (2 sheets of aluminum with grease in-between and placed under tire) to get a true accurate check of alignment. Kurt

I've heard of some people using a folded-up plastic trash bag instead of greased plates.
Just as "squirmy" but less messy.

Yep, that works too. Spray PAM cooking spray inside the trash bags, works even better!