I am looking for a bit of advice from the 182 owners or from anyone that has experience with the 182 and big tires. I see that there are tons of threads on here about tires and I searched the wedsite fairly well before posting this so if I missed something please point me in the right direction.

I have got a 182J and I am wanting to put 29's on it. I know there are different setups as far as wheels, tires, brakes etc and I know that I am looking at the better part of 10 grand to get my plane set up with the new rubber so I only want to do it once. I am looking for a tire setup that can take some fairly rough terrain and gravel but I will still be landing about 30% of the time on a paved strip. I have read and heard great things about ABW's but heard they don't take well to a lot of pavement. I talked to a few people about the Yukon Tundra Tire setup (Gar Aero) and they say there very stiff and rough.

I figured there must be a few guys on here with hands on experience with the tricycle stuff so if you can give me some pointers that would be great.

Thanks, Brian Garrett

It sounds like the Alaskan Bushwheel 10" rims with 29" air hawks is what you want. Along with the landis nose fork and 8.50x5 on the nose.

Just remember that even with the bigger, tougher fork, you still have a relatively fragile firewall (true of all pre-1970 182s). So you still must be pretty judicious about how rough a terrain you land and taxi on, even with the bigger, softer tires.

Cary

Sounds like you've done the homework enough to get to the scary numbers. I also have a 182j and concluded that the landes would work best for me. I did a $10,000 annual instead, so pigeon-holed the idea. Mine already had a required firewall reinforcement that I hoped was adequate, so I was closer to 6-7k. I think I remember having to go with cleveland calipers to keep from rubbing. Please post back how it turned out if you do it. If someone throws a bag of cash on my lawn, I still might do it.