I have a 1997 182s and I want some bigger tires.

I have been wearing out the forums and well it looks like this kit is the right route.

https://www.airframesalaska.com/Bushwhe ... i-gear.htm

8.5 x 6 with airglas on the nose and 8.5 x 10 on the mains.

One stop shop. Not cheap but convenient.

Anything special on the restart 182 to consider?

Comments?

Thanks,
D.

We have 8.50 x 6's all around with the airglas nose fork on our 182B.

A 182S is a very different beast than a 182B however.....so none of this probably applies too much, and your airplane probably bests our meager 900 pound useful load by at least a few hundred.. It seems to work well enough on the B. It gives the airplane a very nose high attitude, almost a skywagon like stance. With heavy front seaters and a lot of fuel, care (almost full up pitch trim and full aft elevator in the flare) is needed to avoid a 3 point landing. The tail tie down ring is looking a little flat on the bottom! Never flown an S but have 50 hours in a '78 182RG and from my recollection, that one was pretty nose heavy too.



Related to this, be sure to run a weight and balance with your proposed changes though. On ours, after the battery was moved from the aft baggage to firewall and the bigger nosegear was set up, the empty CG was measured at 33.13".....stock it was about 36.63". When you consider that the forward limit is 33", this is a problem....we always have to ride around with 50 pounds of ballast in aft baggage (state required safety gear takes up a lot of this though).



One of the partners in the 182 wants to put 26 or 29" airhawks on. The plane already tops out at about 130 MPH true airspeed though. Any more drag and we're a cub except burning 2x the fuel and needing 3x the takeoff distance.

Airframes and Airglas are both great companies. The good news is nearly everything they produce has appropriate approvals.

The combination of 8.50 x 10 mains and an 8.50 x 6 nose tire will give a 182 the proper ratio of tire size between mains and nose. I’ve run that size combo on a 206 and really liked it.

8.50 x 6 on all three is an invitation to three point landings. Hard work keeping that nose tire off during landings. Can be done, but maintaining the original ratio between nose and mains is best.

Looks like a great kit.

MTV

I had the 8.5x10 on mains and 8.50x6 nose fork on my 1958 182 and really liked the combination. Nose fork was an Airglas 206. Loved that airplane but did need to add 15 lbs to the tail cone to compensate for moving battery to fire wall, removing rear seats, and extending baggage.

Cool - thanks for all the info.

My 182 has the battery in the rear and I dont plan on moving it.

I will have to look at the CG closer.

Does the AirGlas have provisions to use the factory towbar?

Thanks for all the info.

D.

I’m not sure what a Cessna factory tow bar is like but the airglas has the two bolts sticking out about 3-4” above the top of the tire to which a normal tow bar easily attaches.

How does an early 182B ‘sit’ with 8.00 on mains and a 7.00 on nose wheel?

Is a 7.00 x 6 the largest available on the standard nose strut?

We have the exact same tire sizes and nose fork on our old straight tail 182 that you are looking at. As others have noted, the CG can be very far forward, but I haven’t found landings to be a problem as long as I use a lot of nose up trim. I have found that taxiing with the big tires is a bit more difficult than with small tires. I think the attitude that the plane sits at on the ramp is just fine.

As for a tow bar, I highly recommend the ones made by Bogert Aviation. They are made specifically for many applications, including the Landis nose fork. The small handpull towbar is part #04M-Landis, which is what I use all the time. I also recently purchased the Big Bogi Bar so I can tow the plane behind my truck. The feet are interchangeable (just on the big tow bar) so it can be used on lots of aircraft; the ones for the Landis nose fork are F1125x25. Their customer service is outstanding and they do sell directly. Before I discovered that they sell directly, I tried purchasing from one of the big aviation supply houses, but they couldn’t figure out what tow bar I needed since I didn’t have the factory nose fork. They were no help at all, but once I contacted Bogert directly, they got me squared away.

https://bogertaviation.com/collections/ ... l-aircraft

https://bogertaviation.com/collections/ ... al-tow-bar

@pipeliner, when I was flying a lot of 207s I sometimes got one that was hard to taxi. Adding a little bit of nitrogen to the nose strut would extend the strut a bit, and taxiing would be much easier. In your first and second pictures there isn’t much strut showing, and I think you would benefit from increasing the nitrogen charge. In the third photo there is quite a lot of strut showing, so maybe you’ve already taken care of the problem.

Also, to anyone planning to operate their nosewheel Cessna on rough surfaces, you might want to consider clamping about 2 1/2” of heavy rubber hose on the bottom of the strut cylinder. It will cushion the blow when you don’t see the pothole in the runway. Just about every Cessna operating in western Alaska has this mod.

PA12_Pilot wrote:@pipeliner, when I was flying a lot of 207s I sometimes got one that was hard to taxi. Adding a little bit of nitrogen to the nose strut would extend the strut a bit, and taxiing would be much easier. In your first and second pictures there isn’t much strut showing, and I think you would benefit from increasing the nitrogen charge. In the third photo there is quite a lot of strut showing, so maybe you’ve already taken care of the problem.

Thanks! I hadn't made the connection, but that makes sense. I appreciate the feedback. Actually, all of the photos with the tow bar were taken on the same day and are the most recent. The nose strut was just recently recharged as it had gone completely flat, but that was before the photos with the tow bar were taken.

Update:

I talked to the guys at Alaska Airframes - good guys.

I talked to JIm @ AirGlas - super smart and helpful.

I called up Hitchcock Aviation and worked with Blake. These guys are really knowledgable about nose draggers. We talked thru what I was going to do and here is what I bought:

I ordered a Airglas fork with a Cleveland 40-76A - 6.00 x 6

Tires
8.00 x 6 - 6 ply on the nose.
8.50 x 6 - 6 ply on the mains.

Brakes
I have factory double puck brakes - should be good.

I can't wait to get them installed.

Thanks for all the input,
D.

ddivinia wrote:Update:

I talked to the guys at Alaska Airframes - good guys.

I talked to JIm @ AirGlas - super smart and helpful.

I called up Hitchcock Aviation and worked with Blake. These guys are really knowledgable about nose draggers. We talked thru what I was going to do and here is what I bought:

I ordered a Airglas fork with a Cleveland 40-76A - 6.00 x 6

Tires
8.00 x 6 - 6 ply on the nose.
8.50 x 6 - 6 ply on the mains.

Brakes
I have factory double puck brakes - should be good.

I can't wait to get them installed.

Thanks for all the input,
D.

I flew a 206 in the interior of Alaska on that set of tires, and it worked great. The 6.00 tire on the nose offers the perfect compliment to the 8.50s on the mains. You'll love it.

MTV

Looks like I have to cut my strut.

Does anybody have an extra strut I can buy?

Thanks,
D.

Things are in motion.

Mains are going on today.

8.50 x 6 on the left and stock 6.00 x 6 on the right.

Pretty Stoked,
D.

Looks Great!

Two things:

1) Atlee dodge sells 1/8 in spacers to put between the brake disk and the wheel to give more room for the brake pads. you need 1/8 inch longer bolts for that, AN5-36A is what I used.

2) You can change out your wheel nut, which has the bolt hole for the wheel pants, with a slimmer nut. Then you can add hub caps to help keep the dirt and grime out of the wheel bearings.

Great info.

Axle nuts and hub caps are on order.

Looking into the spacers.

Thanks,
D.

Hubcaps and axle nuts in order.

Still checking on the spacers.

Nose is coming together.

D.

Finally got to see the plane in person. Those spacers are a good call. Ordered them today.

They were working away on the VGs and BAS belts.

Hubcaps showed up also.

D.

Additional pic.

pipeliner wrote:We have the exact same tire sizes and nose fork on our old straight tail 182 that you are looking at. As others have noted, the CG can be very far forward, but I haven’t found landings to be a problem as long as I use a lot of nose up trim. I have found that taxiing with the big tires is a bit more difficult than with small tires. I think the attitude that the plane sits at on the ramp is just fine.

As for a tow bar, I highly recommend the ones made by Bogert Aviation. They are made specifically for many applications, including the Landis nose fork. The small handpull towbar is part #04M-Landis, which is what I use all the time. I also recently purchased the Big Bogi Bar so I can tow the plane behind my truck. The feet are interchangeable (just on the big tow bar) so it can be used on lots of aircraft; the ones for the Landis nose fork are F1125x25. Their customer service is outstanding and they do sell directly. Before I discovered that they sell directly, I tried purchasing from one of the big aviation supply houses, but they couldn’t figure out what tow bar I needed since I didn’t have the factory nose fork. They were no help at all, but once I contacted Bogert directly, they got me squared away.

https://bogertaviation.com/collections/ ... l-aircraft

https://bogertaviation.com/collections/ ... al-tow-bar

Thanks for the info. My factory towbar ended up working fine wiht a longer bolt and some spacers.

I am ordering the adapter for my big Bogi bar - great into.

Thank,
Darin