I have a set of Air Trac 6-Ply 8.50 x 6 tires on my C180 that have very little wear on the inside, but lot's of wear on the outside. I have been practicing landings and fairly aggressive ground handling maneuvers on the pavement to get used to the plane. I went to rotate them last night, and found that it is pretty thin with no stiffness where it is worn. The 180 has tons of camber, and the inside never really touches the ground, but the outside rubber is working hard. My question is: have I taken these too far, or does anyone have any experience running tires like this?

Once the tread is gone anywhere, you'd better replace them, real soon. I blew the left main 8.50 on the 207 on takeoff from asphalt last month, and the very next day blew the other landing on gravel. No damage, but it sucks, and probably even more if you don't have a support team ready to fly you a new tire wherever you're stuck at. Not to mention having a runway notam'd closed for a disabled aircraft with people checking out your bald tires... haha

It happens to everyone. If you feel like busting tires, you can flip em around....

It helps if you rotate them periodically.

Same here. I've been too lazy to rotate mine and now I'm in the middle of putting brand new tires on. Besides the fact that the outside sees much more wear than the inside, my home 'drome almost always has a decent crosswind from the left, and you can tell from the tire wear on my left tire vs. my right. Pretty funny.

Glidergeek wrote:It helps if you rotate them periodically.

Of Course that is the sensible thing to do. It seems like they went bald in just a few weeks of playing around on pavement. I have another set in great shape lying around. I was hoping that someone might say: "we run them like that all of the time without issues" I definitely want to play it safe and don't want any tire trouble. Been there before, though not due to worn tires, rather a bad tube.

Scolopax wrote:

Glidergeek wrote:It helps if you rotate them periodically.

Of Course that is the sensible thing to do. It seems like they went bald in just a few weeks of playing around on pavement. I have another set in great shape lying around. I was hoping that someone might say: "we run them like that all of the time without issues" I definitely want to play it safe and don't want any tire trouble. Been there before, though not due to worn tires, rather a bad tube.

You might check alignment, I R&R ed my gear painted them put dual puck brakes on and checked the alignment it is toed out 1/4". Mine wear outside faster. Most of that is the unsprung camber landing and taking off.

While I had the gear off I found the outboard mount brackets cracking with granular corrosion so it's going to Beegles in Greely tomorrow for repair.

As far as running on bald 8.50's I've never done that but ill bet you'll be seeing threads real soon there isn't much under that rubber.