Desser Air Trac and Air Hawk 8.50-10 aren’t in the same realm of quality in my experience. I wore through a set of Air Tracs in less than 150 hrs on my Ag Cat, and Air Hawks will last 450 hrs minimum with dismounting and flipping them at half life.

mtv wrote:I ran McReary (now Desser) 8.50 X 10 tires on wheel adapters and the diameter was almost exactly 26 inches. ...

First of all, it's spelled McCreary.
Secondly, Desser sells McCreary tires, they don't manufacture them.
https://www.desser.com/
McCreary is part of Specialty Tires of America (STA),
they make tires for all sorts of things in addition to aircraft.
https://www.stausaonline.com/
It does appear that STA manufactures Desser's proprietary "Aero Classic" line of tires.
https://www.desser.com/content/aboutAero.asp

Only now I'm not too sure just hoe "proprietary" they are,
since it appears other outfits (including Aircraft Spruce) sell them also.

In the collective wisdom of those who may frequent a site such as BCP how much "surface deformation" can an 8 x 6.00 tire "smooth out"

My 182k has 8.00's on the t/c, so I will be switching to them from the current 6.00's. As Mike pointed out, I too notice that the Goodyears seem fatter and taller with less grooves, and the V-groove trick helps a lot too.

Motoadve, one thing I haven't seen mentioned is what size tire is "legal" on your plane. If you don't have the Airglas fork you are likely limited to 8.00's? I know you are a great pilot and way more adventurous than I, but my fear is if I bend the plane is my insurance going to be looking for reasons to withhold the check?

For those running lower pressure, the hubcap screw holes can be drilled out and longer screws used as a poor-mans bead lock.......