Best 850x6 tire?

[Jim Hann]

Here is the entire list of Josh's STCs. Caution, this page may cost you a lot of money, it isn't my fault!

http://www.svennsaviation.com/page3.html

[Clayton Harper]

How do I get a hold of Sveen for the STC. Gabe at Airframes Alaska had not heard of him. Must have gotten the wires crossed. Help.

Gabe at Airframes for the spacers, Josh at Svenns for the STC.

[da737retired@gmail.com]

Clayton - Was a STC ever done to allow the Desser 850x6 Aero Classic Smooth Tundra on a PA-22-20-150 - Univar conversion with Cleveland single puck disc brakes?

[Steve Pierce]

Won't the Svenn STC cover the Desser 8.50s? http://www.svennsaviation.com/

[Pacer42Z]

Yes, I use the Svenn STC with the Desser 8.50 tires. The tires are very light and soft, ideal for dirt and gravel, but wear quickly on pavement. I only mount them when flying out West.

Juergen
Pacer N3342Z

[da737retired@gmail.com]

Thanks - I'll call Svenn and talk to Desser. I live in AZ and do mostly pavement. Have had great wear and run 650 hours on the Desser 850x6 Smooth Tundras on a Scout. My new PA-22-20 is lighter and I suspect they should do even better on the Piper. Alaska Bushwheels can't handle the pavement .

[LarryV]

I'll be bringing our new to us PA-22/20-150 home next week. It has VGs and Sullivan tips as well as 8.50x6 Air Trac tires.

The previous owner seemed to be biased toward short field capability given the mods to the aircraft, but oddly never installed shoulder harnesses, so I suspect it was more theoretical than actual. The tire wear also suggests a lot of paved runway landings.

He apparently wasn't a big fan of turning the tires on the wheels to even out the wear, so the tires are basically bald on one side with good tread on the other. I thought about turning them around, but I think they are close to or already a bit past that point and my preference is to just swap them out for new tires. My Citabria had tires in similar condition when I bought it and I've never regretting just starting from scratch with new rubber of my choosing.

We operate off an 1800' grass strip in sandy soil that drains pretty well, but is almost always on the soft side if it's rained in the last week. It's also pretty rough by most grass strip standards.

I'm debating between 8.50x6 Air Tracs or Aero Classic's 8.50x6 22" tundra style smooth tires.

I'm familiar with the pros and cons on a Citabria, but I'm looking for input from people with direct experience with Pacers and the above tires.

Our Pacer will be the family go places aircraft and will eventually be IFR certified. In that regard most of the time it'll be operated off grass, including shorter and softer strips in the 800-1000 foot range. However it'll also see some use on paved runways.

I'm leaning toward the 8.50x6 Air Trac tires, but I'm wondering how much more the Aero Classics wear on pavement and how much more drag they add in cruise. I'm also interested in handling differences between the two on both grass and pavement.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[kevbot]

Aero classic 8.50x6 smoothies have been great for me. I’ve run them for ~100hrs. No noticeable wear yet. I’m based on pavement and operate pavement-to-pavement ~75% time due to cross country trips but when I’m off airport, I’m usually hitting several spots/strips so landings on vs off pavement may be closer to 50%. I used to run a pair of worn air trac hand-me-downs and they were fine but I prefer the aero classics due to the softer flex and lighter weight. No tread has been fine but I still haven’t used them in any wet conditions. Theoretically they should fling fewer rocks which is nice, but I still regularly have small holes that need dollar patches on my belly at annual. Almost all of my off airport landings are dirt/rock/desert type conditions. In reality I used to use basic 6.00x6 tires all over the place and only got stuck bad once (gopher hole).


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[Steve Pierce]

I mered your thread with another. I have quite a bit of experience with the Air Trac but that was some years ago. The Aero Classics have a softer sidewall which in my experience rides better on rough stuff. I am on Bushwheels so they are both harder and wear better than mine and since you are operating on a grass strip I doubt you will see an issue.

I did a Google search "8.50 tires site:shortwingpipers.org" and merged several threads on the subject with this one.

[Pacer42Z]

I fly my Pacer part of the year with 6.00x6 and wheel pants and part with 8.50x6 22" Desser Aero Classic. I really like the softness of the Aero Classic when going into unimproved strips. Here is a collection of videos landing at Canyon strips in Utah, dry Lakebed in Nevada and some grass and gravel strips on the east coast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...6jGdGIe53ikypm. I have the STC to go up to 26" tires, but the 22" don't take that much away from my cruise speed (maybe 5 kts.), which is important to me when going for 2,000 mile cross country trips. So far the wear is pretty good. I'm based at a paved runway and the airport does not allow to land in the grass beside the runway.

Juergen
Pacer N3342Z