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This post is to hopefully help some prior to or currently in the decision process
Get 8” wheels
I really wanted to get 8” wheels when I was in the sourcing and early building stages. Why? Well I do a lot of landings on unimproved (i.e. gravel, dirt and grass strips) and wanted tires larger than 8.50’s (21” diameter). Truth be told, I landed all over the backcountry strips in Utah and Idaho with 8.50’s and spring gear, so yes it can be done. In my opinion, BY FAR the best designed BC (backcountry) tires are the Alaska Bushwheels (tires)with their internal stem design which eliminates stem shearing in the event of excessive braking with tire tubes and stems in the wheels. So why larger than 8.50? While the 8.50’s were adequate, they are not ideal for some of the strips, especially the uphill strips (Cabin Creek, Soldier Bar etc…) that have the washout rubber strips that can create a bit if a step/bump. Reason #2 why NOT to run ABW is they wear out very quickly when landing on pavement, unless you need larger than 31” ABW’s you can use 6” wheels so you are good to go IF you can deal with the high wear of the soft ABW’s you are good to go with 6” wheels.
So all that said…. Why the 8” wheels? Because I 100% believe the Desser 27” tires are the way to go. Why? Well they have in my opinion a perfect balance in size for rougher strips but still small enough to not cause too much drag to hurt cruise speeds more than I can palate. Also the Desser 27’s are durable like the Goodyear 26’s that are currently on my yet to fly plane. So with the 27’s you have an actual 27” tire as opposed to the GY 26’s that are truly only 24” diameter and look like 8.50’s on a BH compared to how they looked on the Rans.
So by this point it is clear the 27” Desser tires are designed for an 8” wheel. BH/Mark Goldberg had/has? a discount with Grove so I felt like I was tied to Grove. Dumb on my part. At the time (Covid) Grove did not have 8” wheels and were not planning to make them anytime soon. I inquired about 10” wheels (Desser has a 29” tires too that is mounted on a 10” tire) which were also not available at the time. I was put on a waitlist for both the 8” and 10” wheels. Funny in that this week Grove called me to see if I was still interested in the 10” wheels as they were going to make a batch. Still no call on the 8”! I was smart enough to research tires, but too dumb to think outside the Grove box. I absolutely should have gone to Matco (local here in Utah) and gone with their 8” wheels. The other option is Beringer but not sure how this plays out.
Sadly using anything besides Beringer you need to change out your brake calipers when going from 6” to 8” wheels. So being currently too far down the road and at the end of my budget I will stay with the 6” wheels, but hopefully some of you will use this post to make the best decision for your plane’s setup.
Get 8” wheels
I really wanted to get 8” wheels when I was in the sourcing and early building stages. Why? Well I do a lot of landings on unimproved (i.e. gravel, dirt and grass strips) and wanted tires larger than 8.50’s (21” diameter). Truth be told, I landed all over the backcountry strips in Utah and Idaho with 8.50’s and spring gear, so yes it can be done. In my opinion, BY FAR the best designed BC (backcountry) tires are the Alaska Bushwheels (tires)with their internal stem design which eliminates stem shearing in the event of excessive braking with tire tubes and stems in the wheels. So why larger than 8.50? While the 8.50’s were adequate, they are not ideal for some of the strips, especially the uphill strips (Cabin Creek, Soldier Bar etc…) that have the washout rubber strips that can create a bit if a step/bump. Reason #2 why NOT to run ABW is they wear out very quickly when landing on pavement, unless you need larger than 31” ABW’s you can use 6” wheels so you are good to go IF you can deal with the high wear of the soft ABW’s you are good to go with 6” wheels.
So all that said…. Why the 8” wheels? Because I 100% believe the Desser 27” tires are the way to go. Why? Well they have in my opinion a perfect balance in size for rougher strips but still small enough to not cause too much drag to hurt cruise speeds more than I can palate. Also the Desser 27’s are durable like the Goodyear 26’s that are currently on my yet to fly plane. So with the 27’s you have an actual 27” tire as opposed to the GY 26’s that are truly only 24” diameter and look like 8.50’s on a BH compared to how they looked on the Rans.
So by this point it is clear the 27” Desser tires are designed for an 8” wheel. BH/Mark Goldberg had/has? a discount with Grove so I felt like I was tied to Grove. Dumb on my part. At the time (Covid) Grove did not have 8” wheels and were not planning to make them anytime soon. I inquired about 10” wheels (Desser has a 29” tires too that is mounted on a 10” tire) which were also not available at the time. I was put on a waitlist for both the 8” and 10” wheels. Funny in that this week Grove called me to see if I was still interested in the 10” wheels as they were going to make a batch. Still no call on the 8”! I was smart enough to research tires, but too dumb to think outside the Grove box. I absolutely should have gone to Matco (local here in Utah) and gone with their 8” wheels. The other option is Beringer but not sure how this plays out.
Sadly using anything besides Beringer you need to change out your brake calipers when going from 6” to 8” wheels. So being currently too far down the road and at the end of my budget I will stay with the 6” wheels, but hopefully some of you will use this post to make the best decision for your plane’s setup.
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