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Bushwheel Tire Pressure.

Eddie Foy

MEMBER
South Florida
The 29s on My 180 say 8-20 PSI. I chose 12 to start. What do y'all use.

P.S. For you Yankee folks, y'all is Southern for youse guys.
 
Depends on where you are flying. 12 if I know I will have all hard smooth surface landings. Deflate to 'cheeks' when headed to rough
 
The wear pattern, together with your LZ needs will dictate the pressure. Lower pressure will scrub off the shoulders of the tires and will make it hard to push the plane around. It will also provide "cush" on landing, will provide floatation on soft stuff, and will absorb some LZ roughness. Higher pressure will do just the opposite.

I wore out my 26 bushwheels rather rapidly using low pressure; the wear was on the shoulders of the tires. I built them back up with Herculiner, but that didn't last very well. Built them back up again, AND increased the pressure to 20. Much lower wear rate now, but not as much forgiveness of my bouncy landings and certainly not as much forgiveness of roughness. But I have bungees, which are sufficient for the roughness I typically encounter.

FWIW, it's easy to let some air out of the tires if needed out in the boonies somewhere if soft stuff is encountered. Less so to add air back in.

I'm based at KTDO, a paved runway. But I land on the grass next to the runway 24 lights almost always. My neighbor sez that's 24R. Ha!! Haven't asked the airport manager, and don't intend to - - -
 
In a 180 that flies at an average weight above 2500#? 12 psi in 29s works great. You may go down to 10 but odds are you’ll never need less than that. If you run at 3000# you’ll be adding air. It won’t take you long to figure things out as you push the plane around on the surfaces you fly on.I just checked mine. 13 psi.
 
stewartb explains it well. I have had to adjust the pressure according to the weight in the plane. Not on a 180 but a couple other lighter planes. Have gone as low as 4 and high as 12. The low er pressure makes it much harder to push the plane around on the ground but terribly 'grabby' on pavement. If I know I will be flying to a paved airport where I don't have a grass option, I increase the pressure to the highest number. I carry the low pressure gauge and a pump aboard the plane.
 
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