I have noticed that the nose gear strut on most seem to be mounted straight down. The nose gear of the 182 is actually mounted with about a 15 degree forward rake. My brother who was an engineer at Cessna said the forward rake reduced the rearward stress on the nose gear about 30-35 precent. I owned a 1976 182P for 15 years and put about 3,000 hours on it. On the full size the nose gear needed to be handled with care. I always tried to land on the main gear and hold off the nose gear until the plane slowed, setting the nose wheel gently on the ground. On take offs tried to hold back elevators at the beginning to keep weight off the nose gear during initial acceleration. Always taxied (weather permitting) with full back elevator to keep stress off the nose gear. Also the prop higher off ground to lessen picking up debris. Nose wheel locked straight when fully extended so some times had to tap the breaks to make turns. If the bushings got worn and shimmy dampener also worn, nose gear could develop a violent shimmy. When this happened the nose pant was often damaged. That is why you see a lot w/o nose pants. Only makes about 2kts difference.
182 was/is a great airplane. It could have been faster and used less fuel. Has STC for car gas. It would carry about all you could load in it, had a large cg range. Had 80 gallon tanks so a long range. Steady instrument platform. Had HSI, Storm Scope, and coupled auto pilot. As airplanes go it was fairly low maintenance. Still, when my situation changed and couldn't write off as business expense, couldn't afford and had no pressing need for it. Still miss it after 20 years. There is nothing like being able to go to the local airport and go where you want, when you want.