ORIGINAL: WEDJ
Those gears will be fine, even with 5/32 wire. We used to use them with planes of 10+ pounds.
After one season of flying my Deception with 5/32" struts, I switched over to 3/16" struts. I got tired of having to bend them back so that they would retract cleanly without hanging up.
We had to land downhill during the first half of the year and our grass field was really rough. Try that with an eight and a half pound Deception and you'll learn very quickly that 5/32" struts aren't up to the job.
However, had we had a smooth, level runway, the 5/32" struts might have been just fine.
Ed Cregger