Help me choose a tailwheel

[Gerd Mannsperger]

For the heavy tailed Aircraft the AK Baby Bushwheels set up is hard to beat, they just work.

I do however use a regular tire and tube much better steering control on slick surfaces -- (Mud Ice and snow) They are also much cheaper.

If you do lots of big rock super rough ground stuff the Baby bush wheel is slightly better as you can run lower pressures.

[kestrel]

I'm a little late to this re-thread, but I'm very happy with my Eric Newton-Bob Tundra. Has worked well on all surfaces. ...I haven't been on sand with it yet.

[zkelley2]

I've got maybe 50hrs on my matco now and I hate it unless I'm in soft stuff. Then I love it.

It's terrible on any sort of hard surface. Doesnt really track straight for some reason and it's impossible to get it to unlock to spin 180 degrees real quick.
All those problems disappear on gravel, sand, grass etc. And it floats great in soft sand.
I think the issue is the tire is just too sticky.
If I didn't have a long taxi on asphalt from the gravel strip I'd probably never notice since the taxi is the only hard surface my airplane sees.

[spinningwrench]

Whee I ordered Eric's tailwheel after looking at a number of them. Seems to be the right balance of design strength to weight. This new Alaskan option with the springs and shock look to be quite heavy. On my Citabria I have the Scott and I have to take it apart at annual. Last year it required some parts replacement in the centering mechanism otherwise it has been trouble free but I am quite gentle on my tailwheel. I do have a full exploded view drawing of Eric's tailwheel if you want additional info to study.

[Battson]

I'm a little late to this re-thread, but I'm very happy with my Eric Newton-Bob Tundra. Has worked well on all surfaces. ...I haven't been on sand with it yet.

Sand is the nemesis of all tailwheels. Only the baby bushwheel seems to be wide enough and spherical enough to handle it properly.

[Battson]

I would like to add that I have now broken every part of the tailwheel assembly at some point over the last 800hrs flying, apart from the BH tailwheel itself. It is very rugged.

Recently I have encountered a new problem, the king bolt through the tailwheel connecting it to the spring - it has started to fatigue very quickly, perhaps only a few hundred landings to break the king bolt. This means the bolt is experiencing far more stress than it used to.

I have been doing less riverbed work than normal too, so it's not getting as much punishment. So something must have changed.

I have noticed that when I push the plane backwards and forwards, the tailwheel rocks back and forth on the king bolt. I am wondering if the tailwheel has bent out of shape slightly after all these years of use (abuse?). When I have time, we will take it off and search for the problem.