Alaska Bushwheel set me up with some new treads, front and back.
But the tail wheel shimmys on every landing, unless I'm almost stopped when the tail comes down.
I haven't had a chance to play with tire pressure or installing more tension springs yet.
It only shimmied once before, so the bigger tail wheel tire must be more prone to shimmy?
There isn't enough positive castor in the tail wheel, the pivot point is level.
New stingers aren't cheep. Has anyone re-arched their 180 stinger?

I don't know about our 180's but the 170's have to have a parallel line to the ground the line tween the head and the fork. My ABW 10" fork did the same for the first few flights and then quit. I used all 6 springs and tightened it as per instructions. Can you actually see an arch in your stinger?

Call Wup and ask for Steve. I think I put 8 springs in mine. Took everything apart, cleaned, replaced all wear parts, assembled, tightened, lubed as instructed. No problems. You also want to keep the tire pressure up some for better wear on the tire. When I run mine at 20lbs. it lasts pretty good. Run it around 8-10 and you might as well order a backup one now. I have 200lbs. on my tailwheel when flying light.

Terry, did you buy 31s or the 29" Air Hawks? Pictures?

Cheers

I've never heard of "re-arching" a Cessna 180 stinger. They should be straight. If yours isn't straight, I'd buy a new one. It's a tube, not a spring.

The turntable on your tailwheel should be just slightly nose high when the tailwheel is resting on the ground. That way, it'll be mostly level or a little nose up when the plane is loaded. If the front of the tailwheel is down at all, it'll shimmy.

As others have said, take the tailwheel apart, clean it, check all the parts for condition, reassemble and grease it.

Finally, wheel land when possible....

MTV

To grease or not to grease.
Seems like when the discussion of tailwheel shimmy comes up there are two schools of thought. When I talked to Steve at AKBushwheels He said to grease, and continue to grease. He recommended to me that every month or two, depending on useage and where I was usin it, give it a couple shots of grease, rotate the fork in the head 90* and give it a couple more shots, rotate another 90* and a couple more shots. Do this until you have been full circle. Keeps it lubed and helps push the dirt out inimizing wear.
This has been workin fine for me.
Gary

Terry
I don't know what year your 180 is, but I think the stingers come in 3 different sizes. I have the 1" in mine. I think early years were 7/8 but don't know when theyn changed.
Seems like there were 7/8, 1. and 1 1/8" depending on year.

And, seems like I heard once there is supposed to be a drain hole in the bootom rear of the stinger to let moisture out, reducing the risk for rust/corrosion.?????
I have never verified this
If there is one, it would be a good idea to inspect regularly and keep clear.
Gary

I believe this is the best analysis/prevention of tailwheel shimmy solution that exists, from Pierce Aero. Terry, it sounds like you've correctly diagnosed your own problem, you just gotta get that stinger straightened, or find a solution that gets your pivot angled correctly. Shimmy is not caused or prevented by how freely the bearing moves (greasing theory) but by the geometry of the pivot, as it's a constructive oscillation. That's the thinking that I've subscribed to at least.

Don't forget the bushings and crosstube on the front portion of the stinger, which are buried up in the tail. If you have worn these down, it will contribute to poor angles regardless of the stinger condition.

Hey Matt
Have you ever heard of a drain hole in the stinger?
Gary

False alarm.....I installed 2 more springs (total of 6) and problem gone!!
Steve and Wup both told me if I had shimmy problems to install 2 more springs.
This thing shimmied so bad I just couldn't see how 2 springs could fix it. I departed yesterday with a pretty good load and it shimmied before I could get the tail off the ground.
If I have anymore problems I'll throw in 2 more.

29" mains, I went with the airhawks for the wear on pavement. Shaved to 50% cut off 8lbs per tire!
ABW 10x10 wheel and their 10" wide fork tail wheel.
This set up added 34lbs over my 8:50s and XP tail wheel.

Terry wrote:False alarm.....I installed 2 more springs (total of 6) and problem gone!!
Steve and Wup both told me if I had shimmy problems to install 2 more springs.
This thing shimmied so bad I just couldn't see how 2 springs could fix it. I departed yesterday with a pretty good load and it shimmied before I could get the tail off the ground.
If I have anymore problems I'll throw in 2 more.

29" mains, I went with the airhawks for the wear on pavement. Shaved to 50% cut off 8lbs per tire!
ABW 10x10 wheel and their 10" wide fork tail wheel.
This set up added 34lbs over my 8:50s and XP tail wheel.

Same tires as me Terry. That will make your plane look tough and it will handle bumps much better.

shortfielder wrote:Terry
I don't know what year your 180 is, but I think the stingers come in 3 different sizes. I have the 1" in mine. I think early years were 7/8 but don't know when theyn changed.
Seems like there were 7/8, 1. and 1 1/8" depending on year.

And, seems like I heard once there is supposed to be a drain hole in the bootom rear of the stinger to let moisture out, reducing the risk for rust/corrosion.?????
I have never verified this
If there is one, it would be a good idea to inspect regularly and keep clear.
Gary

I found this on the Skywaggon site regarding the drain hole, and a couple of photos of broken stingers.
http://www.skywagons.org/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=maintenance&Number=7711&Searchpage=2&Main=7605&Words=Stinger&topic=&Search=true#Post7711

OregonMaule wrote:Same tires as me Terry. That will make your plane look tough and it will handle bumps much better.

Kind of like hanging a sack off of your pick-up hitch. Haha
I love the way it looks!

Post a couple pics Terry!

robw56 wrote:Post a couple pics Terry!

Copy. I'll take some pics.

shortfielder wrote:Hey Matt
Have you ever heard of a drain hole in the stinger?
Gary

No I haven't. I could have seen it on there previously when changing out the tailwheel head, but I certainly haven't noticed it. I'll take a look today.

I know I'm pickin' the fly poop out of the pepper, but this bugs me so here it is. The stinger is not the spring. The tailwheel spring is the tailwheel spring. The stinger is the very aft fairing on a Cessna and I believe it is called a stinger whether you have a tailwheel or not. Just sayin'

Wayne

Can any of you knowledgeable Cessna 180 historians explain what the reason was why Cessna went from the multiple leaf springs (C-120, 140, 170) to the round tube spring (c-180)?

Leaf springs were cheap and it would be simple enough to add more leaves or wider springs on their airplanes as the empty weight went up. I'm sure there was some reason they did it, but I'm not understanding what problem the small round tube solved that could not be solved with bigger leaf springs. One idea I heard is that they wanted a quickly removable tailwheel when an owner wanted to put the floats on.

Thanks in advance for the answer to this admittedly academic mystery.

c180pilot wrote:I know I'm pickin' the fly poop out of the pepper, but this bugs me so here it is. The stinger is not the spring. The tailwheel spring is the tailwheel spring. The stinger is the very aft fairing on a Cessna and I believe it is called a stinger whether you have a tailwheel or not. Just sayin'

Wayne

I tend to agree with you Wayne but I'm sure it does flex and take some shock out of tail wheel touch down it's not really a spring in the conventional since. Just like an airbag used on truck or trailer is sometimes called an air spring.
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