I had the XP mods 14” tailwheel on my 185, it’s huge (5.00x5), heavy, slows you down, and doesn’t steer as well as the smaller options. I switched the fork to a TLGW/XP Mods 10” setup, their hub accepts both forks. I can switch back to the 14” whenever needed but I don’t see the benefit for my current use, I really like the 10” tailwheel. the 14” setup is in my hangar and I could see swapping it back on for an Alaska trip next summer which will have plenty of LZs where it might be beneficial, probably not though.

Lots of good thoughts here. I will just add my experience. We are based on a paved field but operate almost all our flights from that field to beaches, cinder blows, or remote unimproved rocky/gravel strips. We have had BW 29s the entire time I have been flying 185s here, with the BBW on the tail. There was one summer when due to supply chain issues we ended up with a standard size tailwheel. It is true that the BBW is prone to shimmy on pavement, though if you land slow it tends to be pretty infrequent. The standard tailwheel did not shimmy. The advantage of the standard tailwheel for the folks that I know that choose it, is that it allows a slightly higher angle of attack at three point attitude. But we found that taxi operations in the backcountry took a lot of power and resulted in a lot more noticeable prop erosion from sand blasting the summer we had it on. If you aren't operating soft or rough, probably don't need the BBW. But if you are, it makes ground handling a lot easier.

FWIW I changed to 8.50x10’s and the 404 glider tire with wide fork on the tail. Zero speed loss. Significantly larger footprint front and back. Not doing serious off airport and operating a lot of the time on pavement bush wheels were not a preferred option, so this was the sweet set up for me. The old 10” tailwheel did drag its arse in the sand and mud so the glider tire was an improvement, plus cheaper and longer lasting than the BBW. It did shimmy on pavement with a heavy load unless it was drum tight. I bought the Alaska gear anti shimmy tailwheel mod and fixed that. I also had one flat with the glider tire so I put 2 tubes in it. So far so good and I love the overall set up.

FWIW I changed to 8.50x10’s and the 404 glider tire with wide fork on the tail. Zero speed loss. Significantly larger footprint front and back. Not doing serious off airport and operating a lot of the time on pavement bush wheels were not a preferred option, so this was the sweet set up for me. The old 10” tailwheel did drag its arse in the sand and mud so the glider tire was a big improvement on that, plus cheaper and longer lasting than the BBW. It did shimmy on pavement with a heavy load unless it was drum tight. I bought the Alaska gear anti shimmy tailwheel mod and fixed that. I also had one flat with the glider tire so I put 2 tubes in it. So far so good and I love the overall set up.

JamieG wrote:.... I also had one flat with the glider tire so I put 2 tubes in it. ....

Not sure how you did that, can you elaborate?
A friend of mine was running the 400x4 t/w tire,& had several flats--
turns out that apparently there was a run of bad 400x4 tubes.
Switched to a different model and/or manufacturer tube on the advice of his mechanic & no more troubles since then.

hotrod180 wrote:

JamieG wrote:.... I also had one flat with the glider tire so I put 2 tubes in it. ....

Not sure how you did that, can you elaborate?
A friend of mine was running the 400x4 t/w tire,& had several flats--
turns out that apparently there was a run of bad 400x4 tubes.
Switched to a different model and/or manufacturer tube on the advice of his mechanic & no more troubles since then.

I couldn’t see why mine went flat but after it happened twice I put the second tube in. I put two tubes in side by side and drilled a hole on the opposite side of the wheel half for the second tube valve. Someone on here a long time ago did this and explained how.

I'm a big fan of the glider tire. The tube is the weak spot with them, but you cant run the 4.00x4 tube. It's stretched to far and prone to tears. Running the beaver tube in it is the best. Works well and most of the flats issues go away. Gabe know the beaver tube I talk about when ordering the setup.