I'll make you great deal on a fat Bob TW.

I'll send you a message tomorrow Mike.

What is a fat bob?

If you're not in a panic, GarAero fork and spacers show up used on alaskaslist every so often. Scott parts to build up the rest are not hard to come up with. Ends up a little heavier but not a problem on your ship.

Or buy a POS Maule tailwheel, and wind up replacing it not far down the road.

Whee, in some cases, you get what you pay for, and tailwheels definitely fall into this category.

I've said this before, but the shittiest job of any part on a tailwheel airplane is being a tailwheel. Nobody thinks about tailwheels till they have a problem with one.

I have zero experience with Matco tailwheels, though they've been on a lot of planes. But go to any fly in in back country and 99.9 % of what you see are 3200 tailwheels.

Other types may work fine on light planes, but I wouldn't even consider anything short of a 3200 tailwheel on a plane of the size you're building.

Would I buy a Baby Bushwheel? Not unless I was going to land a LOT of REALLY soft stuff. To me, if you take care of your tailwheel (while flying I mean) a 3200 works just fine and is incredibly reliable.

MTV

These are the Bob Wheels. The other Bearhawk I was flying had a Bob Wheel on it made by a different guy and it was a piece of junk; it shimmied worse than a Maule TW. Supposedly the ones sold on bhtailwheels.com are much better and don't have shimmy problems.

I'm not in a hurry but I am a little concerned about weight, I want to keep the empty CG as far forward as I can. I've thought about building one up from parts but I'm concerned about how much it would actually cost. Guess I should have bought that Baby Bushwheel that was posted on here a while back.

You got a leaf spring or a stinger?
If leaf, scrounge up a 3200 & go through it, then buy the GarAero fatty kit for $750. Includes tire, tube, fork, spacer, nuts & bolts, and axle.

http://www.alaskatundratires.com/prices.html

Whee,

Keep an eye out for a used 3200 tailwheel. You probably don't need a big fork.

Those Bob tailwheels look pretty wimpy to me, but maybe they're tougher than they look. Put a picture of those next to a picture of a 3200 and give it some thought.

I think way more people run big tailwheels than really need them. A plain jane 3200 will handle most anything, assuming the item between the headphones is paying attention.

MTV

I wanted a little more floatation that the skinny 8" because the BH has such a heavy tail. Your probly right though, I likely won't need it very often. Blackrock gave me a good enough deal on the Bob Wheel I couldn't say no. We will see how it works.

mtv wrote:Whee,

Keep an eye out for a used 3200 tailwheel. You probably don't need a big fork.

Those Bob tailwheels look pretty wimpy to me, but maybe they're tougher than they look. Put a picture of those next to a picture of a 3200 and give it some thought.

I think way more people run big tailwheels than really need them. A plain jane 3200 will handle most anything, assuming the item between the headphones is paying attention.

MTV

The plane may handle it but it can reek havoc on the turf. Nothing like a little tailwheel induced resource damage to piss off the alphabet authority of the day. Speaking from experience.

gbflyer wrote:

mtv wrote:Whee,

Keep an eye out for a used 3200 tailwheel. You probably don't need a big fork.



Those Bob tailwheels look pretty wimpy to me, but maybe they're tougher than they look. Put a picture of those next to a picture of a 3200 and give it some thought.

I think way more people run big tailwheels than really need them. A plain jane 3200 will handle most anything, assuming the item between the headphones is paying attention.

MTV

The plane may handle it but it can reek havoc on the turf. Nothing like a little tailwheel induced resource damage to piss off the alphabet authority of the day. Speaking from experience.

Says the guy from Alaska, the only state where it's legal to land an airplane in the National Parks and the National Wildlife Refuges....

MTV

Still can cause your conditional use permit with the USFS to come into question.

gbflyer wrote:Still can cause your conditional use permit with the USFS to come into question.

I know, I know.....just a little cheap harassment

MTV

[emoji1]

Thanks to this thread I was turned onto the newer Matco dual fork tailwheel and so far I am very impressed with it. The company is great to deal with, the design and fit/finish of the unit is fantastic, and it is much smoother in operation on my PA-11 clone (Wag Aero). If anything, the part is over-built for my application and am reasonably confident it will hold up to a good deal of abuse. No shimmy so far even though the tire contact area is bigger and the bend in my spring is less than ideal...

Its a little hard to tell from the picture but it looks like you tail wheel pivot if pointing rearward , which can lead to shimmy . You may want to re arch your springs ? Here is a short write up on it . http://www.pierceaero.net/tws.php
Doug

OK , I just read your post and I see you already know about your spring , my bad !
Doug

brown bear wrote:OK , I just read your post and I see you already know about your spring , my bad !
Doug

The plane is so light on the tail right now that even with the crappy angle it doesn't seem to want to shimmy.

Yet.

The obligatory action shot:

https://youtu.be/M2Jd32ydbr0

I also have the wide, dual fork matco on my rans. It is good and I can't imagine needing more floatation than it provides- especially for the weight or lack thereof.

Action shots are cool. What mount are you using to change the camera angle?