A couple of 8.5 x 6's will add the sex appeal I'm looking for at the front end but still looking for something to pretty up the tail end other then a full blown BBW, any ideas on offer for a 170

Please & Thank you

If you already have a Scott 3200,
maybe a bushwheel wide fork kit
but with a 400x4 "glider tire".

hotrod180 wrote:If you already have a Scott 3200,
maybe a bushwheel wide fork kit
but with a 400x4 "glider tire".

What's the benefit of the glider tire?

A big tailwheel tire with 8:50's or smaller looks goofy in my opinion. A buddy had 8:50's and BBW, goofy looking.

Kurt

hotrod180 wrote:If you already have a Scott 3200,
maybe a bushwheel wide fork kit
but with a 400x4 "glider tire".

This is what I am running on my 180. Love it!

Call Airframes Alaska and order a 3214T tailwheel steering arm, along with an upper and lower dust shield for same. Call Univair and order an L-19 (Cessna) MAIN LEAF of the tail spring.

Disassemble your tailwheel, clean it up, lube it, and replace that wimpy stock steering arm with the 3214T arm. Reassemble tailwheel. Now, pull that wimpy ass tailspring off the plane and discard both the main leaf and the smallest (shortest) leaf. Replace the main leaf with that L-19 main leaf. It’s thicker than the original, which requires that you lose one leaf. The short one is pretty useless anyhow.

Reassemble everything with all new hardware....do NOT reuse any of the bolts.

This will seriously strengthen your tailwheel assembly. The 170 tailspring is too wimpy, and I know of a few that broke at inopportune times. The L-19 main leaf fixes that without making it too stiff. The bent steering arm is MUCH stronger, and simply won’t bent, even if you get shimmy. Serious piece of work that arm, AND it gives much better steering geometry.

Now, if you’d actually like your 170 to steer even better on the ground, attach a piece of aluminum angle ( 1 inch will do) about 8 inches to a foot long across the steering attach points on your rudder. Use the holes where your tailwheel steering cables are attatched now to attach the angle. Drill a hole in each end of this new steering arm, and attach the steering cables there.

This mod will provide MUCH better steering authority, without being twitchy.

Now, all this may not LOOK that cool, but trust me, improved steering and stronger tailwheel components will be a big benefit. I once received a call from a friend who’d landed on a mountainside strip and broke his spring. I flew him my original spring main leaf to get him home, and he did the spring mod when he got home. The 170 has few serious flaws, but in my opinion, that whole tailwheel assembly needs some help.

MTV

Oh, yeah.....save your money and stick with a standard fork and tire. Many of those big tailwheel tires will shimmy like a bitch on pavement.

If you’re planning on operating in rough stuff, you need to keep the tailwheel OFF the rough stuff, not make it heavier. If you are in a LOT of very loose sand, maybe the big tire, but even there, I wouldn’t. I’ve landed a LOT of off airport sites without a big tailwheel tire, and never once wished for one.

Opinions are like assholes, remember.....we all have one, and mines the only one that doesn’t stink.

So take it with that in mind.

MTV

All good intel MTV, thanks.

I don't do much soft surface work unless you consider water soft. However I bet the changes you have describe work well on skis and I run penetration skis when the water gets to hard to land on with floats !!!

Cheers,

Spdcrazy wrote:

hotrod180 wrote:If you already have a Scott 3200,
maybe a bushwheel wide fork kit
but with a 400x4 "glider tire".

What's the benefit of the glider tire?

The glider tire has as large of a contact patch as the baby bushwheel for flotation, lasts forever on pavement and cost less than fifty bucks to replace. I haven't taken mine off in years. It's the perfect tailwheel setup IMHO.

I had a 10" tailwheel before. This was the problem with that thing for my mission:



This is the glider tire setup with about 250 hours on it. It's a clean and durable installation:



I've heard of shimmy reports on Skywagons with 8.50s on the mains and baby bushwheel out back. Never experienced any shimmying with this one with any size of main tire.

mtv wrote:Call Airframes Alaska and order a 3214T tailwheel steering arm, along with an upper and lower dust shield for same. Call Univair and order an L-19 (Cessna) MAIN LEAF of the tail spring.

Disassemble your tailwheel, clean it up, lube it, and replace that wimpy stock steering arm with the 3214T arm. Reassemble tailwheel. Now, pull that wimpy ass tailspring off the plane and discard both the main leaf and the smallest (shortest) leaf. Replace the main leaf with that L-19 main leaf. It’s thicker than the original, which requires that you lose one leaf. The short one is pretty useless anyhow.

Reassemble everything with all new hardware....do NOT reuse any of the bolts.

This will seriously strengthen your tailwheel assembly. The 170 tailspring is too wimpy, and I know of a few that broke at inopportune times. The L-19 main leaf fixes that without making it too stiff. The bent steering arm is MUCH stronger, and simply won’t bent, even if you get shimmy. Serious piece of work that arm, AND it gives much better steering geometry.

Now, if you’d actually like your 170 to steer even better on the ground, attach a piece of aluminum angle ( 1 inch will do) about 8 inches to a foot long across the steering attach points on your rudder. Use the holes where your tailwheel steering cables are attatched now to attach the angle. Drill a hole in each end of this new steering arm, and attach the steering cables there.

This mod will provide MUCH better steering authority, without being twitchy.

Now, all this may not LOOK that cool, but trust me, improved steering and stronger tailwheel components will be a big benefit. I once received a call from a friend who’d landed on a mountainside strip and broke his spring. I flew him my original spring main leaf to get him home, and he did the spring mod when he got home. The 170 has few serious flaws, but in my opinion, that whole tailwheel assembly needs some help.

MTV

Mike I'm curious if theres anyway to strengthen the tail spring mount? I agree that a stronger spring is great, but that just transfers more load forward. I've seen more then one with cracked mounts...
If it were me, I'd call airframes alaska and ask them for one of their T3 mounts for the 170. Make it softer not stiffer back there...

Scolopax wrote:

Spdcrazy wrote:

hotrod180 wrote:If you already have a Scott 3200,
maybe a bushwheel wide fork kit
but with a 400x4 "glider tire".

What's the benefit of the glider tire?

The glider tire has as large of a contact patch as the baby bushwheel for flotation, lasts forever on pavement and cost less than fifty bucks to replace. I haven't taken mine off in years. It's the perfect tailwheel setup IMHO.

But you have to get the wife fork I assume right? Just a cheaper option for the tire replacement? My stock 3200 has a nearly gone tore.

Spdcrazy wrote:

Scolopax wrote:

Spdcrazy wrote:

hotrod180 wrote:If you already have a Scott 3200,
maybe a bushwheel wide fork kit
but with a 400x4 "glider tire".

What's the benefit of the glider tire?

The glider tire has as large of a contact patch as the baby bushwheel for flotation, lasts forever on pavement and cost less than fifty bucks to replace. I haven't taken mine off in years. It's the perfect tailwheel setup IMHO.

But you have to get the wife fork I assume right? Just a cheaper option for the tire replacement? My stock 3200 has a nearly gone tore.

You do still need the wide fork. The tire is just cheaper and wears longer than the BBW.

The stock 170 tail spring stack is too light for the weight and any rough stuff.

The L-19 spring actually is easier on the tail, because of the spring rate, it’s not as soft but not hard either.

As to the T-3, that might be a good deal. How long have they been in common use on airplane tails? And cost is higher as well. Might be worth a shot though, depending on your bankroll. But leaf springs been around a long time....trick is finding the right spring rate. My old 170 has been wearing that spring stack for a lot of hours with no issues, and the new owner is using it a lot off airport.

MTV

Cool. Good info. Thanks Mike.

You can replace your 170 main tailwheel spring with an L-19 main spring without removing the smallest stock leaf. I did so with my 170. You have to remove the bracket on top of the stack to do this. And to remove that bracket you need to have the vertical and horizontal stabilizers off. This bracket on my old 170 was cracked and needed replacement anyways so I did the L-19 main spring at the same time. It fit with all the other stock leaf springs but was a super tight fit.