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My bird has the Maule tailwheel, it works decent, but I’m not a huge fan. It sprays grease everywhere after I grease the fittings and it’s generally hard to keep maintained.
I’m considering switching to the Scott 3200. I know the #1 rule of tailwheels is, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” but here I am.
Attached is a photo of my tailwheel. Besides the 3200 assembly, what else will I need to replace? Any hardware? Leaf springs ok? Chains/springs? Possible to tell if I need the bent or straight arm from the photo? Any help on sourcing the parts is appreciated as well.
Well I have a 3200 and after reading about it here mine was not installed completely correct. My springs are attached to the original tabs when they should be on eye bolts thru the cable attachments. I have the eye bolts on order now. I also watched some good youtube videos on the correct way to set the chain tension, how may springs need to be in the swivel mechanism and how to set that all up for the correct breakaway, checking the trailing angle, etc. Great fun
New (correct) steering springs. Also, I recall there is a kit to adapt the bolt hole size.
Is that a camera mount? You realize those leaf springs all move independently of each other, right? Clamping them tightly together is likely to be problematic.
"Problematic" - concentrates stress on the end of the main left - not unusual in the old days to see one taxiing in with a "tail skid" and tailwheel held on by chains! Note carefully the bottom of his rudder - looks like doublers have been added with a spacer in between the skins and probably not a mod for his big engine or an optical illusion. 2c
Yea, lots of people use that camera mount, but I know "lots of people" isn't approved data in the eyes of the FAA. I don't use it very much anymore as the camera tends to get dirty. I've been meaning to pull it off.
Is the chain/spring kit on Univair isn't correct, right? Any sources on the "kit to adapt bolt size" ?
I'm pretty sure that is the Univair kit that I used when I replaced my springs. Check under my username/posts, there is a thread I wrote up about replacing my Scott 3200.
FYI. The springs don't necessarily need to be as depicted. Mine are at the other end of the chains. Tension is important, neither loose nor tight as I recall. There is a bushing and a spacer. There is a bushing is for the bolt that connects the 3200 to the tail spring. The "U" shaped spacer is to reduce the size of the 3200 to fit the tail spring. Both of those items came with my new 3200 many years ago that cost less than $700. I also had to change my tail spring set from the "double bend" to the single bend type as the double bend was not right for my serial number. For reasons beyond my understanding, my 3-point landings (after the change) were true 3 pointers. With the double bend springs, I was touching down tail wheel first.
