- Joined
- Oct 31, 1996
- Posts
- 1,246
- Type aircraft owned
- Carbon Cub FX-3
- Base airport
- KFCI
- Ratings
- COMM, IFR, MEL, SEL
My 2021 FX-3 had the T3 tailwheel with the standard size Aero Classic tire. All worked great but I learned from my CFI that I get my flight reviews from when talking about landing on grass strips that are wet and expressing concern with tearing them up he told me it's not the bushwheels that cause the issue but it's the tailwheel that ends up acting like a plow. With my 2023 FX-3 build I decided to go for a larger tire setup and TK1 was just coming out with their new tailwheel system and as I really like the TK1 Shock Monster main shocks I figured I'd get Tony's new TK1 Shock Monster tailwhee with the 11 inch tire (11x4-5.00).
There have been some growing pains over the last two years in which Tony stepped up on multiple occasions replacing the fork with a newer designed fork due to tire rubbing, and later replacing the shock with a much more customizable setup to control spring rate, caster angle, etc. I have been trying to resolve a shimmy issue since taking delivery of this plane in October of 2023. It has been far too long of "fly adjust, fly adjust, fly adjust" trying anything and everything possible. Tire pressure, caster angle, tight chains, slack chains, different nitrogen pressures, on and on. In the end, I could not resolve it. I read a Facebook post recently of a Carbon Cub SS owner with a baby bushwheel fighting shimmy and about to give up and go back to the Aero Classic tire, I believe he was using the standard leaf spring setup. He was advised by many about landing speeds, on and on all of which like me he was doing...landing in a stall, etc. Some said to wheel land and bring the tail down at low speed. Just craziness...
Well, Trent Palmer has the same TK1 tailwheel setup and I watch his videos closely and never see his tailwheel budge. The difference though is he doesn't have tailwheel steering as I do (rudder horn with spring and link chain). I learned from Tony a few months ago that someone was using his tailwheel with the steering arm without springs/chains connected and he shouldn't have done that but instead remove the steering arm and put in a spacer washer. So I reached out to Tony two weeks ago with my idea. Maybe I'm touching down with the tailwheel tire offset as I'm kicking rudder to keep the nose straight and that's causing the tailwheel tire to react kicking opposite direction and getting into a tailwheel PIO aka shimmy. So I asked Tony about getting a spacer washer to remove my steering arm and give that a try. I also asked for a set of replacement washers that go into the assembly as I had a concern mine were worn out so he included them. I offered to pay for express shipping as he's in CA and I'm in VA and he sent them 2-day but wouldn't let me pay. That's Tony!
Tonight I was able to go flight test the new setup, finally and I'm happy to report 3 landings with no shimmy. And I even kept force on the tailwheel with one of the landings with the stick remaining full back which is something you don't do with a baby bushwheel to combat shimmy I'm told and the tailwheel did not shimmy. So a huge success.
So now I don't have tailwheel steering and I have to admit it is going to take some getting used to. I didn't do so well taxiing out to fly but did far better taxiing back. So we'll see how it goes from here. But there were 3 changes made in this last round of changes: 1) Removed the steering arm, 2) Added 5 degrees of caster so I'm now at 9.7 degrees and 3) new hardware (washers) which allowed a little snugness on the tailwheel pivot assembly to keep it from free castering too easily.
Glad to finally resolve this! I was just about to give up and reinstall my T3 with small tire again.
There have been some growing pains over the last two years in which Tony stepped up on multiple occasions replacing the fork with a newer designed fork due to tire rubbing, and later replacing the shock with a much more customizable setup to control spring rate, caster angle, etc. I have been trying to resolve a shimmy issue since taking delivery of this plane in October of 2023. It has been far too long of "fly adjust, fly adjust, fly adjust" trying anything and everything possible. Tire pressure, caster angle, tight chains, slack chains, different nitrogen pressures, on and on. In the end, I could not resolve it. I read a Facebook post recently of a Carbon Cub SS owner with a baby bushwheel fighting shimmy and about to give up and go back to the Aero Classic tire, I believe he was using the standard leaf spring setup. He was advised by many about landing speeds, on and on all of which like me he was doing...landing in a stall, etc. Some said to wheel land and bring the tail down at low speed. Just craziness...
Well, Trent Palmer has the same TK1 tailwheel setup and I watch his videos closely and never see his tailwheel budge. The difference though is he doesn't have tailwheel steering as I do (rudder horn with spring and link chain). I learned from Tony a few months ago that someone was using his tailwheel with the steering arm without springs/chains connected and he shouldn't have done that but instead remove the steering arm and put in a spacer washer. So I reached out to Tony two weeks ago with my idea. Maybe I'm touching down with the tailwheel tire offset as I'm kicking rudder to keep the nose straight and that's causing the tailwheel tire to react kicking opposite direction and getting into a tailwheel PIO aka shimmy. So I asked Tony about getting a spacer washer to remove my steering arm and give that a try. I also asked for a set of replacement washers that go into the assembly as I had a concern mine were worn out so he included them. I offered to pay for express shipping as he's in CA and I'm in VA and he sent them 2-day but wouldn't let me pay. That's Tony!
Tonight I was able to go flight test the new setup, finally and I'm happy to report 3 landings with no shimmy. And I even kept force on the tailwheel with one of the landings with the stick remaining full back which is something you don't do with a baby bushwheel to combat shimmy I'm told and the tailwheel did not shimmy. So a huge success.
So now I don't have tailwheel steering and I have to admit it is going to take some getting used to. I didn't do so well taxiing out to fly but did far better taxiing back. So we'll see how it goes from here. But there were 3 changes made in this last round of changes: 1) Removed the steering arm, 2) Added 5 degrees of caster so I'm now at 9.7 degrees and 3) new hardware (washers) which allowed a little snugness on the tailwheel pivot assembly to keep it from free castering too easily.
Glad to finally resolve this! I was just about to give up and reinstall my T3 with small tire again.
FYI - I ordered them in bulk from Costco online. Love these towels!
