Silver Bullet Tail-wheel steering arm

Could anyone give me the email address or the phone number for the people that makes the Silver Bullet steering arm?

Danny King
Beautiful Doll 80434

It's all on their website. Sorry, but its easier than typing the info.

Springs

Danny, are you going this route. I thought I remember you telling me you like the slack in the springs?

E-Mail

[email protected]
Kirk Groves RV-8 "Dakota Queen" Fuse on the gear

Silver Bullet

Does anybody know details on this?
is it better than Terry Jantz unit??
pros and cons??
Bob Martin, RV-6

I will start off by saying my plane is not in the air yet, so take this for what its worth. I personally think the silver bullet is much nicer than the jantz link, it is far more attractive, it is a sealed unit so in theory there should not be any up keep with it unlike the jantz link. It is a lighter unit than the jantz link, from what I have been told by people who do have it flying on there plane it is very responsive and solid. And it just plane looks faster!

Silver Bullet

Thanks Kirk,
I have the Terry Jantz unit now and it works great and way better than the chains.....I agree the silver bullet looks better. Just was wondering if there was actually a difference other than looks......
and I guess not having to service it is one difference.
Thanks again for your input.
Bob Martin RV-6

I have used a Jantzi link on two planes; I had one hundred hours on the one link and almost three hundered hours and three years on the other one. What's to service? the things work great.

Tom Martin

Don't get me wrong the Jantzi link is great, but I do believe it is recommended to remove the shrink wrap and grease the spring inside of the link

Silver Bullet Steering Link

RVers,

Thanks for the help in finding Dave Czachorowski. I used Vans spring steering system for the first five years and it works well. One day while flying the "Slot" in a fourship formation, I noticed the chains and steering springs on the other aircraft flopping up and down. I thought, that sure looks draggy. Shortly there after, I saw the Silver Bullet by Dave Czachorowski at: [email protected]

I have since installed one on the Doll and I like it very much.

RV8TOR I have always said to keep the chains on the standard steering fairly tight not loose.

Tailwinds,
Danny King
Beautiful Doll 80434

Different Experience

I might be the lone dissenter, but I've switched from the Jantzi link to the stainless springs that Van's sells on my Rocket. I found the steering link to be really sensitive to tailwheel alignment on landing. When using the rudder to land crosswind, if you don't have the rudder aligned the tail will want to dart off into the weeds. I'm thinking it's just my poor landing technique.

After switching to the stainless spring set (not the original floppy springs), I've found it more tolerant during landing. I don't know about the stainless steering link, but I thought the Jantzi link was pretty stiff so there's not much play there.

Silver Bullet install

I installed the Silver Bullet (SB) from Rivethead on my RV-8 a couple of weeks ago and finally had a chance to fly it today for a test. It works great. As you would expect, the response is definitely more sensitive than the standard chains. The benefit is that the steering is far more precise with the Silver Bullet. I found the transition from chains to the SB was a non-event. I did 15 stop and go's today at four different airports and found the handling to be much preferable to the chain system (my opinion).

On the install, I did find that I had to shorten the mechanism as short as it would go in order to get the rudder and tailwheel parallel. Your install may vary. The workmanship on the Silver Bullet is superb -- more like sculpture than a mechanical device. I've included a couple of photos for those who may not have seen this steering link before.

Silver Bullet

Glad I found this discussion. After tearing down for paint, I discovered the rudder tail glass was chipped from the tail chains. I'm going with the Silver Bullet and their stearing link.