Grease your new Van's tailwheel!

[vfrazier]

We sell Dayton's tire also. Both are far superior to the Van's tire.

We have anything you could need for your tailwheel, including upgrade retrofit forks, repair parts, and a lot more RV goodies that aren't related to the tailwheel. Check us out.

[R. Daniels]

I've gone through two van's tailwheels in 900 hours. I have quite a few acro flights of short duration, and fly off dirt often, so, many takeoffs and landings. The standard tailwheel makes a horrible, "bad bearing" sound for around maybe 30-50 takeoffs and landings then quiets down. The first one did it and the second one did it. All quiet now. The bearings are cheapo's and apparently need to "wear in".

[Lindamon]

My bearings were indeed garbage. The bad bearing sound went away when I greased the wheel, but the wheel wobbled on the shaft still, the bearings were shot. 50 hours on it. I replaced it with a free, slightly used one, that came off of a Rocket. Not impressed with the standard one supplied by Van's, sealed bearings or no.

[RV7Guy]

Take a look at our tailwheel assembly with bearing. This thing is butter smooth. If you want the ultimate in smooth, give it consideration.

http://www.jdair.com/complete-tailwh...y-for-vans-rv/

Regarding servicing, no matter which flavor you have, I recommend servicing every oil change. It only takes about 10 minutes to disassemble, clean, inspect, grease and reassemble. You've got to wait for the oil to drain anyway

[Sam Buchanan]

Originally Posted by Lindamon

My bearings were indeed garbage. The bad bearing sound went away when I greased the wheel, but the wheel wobbled on the shaft still, the bearings were shot. 50 hours on it. I replaced it with a free, slightly used one, that came off of a Rocket. Not impressed with the standard one supplied by Van's, sealed bearings or no.

You should use a tailwheel you have confidence in, you have options. However, hundreds of us have flown the Vans tailwheel for tens of thousands of hours.

My RV-6 has ~1200 hrs with the Vans wheel, I think I'm on the third set of bearings during the last 15 years. The wheel tracks nicely on the runway, turns the plane when I step on a rudder, and keeps the rudder from dragging on the ground. Not sure what else a tailwheel is supposed to do.

Sounds like you may have gotten a bad set of bearings.

[Lindamon]

Originally Posted by Sam Buchanan

Sounds like you may have gotten a bad set of bearings.

Yes, I believe so. I have at least 1200 hrs on various tail wheels myself, with nary a problem before. All were on high performance aircraft, Pitts and Extras mostly. Wore out the rubber a few times, but never had a problem with bearings, and certainly not on a new wheel. Even the refrigerator caster wheel on my 230 lasted better than this one!

[6 Gun]

Anyone got the bearing # for Vans wheel.
Thanks Bob

[Pat Hatch]

If you order it from Vans, it's $3 per bearing:

Part Number = BEARING 3/8 TAIL WHL.

[BillL]

Originally Posted by 6 Gun

Anyone got the bearing # for Vans wheel.
Thanks Bob

I take it you are asking about the universal bearing number? No. It is a stamped housing, very low precision bearing. Like the old hardware stores had for childs red wagon. I can get a picture if you need one.

For this reason the bolt should not be more than finger tight or the bearings will have too much load.

It is 1.377 outer diameter with a .375 bore.

One might chuck up this wheel and get a 35 mm OD sealed bearing, but they may cost $20 each, or $40 for a wheel. They would probably last the life of the airframe.

For me, having a few of the Van's bearings on hand is the best value solution.

[Bubblehead]

I need to replace the bearings in my tailwheel. Can someone put the bearing numbers up? I should be able to source them locally here in the DFW area. Thanks.