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Grease your new Van's tailwheel!

L

Lindamon

Active Member
It did not occur to me for some reason to do this at some point during the build, I guess I assumed they came pre-greased. So at just under 50 hrs on my craft, I heard awful noises as I pushed her in the hanger yesterday! I hooked up the grease gun, and it must not have been pre-greased at all, it took a bit of pumping to fill it. Probably will replace it with a sealed bearing wheel now anyway, but just a heads up for others who may miss this like me.
 
The grease fitting on the Van's unit goes into the hub and little to no grease hits the bearings till the entire hub is full. Then it slings out all over the place till it is empty and the cycle repeats.

Most replace this sub standard part for a real tailwheel.
 
Lindamon said:
It did not occur to me for some reason to do this at some point during the build, I guess I assumed they came pre-greased. So at just under 50 hrs on my craft, I heard awful noises as I pushed her in the hanger yesterday! I hooked up the grease gun, and it must not have been pre-greased at all, it took a bit of pumping to fill it. Probably will replace it with a sealed bearing wheel now anyway, but just a heads up for others who may miss this like me.
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The Vans tailwheel comes with sealed bearings. Greasing it does nothing other than making a mess.

I've found shooting some aerosol lubricant into the bearings will quiet them down if they start sounding dry. I usually get several years from one set of bearings with occasional shots of the aerosol. The bearings are inexpensive, I keep an extra set in the hangar.
 
Sam Buchanan said:
The Vans tailwheel comes with sealed bearings. Greasing it does nothing other than making a mess.

I've found shooting some aerosol lubricant into the bearings will quiet them down if they start sounding dry. I usually get several years from one set of bearings with occasional shots of the aerosol. The bearings are inexpensive, I keep an extra set in the hangar.
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Hmm...what is the zerk fitting for if they are sealed? I do have the cheaper one: http://vansaircraft.com/cgi-bin/store.cgi?ident=1393031706-416-123&browse=am&product=t-wheel

I am going to upgrade to one with sealed bearings.
 
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These were industrial cart wheels that Vans adapted for the RVs. The grease zerk doesn't really apply for the RV application since Vans added the sealed bearings. You can order an extra set of bearings from Vans for a few bucks.

Also, the grease zerk that comes with the fork is pretty useless in its own right. Best to take the fork apart to grease.
 
The other tailwheel Van's sells (http://www.vansaircraft.com/cgi-bin/store.cgi?ident=1393073322-416-123&browse=am&product=LW-t-wheel) advertises sealed bearings, but not the one I have. It wasn't a dry bearing sound I heard, it was a crunching sound. If I am wrong, and they are sealed, that doesn't say much for the quality of the bearings at fifty hours!

After greasing them via the zerk the noise went away, no fuss, no mess. Where did all that grease go if those bearings are sealed? I put in around 1/6 of a tube before it came out of the side slightly. But I'm no expert, perhaps you are right. In any case I will be replacing the wheel with a better one.

I don't have the Vans fork, I upgraded that to the AP one I think it is, as I live on a field where the taxiways are grass and the runway and ramp asphalt and concrete, and I didn't want to catch the vertical on the Van's fork. I should have upgraded the wheel at the same time.
 
Damon,

By all means, keep the Vans tailwheel as a spare if you upgrade. I think you will find that all that grease did was fill the cavity between the bearings, which is quite large! I would order a new set of bearings from Vans for $6, I believe, sounds like you just got a bad set or they corroded while you were building. :(

I have the light-weight tailwheel as well, works great, you'll love it.
 
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Tailwheel replacement

Several years ago I called Dayton Murdock and ordered his new light weight, sealed bearing tail wheel, and I'm very glad I did. Like everything from DJM it is first class. He is an RV-4 builder and produces products that every RVer can appreciate. I replaced the Doll's original Van's throttle quadrant with DJM's deluxe throttle quad that Dayton modified just for me, and I was amazed at the quality and function of it.

I had all the problems discussed in this thread with my original tail wheel including replacing bearings, and grease thrown everywhere. The DJM tail wheel fixed all that, and it's good looking as well!

DJM has an add on VAF's front page. Check it out.

I just noticed that the link posted by Lindamon is the DJM tail wheel.

http://www.vansaircraft.com/cgi-bin/store.cgi?ident=1393073322-416-123&browse=am&product=LW-t-wheel
 
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Thanks guys, the order's in. Pat, good point about the bearings deteriorating here in FL while I was building. It's a struggle to keep all my tools from deteriorating!
 
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.
 
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".
 
Mine was shot

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.
 
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JD Air tailwheel assm

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-tailwheel-assembly-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:)
 
Lindamon said:
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.
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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.
 
Sam Buchanan said:
Sounds like you may have gotten a bad set of bearings.
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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 said:
Anyone got the bearing # for Vans wheel.
Thanks Bob
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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.
 
bearing numbers

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.
 
I always thought it looked just like a cheap lawn mower bearing. I just googled it and sure enough it is. Can be bought for $1.68.
Take an old one into the mower repair and they can set you up.
 
DanH said:
Chuck the whole thing and order a complete new tailwheel assembly from JD Air:

http://www.jdair.com/complete-tailwheel-assembly-for-vans-rv/

Good bearings in the wheel are nice. Bearings in the yoke are wonderful.

http://www.jdair.com/content/TW YOKE ASSM.PDF
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Is the geometry of the control arm designed such that the tailwheel doesn't unlock at full left rudder? This is an issue with many of the control links on the market. It could be avoided if the arm on the tailwheel is swept aft to match the angle between the rudder pivot and the tailwheel spring hole on the rudder horn.
 
Kevin Horton said:
Is the geometry of the control arm designed such that the tailwheel doesn't unlock at full left rudder?
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Kevin, I don't think mine does, but (1) I use cables and springs, not a link, and (2) I have the forward end moved inboard on the rudder horn, which reduces tailwheel angle for any given rudder angle.

 
DanH said:
Kevin, I don't think mine does, but (1) I use cables and springs, not a link, and (2) I have the forward end moved inboard on the rudder horn, which reduces tailwheel angle for any given rudder angle.

Click to expand...

You'd be fine with cables and springs on each side, as everything will be symmetrical. The problem is only present with control links on one side, if the linkage geometry isn't right (most of them aren't right).

I may do this mod, and switch back to springs on each side. I originally had chains and springs, but the chains were flailing around and beating the heck out of the bottom of my rudder fairing. If I dropped the forward end down like yours, and used cables, I might be OK.
 
RV7Guy said:
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-tailwheel-assembly-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:)
Click to expand...

Hi Sir, I just bought the JDair Tailwheel kit to replace the stock TW on my RV-8. No instructions came with it regarding servicing, but I did find some on-line. However, it's a bit vague as to what exactly to grease. Am I supposed to grease the bearing in the yoke or leave them alone if sealed.

Thanks in advance!
 
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