On Friday, August 16, 2019 at 1:15:10 PM UTC-7, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Steve Koerner wrote on 8/16/2019 9:09 AM:

Clever! But, are there solid tire wheels that could replace the pneumatic one? Or
get it filled with foam?


I know some owners have talked about having the tailwheel foamed. I don't really know if foam is good enough or not. A key function of the tailwheel tire is to protect the structure against hard impacts. Spring and damping dynamics of foamed tires certainly differ from air. I'm willing to make little design deviations like that only when I'm personally very sure that there won't be adverse consequences.

A flat tail wheel has different dynamics, too :^)

Perhaps the tail mount is designed to absorb the energy and crumple before the
structure? I'd contact the factory with a list of substitutes (foamed, solid
rubber/urethane, etc) you'd like use, and get their blessing. I suggest a
polyurethane scooter wheel, which are available in several sizes, and work well
with the ASH 26 E steerable tail wheel, based on the owners' group experience:
strong and good shock absorbing.


Eric, Quite sure the factory isn't interested in blessing a chinese scooter wheel when the design presently calls for an aircraft wheel with aircraft tire. Anyway, there's no actual problem with the present wheel that I know of, so I haven't a motive for pursuing an alternative. The challenge of measuring air pressure is a small matter and hopefully I've got that put to bed.