wrote:
This is a personal experience with AN fasteners. Here in the far
North, tailwheel bolts of the AN variety are very commonly broken when
landing in conditions they were never meant to endure, i.e., off-
airport boulder patches. Someone discovered that if you replace that
AN bolt with a CAT bolt, voila, problem solved. Standard Caterpillar
bolts are equivalent to grade 8 and they have VERY strong ones for
special applications. They come in a variety of sizes, but not "all"
sizes, so you may have to adjust things a bit to get the closest size
available to fit your application. Check the price, you will be
pleasantly surprised. Good luck.


Just be careful as often the engineer designed the bolts to be the
"fuse" in the system. Replacing a grade 3 or 5 bolt with grade 8 can be
akin to replacing a fuse with a penny. It may not hurt for a long time,
but there comes the day...

Matt