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Advice on bush upgrades

B

BritishCubBloke

SPONSOR
Bellingen, NSW, Australia
OK, after 16 years of tooling around I am finally going to make my largely stock PA18-150 bush-ready. It has just had the engine zero-timed and upgraded to 160HP and currently has a 74-54 Sensenich. The aircraft will be used on gravel bars, beaches and tundra.

Definitely in: 31" Bushwheels, baby bushwheel, Piatt baggage pod with a couple of AK Bushwheels 5 gall fuel bladders.

What else do people strongly recommend?

Extended gear? What's the advantage?

Extended baggage?

Is there a cargo net available?

Am waiting for the Catto prop STC (foolish, perhaps).

Anything else?
 
The Baby Bushwheel is questionable. Several people have installed them and then decided they didn't like them so much. Myself included. They add weight and steering effort. They're also more prone to shimmy as the tail spring flattens out over time and cost you a little effective incidence/deck angle. When operating in the rough I'm almost always solo and it's easy to lift the tail almost immediately on takeoff and keep it unweighted until nearly stopped when landing with forward stick and judicious braking.
 
PerryB said:
The Baby Bushwheel is questionable. Several people have installed them and then decided they didn't like them so much. Myself included. They add weight and steering effort. They're also more prone to shimmy as the tail spring flattens out over time and cost you a little effective incidence/deck angle. When operating in the rough I'm almost always solo and it's easy to lift the tail almost immediately on takeoff and keep it unweighted until nearly stopped when landing with forward stick and judicious braking.
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Interesting, thanks.
 
PerryB said:
The Baby Bushwheel is questionable. Several people have installed them and then decided they didn't like them so much. Myself included. They add weight and steering effort. They're also more prone to shimmy as the tail spring flattens out over time and cost you a little effective incidence/deck angle. When operating in the rough I'm almost always solo and it's easy to lift the tail almost immediately on takeoff and keep it unweighted until nearly stopped when landing with forward stick and judicious braking.
Click to expand...


Can you you zoom in on the tail wheel?
 

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Borer or Cato prop
Belly Pod - Don't extend the baggage.
31 or 35s
Safety Cables
2000 gallons of avgas so you are proficient.
 
BritishCubBloke said:
OK, after 16 years of tooling around I am finally going to make my largely stock PA18-150 bush-ready. It has just had the engine zero-timed and upgraded to 160HP and currently has a 74-54 Sensenich. The aircraft will be used on gravel bars, beaches and tundra.

Definitely in: 31" Bushwheels, baby bushwheel, Piatt baggage pod with a couple of AK Bushwheels 5 gall fuel bladders.

What else do people strongly recommend?

Extended gear? What's the advantage?

Extended baggage?

Is there a cargo net available?

Am waiting for the Catto prop STC (foolish, perhaps).

Anything else?
Click to expand...

It's ready now without all the added weight. ;-)

Glenn
 
cubdriver2 said:
It's ready now without all the added weight. ;-)

Glenn
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It’s fine until you land somewhere and didn’t see that hole. I do recall you saying how you can go everywhere on 800x4 or your 25x4 yet I haven’t seen you take your Bushwheels off. Put the 800’s on and follow me. I’ll bring the video camera.


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RaisedByWolves said:
It’s fine until you land somewhere and didn’t see that hole. I do recall you saying how you can go everywhere on 800x4 or your 25x4 yet I haven’t seen you take your Bushwheels off. Put the 800’s on and follow me. I’ll bring the video camera.


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Don’t follow Tom. He might land below a dam somewhere.


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RaisedByWolves said:
It’s fine until you land somewhere and didn’t see that hole. I do recall you saying how you can go everywhere on 800x4 or your 25x4 yet I haven’t seen you take your Bushwheels off. Put the 800’s on and follow me. I’ll bring the video camera.


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Ok, add some 26s, the rest we do for ego

Glenn
 
Don't like your baby bushwheel? Send it to me!!

If you are in sand with any weight, or rough, get the baby. I used to go through two hubs each year breaking them on the rocks. The baby bushwheel took care of that. Steering in sand is much better with big tires.

Flatter prop, practice, and a cover for the back stick to ensure it does not get stuck or wedged.

Cables, I like long gear for prop clearance.

From there grass stains and rock nicks from using it- and lots of smiles while you do that.
 
I seem to recall you have stock tanks. I’d go with a combination pod or bigger tank(s) before anything else. Those gas bags MAY leak, mine does. And manhandling those around, with potential for spillage/hassles/contamination just isn’t worth the hassle to me. Get a proper fuel system that meets your needs, then the gas bags are just gravy if you WANT to go farther.

im not a big fan of the baby Bushwheel. On pavement, they shimmy. Learn to manage your plane and they aren’t needed. Long before those were invented, I was landing on soft beaches with 3200 tailwheels, and thought they were major cool, compared to the previous iteration. That pic posted earlier isn’t soft sand, by the way..... If you operate for a while and decide you REALLY NEED a bigger tailwheel, buy one, but go out there and try it out first. Baby Bushwheel=heavy and shimmy.

Main wheel tires are a good investment. As others noted, gear safety cables are mandatory. Borer prop is good.

Figure red out ways to LOSE weight, rather than gain weight. Good GPS and a sat phone may be good.

MTV
 
Funny, I was reading the shimmy comments wondering why guys don't manage their tails better to eliminate the shimmy. Keep flaps out and hold the tail up until you can't. Problem solved for pavement ops. You won't have any shimmy issues in the "bush".

The tire equation goes like this. Go push your plane around on the surfaces you'll operate on. If big tires make pushing easier? Use big tires. If hard little tires make it easier? Use little tires and lots of air pressure. Pretty simple. If you're stuck in between? Buy bigger tires and whine about how they wear out on pavement like everybody else does. ;)

Bush flying means away from civilization. Take the stuff you need to camp out and wait for better weather. A sat phone or Inreach will keep wifey from freaking out when you're late. All said? Communication is the priority over all other equipment. Happy wife, happy life.
 
I guess the questions I would ask is how far between fuel stops and what is your load going to be? Three inch gear is good for better AOA and prop protection. I do like the big wheel in tundra/sand, especially when heavy. I carry my bushwheel bag in the back standing up so no leaks. I would rather have big tanks but until I hurt a wing fuel in the back it will be. I would do extended baggage in a heartbeat, it does not bother me to fly at gross. Amazon has lots of nets. Shimmy is a spring issue and that is not a issue if you have a press.:wink:
DENNY
 
RaisedByWolves said:
Soooo when are you going to follow joe and I on your little tires?


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Translation: "Glenn, bring bail money for when Joe and I mess up!"

Some good points on all the differences with tailwheels. As far as springs getting old and losing camber, that is why there are new ones for sale:roll:. Like most stuff, they wear out, get new one and bolt it on!

Maybe take a trip up here and ride in some of the birds with the mods and get a feel. Going with less mods is actually better, add in as you like.
 
RaisedByWolves said:
Soooo when are you going to follow joe and I on your little tires?


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Or you all can TRY and follow the monster ...350' one ways...250' waters edge to waters edge Bars....and 300' jack legged slews...and all with a throwaway mount less than $20,000 and 90 HP !
vimeo.com/249249638
 
flyrite said:
Or you all can TRY and follow the monster ...350' one ways...250' waters edge to waters edge Bars....and 300' jack legged slews...and all with a throwaway mount less than $20,000 and 90 HP !
vimeo.com/249249638
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I was scared at first watch. Very spectacular but impressive.

Then I saw some kind of a pirate, landing on a paradise beach.

And I was scared again...





Nice flying, love the video
 
My 150 hp Super Cub was stock except for the VGs and Dakota Cub brakes when I bought it. I added 29" BWs, Baby Bushwheel and the Borer prop when I first brought it home. I operate on sand and gravel bars every couple of days. Was chewing up the prop on sand and gravel. I sold my 29s and installed 31s. Still didn't have the prop clearance I wanted so I added 3" extended gear. Still get a lot of abrasion on my prop but it is what it is. I use my brothers pod when going places and haven't seen a need for extended baggage when camping for 7-10 days with two people. I did add a B&C alternator because I was coming in from playing at dark and the generator wouldn't keep up. Also added a light weight oil cooler for weight savings. Last year I installed the Thrustline mod for better performance and helped on prop clearance. Recently installed the Sutton exhaust after trashing another muffler, saved weight and opened up the firewall which gets plenty hot in the Texas summer. It also saved 2 lbs. over stock. Removed the spinner recently and saved 2.7 lbs as well. There is a story about how I got most all of these parts. The only thing I bought new was the B&C alternator and it was a special deal through Wicks at the time. I do a lot of scrounging and trading.
 
Olibuilt said:
I was scared at first watch. Very spectacular but impressive.

Then I saw some kind of a pirate, landing on a paradise beach.

And I was scared again...





Nice flying, love the video
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I keep my treasure on this river and these sandbars ......Oh.... I got a peg leg too!
 
IMG_0773.jpg

Now I know it didn't cost thousands of dollars, but accomplishes the same thing and cannot be torn up.....well.....hard to tear up, and cheap to fix if it does!
 

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If you look right below the N-number ,you can see I agree with you!
And to the point of the mods needed for backcountry flying. The big tires for me opened the world. It's my experience that the guys with capable bush planes are a lot like my acro buddies in competition, they have the magic feather syndrome .they think if they get one more mod ,or a different mount that it will make them much more capable to the task at hand . Put gas through the tank ,that will make your mount more capable than any mod you can do!
 

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