Our stock tailwheel fork has caused some issues. A couple years ago it was cracking at the bend, and the pivot bolt started dragging. I welded it back up, and welded on some reinforcements. Seemed ok until last weekend. Flying 2-up it was dragging really bad, especially when we hit a bump or crack. Here is the old fork with a brand new 4” wheel. With a worn wheel clearance was nil.
Here are the new and old fork together. The new one goes down about 12 degrees WRT the pivot. The old one seems to be going up a similar amount. I think it yielded.
Here it is with the new fork.
There is a Peter Anson tailwheel in my future, but this should keep me going for now.
Here is a picture of welding in progress.
I fly off rough grass and have had similar issues. I bought an upgraded, larger mount and tailwheel from Sonex. That cured the problem.
Original setup:
With the Sonex mount:
With the upgraded mount and larger tailwheel:
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Are the tail wheels, shown above, “castering”?? 
That’s where mine cracked.
No they are not castering tailwheels.
Thanks Bryan - didnt think so.
I found my old crack pics on the wayback machine. Here is the crack as found:
With powdercoat removed. The right side was cracked 95% through or more, the left side just had a couple cracks starting and was maybe 40% through.
I welded up those cracks, put some doublers going around the corner, and it didn’t crack anymore. But I think it still yielded as the angle of the forks vs the pivot is not perpendicular, and I think it should be. This picture below is the same bracket that I just took out.
We are pretty hard on our tailwheel. It would see a lot less abuse if we didn’t fly when it was windy, especially crosswindy. The Waiex really does not have enough rudder power. Anybody who grew up flying a cub family airplane will miss that rudder. So to compensate we really nail the tailwheel in a crosswind both for takeoff and landing.
This first crack was at less than 200 hours. Right now I’ve got 419.5 hours on the airplane.
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As much as I need a castering Tailwheel, the aircraft are not designed for them. The runway here is narrow with a fairly sharp drop off on the edges and I am always careful where I turn around as a result.
But I knew this when I chose the Sonex and the design fits my mission. No complaints.
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Look Pa! Tailwheel problems eliminated!!
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Come to the Dark Side, Luke!
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I have the upgraded 6” tailwheel and mount from Sonex and have been happy with it. 370 hours, no issues.
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I tested my new fork today. Works great, however I don’t have much steering on the ice.
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