spherical in airflows

[Bob Harper]

I'm toying with the idea of putting a sphyrical bearing in my Airflow.
I'm looking for any hint and tips.
Also has anyone ever mounted one in a RTX base plate and what was the out come.

[David Graves-Witherell]

My 110mm Airflow fits the tracker RTX baseplate. It came w/ an orion base place which only has new school spacing so I switched it out. Works fine. I also wonder about adding the spherical bearing.

[Bob Harper]

Thank David
I do have an RTX as my base plate. I was wondering if anyone has had success with
mounting a bearing in the pivot cup of an RTX base plate

[Curt Chapman]

I personally have not had the "you-know-what's" to start hacking on an Airflow to add a spherical to it. I'm ok with screwing up a $20 truck, not so OK with screwing up an Airflow..

One thing you can do is make a "fixed spherical" as some call it, or a "surf-key" as some others call it, or a small "plug" that fits between the bushings in the hanger. I use 99a or so bushings and lathe / trim them to fit: (Photos are not of an airflow, but you get the idea...) Not as precise as a spherical, but it is an improvement.



As far as the baseplate goes, if your pivot looks like this:


You can fill in the allen head with epoxy or JB weld, chuck it up in a drill or a lathe if you have one and take a file / sand paper, whatever to it and make it look like this:

Again, not as precise as a spherical, but an improvement over the stock pivot if yours is the allen-bolt.

I have put sphericals in baseplates similar to an RTX (Bennetts and Aces) so it is possible, you'd just have to rig the pivot bolt from the Aiflow to fit into it...

[Bob Harper]

THANX CURT
I KNEW I'D GET AN ANSWER FROM MR. EXPEIRIMENTAL GUY.
THE BUSHING IDEA LOOKS INTRESTING
AND I FEEL THE SAME.
NO KAHUNAS TO DRILL AN AIRFLOW
AND I DID FIND A LOCAL SUPPLIER FOR SPHERICALS.
LETS PUT OUR HEADS TOGETHER AN SK8 NEXT WEEKEND