Just thought I would throw this in.....

My tipo(s) had unusual wheels. I used Associated RC12 (car) front wheels for the nose gear (and on one plane for all 3 gear). This in a time when the MK and Tetra wheels were pretty popular.

The mounted tire is about 2" diameter and ran on a bronze bushing. But must importantly it is about 1" wide. Twice as wide as the Tetra wheel. It worked GREAT on grass ....... wider is better - it litteraly floated over the grass - visualize more like a snow mobile track than a plow sheer. On pavement, it was perfect. Fit inside of the Tipo and Tipo 750 nose was just right too.

The wheel did not bounce. No give to it at all. If you hit hard on landing, yeah, the plane would react and bounce/skip. But if you floated in the landing, the plane would just glue itself to the runway rather than potentially hopping (tetra wheels glued pretty well too - give, not bounce).

That particular wheel may be hard to find, but I think there are some others out there that are similar.

flywilly might remember my one Tipo with the car wheels on all 3 legs I also experimented with a bunch of toe-in on the main gear with that plane. Mains had tires toed-in appx 2 - 3 deg each side. Several reason.

Ground tracking - worked great for that.... straight as an arrow. Toe-in tends to force the nose to center itself on the ground track. That tracking was also in part to.....

Braking for take-off - toe-in created a little rolling resistance forward but the wheels were free to move. I'm sure a few of you reading this use to go nuts trying to get the plane to sit still on the runway for takeoff now and then (fear the low idle and the pipe loads up). This solved that problem - it just stayed still even with a click or two of extra throttle trim. It also mean that the plane started rolling a few clicks of throttle above idle - so there was clean airflow over the rudder during take-off roll right from the start. No bobbles or nose steer corrections - it just went straight. The rudder did most of the ground steering.

Braking at landing - again, helped keep a smooth, straight roll-out line. Often enough, it kept it out of the run-off area on shorter paved strips.

All of the above were particular advantages in a cross wind.

Of course this is not something everyone should rush off and pursue, but it worked out well for me. Only disadvantage was that it tended to wear out the little RC12 tires a bit when flying off hard surfaces. Also, its not something you want to do on a tail dragger.

Bob