Here I outlined the tailwheel on the floor of my hangar because I was about to take some before/after measurements and wanted a consistent baseline.
The stock fork is a steel affair, with the fork itself being just a piece of steel bent and wrapped around a tube that is in turn welded (or machined?) to the pivot shaft. Incredibly simple, and undoubtedly durable. But it does have its shortcomings -- most notably a lack of ground clearance. If you accidentally swing your tail over the edge of the tarmac, or maybe if you manage to run over one of those deep tiedown eye holes, it's possible that the base of the fork could "bottom out" and get you stuck. Ground clearance isn't exactly the strong suit of this design. I haven't had any issues of this nature so far, but with less than 2" of clearance (about 1.75") it's definitely conceivable. As a point of interest, note that the bolts attaching the pivot tube to the spring sits around 5" here.
The tail-down angle measured on the longerons is 10.9 degrees nose-up.
I took a baseline measurement at the cowl/spinner joint, with the tape measure slid as far in toward the prop hub as possible, and it was just shy of 58" off the ground.
I purchased the new tailwheel fork from Doug Bell, which is a drop-in replacement for Van's fork. The pivot shaft is the same diameter, it has a "keyway" for the locking key, etc. It comes will all necessary mounting hardware, including a new AN6 bolt, castle nut, cotter pin, nylock nut, and axle bolt shims. The shims are required because the fork is wider than the tailwheel -- which ends up providing more wheel clearance than Van's stock design.
Here's another view. Doug offers a few different finishes, and I chose black painted.
Installation was trivial. It's no different than just reinstalling the old fork. With the tailwheel back on the mark I took some measurements for comparison...
The tailwheel spring is elevated nearly 2", and obviously ground clearance is considerably increased...from less than 2" to nearly 5". There's basically no way this fork could "catch" on anything.
The deck angle was decreased by 0.6 degrees. It's not like this is gonna change the 3-point landing attitude or anything...at least not noticeably.
And let's see about improved visibility over the nose...nah, not really. The nose is lowered less than 1/2". Barely perceptable if anything.
The main advantage of this new fork design is ground clearance. I wouldn't count on it producing any better over-the-nose visibility or having any deleterious effects on landing attitude.
I'm writing this update on April 19. It has been well over a month since I installed the new tailwheel fork. I can honestly say that it has had no effects whatsoever on my taxiing, takeoffs, or landings.