Can this Lvar be assigned to an axis?  I am not concerned about the tiller animation yet, just wanting to know if this will turn the nosewheel on an axis. 

Heya!
No, that command shouldn't be used like that. Try using the STEER AXIS command instead 🙂

That is what I currently use.  There have been issues with some setups that are mentioned in the forum where the rudder overtakes the nose wheel steering on the tiller.  I had not experienced this because I have set up dead zones on my rudder, so I can taxi out and not make an inadvertent input.  However, if I conscientiously apply full rudder one way or another (like a flight control test) on taxi, I see what was talked about.  I was perusing the Lvars to see if there was a direct ini Axis that could be used instead of the sim axis. 

There isn't, no. But we are working on fixing the issue where the rudder overtakes the nose wheel steering, should hopefully be in 1.0.3