Steering Wheel And Qr Boss - Poll

[pistonbroke]

whichever you decide buy , you will need the QR welding to the steering colum .

Westfield did mine for me when I bought the kit from them

[Cleggy the Spyder Man]

racetech boss for me - I currently have a very small ractech steering wheel in suede material - apart from being to small it is ok and I much prefer suede to leather as it is much more grippy with either no gloves or a variety of gloves I have tried

My old leather wheel felt horribly slippy through the fingers IMO

Having tried a few momo wheels I really think they are worth the few extra bob -

If I was to do it all again I would go racetech boss and momo wheel in suede of approx 280-300 size or whatever the nearest they offer - just my opinion though

[Doug Dastardly]

Thanks everyone. I was a bit worried that this had been done to death but the input's been good.

I maybe should have added these points to start with:

I think I'm going for a 260mm wheel or maybe 270. I'm a bit worried that it's too small to be ideal, but at 6' 5" I really need the extra kneeroom. (I've played with a 260 cut-out and it gave great clearance between knuckles and knees )

A D-shaped wheel would not help as my knees are either side of the wheel rather than underneath it.

My preference is for a bolt on hub rather than weld on, for three reasons: I won't be off the road waiting for welding, it will place the wheel closer to me and it would be possible to remove which would be especially preferable if I shell out on the expensive stuff, meaning I could keep it should I ever sell the car.

Keep it coming.......

[Norman Verona]

Doug, I think the small diameter wheels work best with "quick racks". Mine has 1.5 turns lock to lock and therefore I never need turn the wheel over its centre line. (other than parking)

For me it's not about leg room but instrument visibility. I have 2 x 50 mm gauges (oil pressure and water temp.) and an 80mm tacho in front of me. The open top of the wheel allows me to see all 3.

[chappers]

You can possibly adjust the distance a bit that the wheel is to you when you get the QR welded to the column, or fit a racetech spacer to the wheel to match the racetech boss. As Norman points out dash visibility is affected by reduced wheel size. I can see all my dials with a 280mm wheel, but would sacrifice visibility a bit for the 270mm wheel. Adam1330 has turned his tacho 90 degrees due to the smaller wheel so that he cans till see the important rev range part.

[Norman Verona]

My tacho is set that way. I have the oil pressure and water temp. set so "normal" is at 12 o'clock.

[pistonbroke]

My wheel is 260mm for the same reason as yourself , the race tech qr welded onto your existing shaft would increase the length , westfield ( or whoever) will make to whatever lenght you specify . IMO they do a proper job the boss is welded and pinned so that even in the unlikely event the weld did fail the wheel cannot turn on the shaft because of the pin ( belts and braces )

don't forget , In the event of any accident (god forbid ) you have a westfield supplied part fitted so no qualms over possible insurance claims

not looked at bolt on bosses so dont know how reliable (safe ) they are , would be concerned about faiure if the steering took a knock i.e. mounting a kerb etc.

[Doug Dastardly]

Re the bolt on hub: Surely the fact that it has two bolted flanges rather than one couldn't make it much weaker? Especially when you consider some only use three bolts?

I've spoken to a very nice company who said I could buy 3 wheels and return 2 so I could proably try 260 and 280 to get a balance between room and visibility.

Off back to the garage with my carboard cut-out........

[Doug Dastardly]

Sounds like smaller undrilled Momo wheels are not going to be compatible with anything 70mm PCD

Which is a shame as I'd pretty much made my mind up to just go for a 60mm solid spacer and momo wheel. I'd played with my old wheel and I could still get in and out with the wheel further from the dash. And it was a cheaper option that could always be changed for a bolt on QR in the future.

So I think I'm now looking at a QR with a three bolt flange and a welded extension into the column. Probably westfield or Playskool.

[Doug Dastardly]

Update

My wallet is bit lighter now.

I have a new boss to bolt onto the steering column, it has two lugs on the back that I'll have to cut off first. This has a 70mm pcd.

From Playskool I have ordered an adaptor from 70 mm to 50mm, and a rapfix racing with a bolt on stub at 50mm pcd. Can't wait to get it (there's no 'impatient' emoticon!)

Once I've got all that set up I'll order 4 wheels (2 different sizes of 2 different styles) and pick one and return 3.

Thanks to all the people who gave some input to this

Photos will follow........

[Owen9364]

I'm also 6'5 and would be very interested in seeing the outcome .

[Doug Dastardly]

Well I've cut off my lugs (so to speak)

And I've got my adaptor and quick release rapfix racing. It is soooooo sexy and bling as it should be at the price its very small and light, whereas perversly I like expensive things to be very large and heavy upgradeitis may be a rocky road for me

I've ordered 4 steering wheels to try, 2 different Momo 260's, 1 Momo 280 and a sparco 270. Knowing my luck the wheel I'll want is the 280 Momo that was out of stock. They're all round and suede.

I'm off to trial fit the hub, but I probably won't get the wheels until next week.

[Doug Dastardly]

Got my wheels today- maximum excitement

I've discounted the 280, it's just marginally too big, I think that I would still be dragging my knuckles across my knees.

It's not easy to tell for sure as only the sparco has holes so I can tell exactly where it would fit.

My first instinct is to keep the sparco as it seems to fit my big hands better as it's chunkier, but my second instinct is that the momo's being more sculped would be easier to grip (the sparco's plain round). The spars on the sparco seem thicker so it's harder to wrapp my pinki and fourth finger under them, if that makes sense.

Both obscure the indicator lamps equally, I think because the sparco is 10mm bigger but also chunkier.

Decisions, decisions...........

[MGF255]

The playskool QR boss is a great bit of kit , given the choice i`d go for that over the factory QR if I could go back .

Momo wheel has been pretty good for me in 270mm .

[Doug Dastardly]

The rapfix racing is a very nice piece of engineering, and works well. You just want to stroke it

However I'm not sure I really needed it. Because I'm so tall, I have the seat as far back as it will go, and I had a cheeky wee trial fitting of the sparco as it was predrilled, and it wouldn't be a problem to get in and out with it fixed.

But it's very bling and adds extra securuty (if I take it away with me) so I don't mind.

Has anybody found that a sculpted wheel is easier to grip than a plain round one?