steering wheel spinner knobs

Redbug · Oct 5, 2008

I would not be without one for FEL and dumping work. They make you much more efficient since one hand is spinning the steering wheel while the other hand is working the bucket joystick. I sometimes even chew bubblegum at the same time!

Egon · Oct 5, 2008

I grew up around adults who always called them suicide knobs and never heard them referred to in other terms

Some young fellars here have never had the pleasure of having a manual four wheel drive with no power steering wrench the steering wheels out of their hands!

gemini5362 · Oct 5, 2008

Egon said:
Some young fellars here have never had the pleasure of having a manual four wheel drive with no power steering wrench the steering wheels out of their hands!

I have seen this comment several times from people in this thread. To be honest I dont know what you are talking about as far as my tractor is concerned. Maybe because it is a small tractor (kubota b6200) with 4 wheel drive and I keep it in 4 wheel drive all the time. I dont know the reason but I have never had it do that to me. I did at one point in my life have a 1972 k5 blazer 4 wheel drive with manual steering. When I hit a rock and it jerked the wheel around so fast that the thumbnail of my left hand gouged the thumb of my right hand I decided enough was enough and got a power steering unit for it. But I have never had this happen with my tractor.

BlacknTan · Oct 5, 2008

Damned near broke my hand in my Corvette powered '56 Chev...

No more spinners for me!

Egon · Oct 5, 2008

[QUOMaybe because it is a small tractor (kubota b6200) with 4 wheel drive and I keep it in 4 wheel drive all the time. TE][/quote]

You may not be using the tractor in the situations where the steering wheel spins out of control.

My B7100 is essentially the same tractor and I can assure you the wheel has spun very quickly many a time. As I hold on the steering wheel with my thumb out of the path of the spokes I haven't had the hurt hand syndrome.

Now please; I am only expressing my opinion based on my experience and how I handle those experiences. By no means should my impressions be interpreted as the only ones!

patrick_g · Oct 5, 2008

Redbug said:
I would not be without one for FEL and dumping work. They make you much more efficient since one hand is spinning the steering wheel while the other hand is working the bucket joystick. I sometimes even chew bubblegum at the same time!

Is it safe to assume you don't have power steering or your power steering doesn't do enough?

I have only a little tractor operating experience. I have almost a thousand hours on my Kubota but only about 1-2 min on a cab style Montana with about 50 hp (excellent low steering effort, good PS), less than 5 min on a big clunky Belorus (PS was OK, wouldn't need a suicide knob), and maybe 5-10 min on a smaller 30hp JDeer which was easy to steer but not sure it had PS. I do considerable FEL work and I'd hate to do it without good PS. I suppose if the PS was not as good I might be led to a spinner because I too spin the wheel lock to lock a lot with one hand while working the joy stick with the other.

About Egon's comments regarding the steering wheel moving violently and being potentially dangerous... I was taught to drive a car with my thumbs on the OD of the wheel so as to not be injured if the wheel was suddenly to jerk. I think this was a carry over from earlier days. Surely recirculating ball with PS couldn't do that. Not sure about rack and pinion with PS. Any of you automotive engineering savvy guys care to comment on that? Our sedan is electric PS and it is unlikely to "motor back" at you.

Pat

Redbug · Oct 6, 2008

Hi Pat,

I have power steering and hydrostatic transmission on my tractor. But with a spinner added, you clutch the ball of the spinner instead of holding the steering wheel. It is a very efficient way to turn a steering wheel and fast. You can spin the wheel lock to lock probably 3 times faster. That means you can turn faster, (with one hand doing the manuvering and the other working the FEL), with only one hand. Backing up and turning is a breeze, since it is easy to clutch the ball and turn, while twisted around looking backward and the other arm hangs on and supports you.

I would say get one and try it out. I have not had the problem of the knob being wrenched from my hands. Over potholy ground, I go slow...and have not felt the need to join the tractor racing association.

RobJ · Oct 6, 2008

Picked up one of these on the way home yesterday at TSC. No logo, just orange. Bummer. Actually a little cheaper in my local TSC than on the web. Terrible store, long wait, one checker, and...well nevermind..

Link to the TSC page..
Search Results

J_J · Oct 6, 2008

I have a Kubota B7100 and a Kubota B9200, and they will bust your hand if one wheel hits a stump or something. Usually it is with out warning, About the only thing you can say is Dam* that hurts. It all has to do with the ratio of the pinion to the rack, or what ever type gearing you have. If it ever spins and slams your hand, you will never forget the occasion. I still use spinners, because they are useful. You can test the ability for the spinner to bust your hand by raise the front, and grab the tire and push or pull it to the limits, and watch the steering wheel. If it spins easy, the potential is there.

QRTRHRS · Oct 6, 2008

Medium and heavy duty trucks with manual steering used to be notorious for breaking your thumbs when the wheel whipped out of your hands. Usually, it was when you were doing something "off road". Driving something like this, you soon learned not to wrap your thumbs around the wheel.

I worked for a trucking company that had a cab over Brockway with manual steering that nearly killed two different drivers when they blew out a front bias ply (no radials at this time) and could not hold it.

The truck had a newly available 350HP Cummins in it. Perhaps it was heavier than the 250's and such that were common at the time.

I had a spinner in the Case 2096 4x4 I used to have. The tractor had a "high reverse", ie; very fast reverse gearing with hydraulic steering where as the steering wheel shaft went directly into a hydraulic valve to control the direction. At low RPM the steering action was very hard and trying to back up and control a piece of equipment such as a mower was difficult.

Having used that tractor in many situations, I would say it would never never yank the wheel on you. I did occasionally rip my pants or shirt by catching them on the knob bolts.

My current tractor, a Mahindra 7520 is geared a bit high but the steering is fast enough to keep up. No need for a spinner.

Egon · Oct 7, 2008

Back to Pat's question on the type of steering.

The recirculating ball type would have been used on heavier harder to turn vehicles or tractors etc. where a mechanical advantage was really required.

Rack and pinion was used in situations where the steering effort was not as great and faster response was desired. In past days sports type cars would have had the rack and pinion.

With the advent of power steering the rack became the preferred choice of cars. Most trucks will still use the recirculating ball type of steering box.

An opinion that may/may not be correct.

patrick_g · Oct 8, 2008

Egon said:
The recirculating ball type would have been used on heavier harder to turn vehicles or tractors etc. where a mechanical advantage was really required.

Rack and pinion was used in situations where the steering effort was not as great and faster response was desired. In past days sports type cars would have had the rack and pinion.

With the advent of power steering the rack became the preferred choice of cars. Most trucks will still use the recirculating ball type of steering box.

An opinion that may/may not be correct.

I know that larger sedans before PS became de rigeur often used recirculating ball. All my sports cars were rack and pinion and none had or offered PS.

Regarding steering wheel turning speed as assisted by a knob... It is unlikely that I could spin the wheel faster with a knob. I just stick the first two fingers next to a spoke and spin away. If turning is really easy (higher RPM with decent forward motion) I can let my fingers rotate closer to the center of rotation (shorter distance per revolution) and if really low RPM and no forward speed then there is more force required and my fingers are trained to slide out to the rim of the wheel for more leverage. Worst case, my hand travels about the same distance as a rim of the wheel mounted knob but most of the time swings through an arc with less radius and turns the wheel faster than a knob would (rim mounted.)

With some wheel designs you could opt to attach the knob on a spoke, intermediate to the inner or outermost position and get faster spinning, albeit at a loss of leverage you may regret in many circumstances.

Please note that I have absolutely nothing against anyone using a knob. This is not the equivalent of color wars. It is my personal preference to not use a knob as I don't see its advantage for me.

redbug said,

"I have power steering and hydrostatic transmission on my tractor. But with a spinner added, you clutch the ball of the spinner instead of holding the steering wheel. It is a very efficient way to turn a steering wheel and fast. You can spin the wheel lock to lock probably 3 times faster. That means you can turn faster, (with one hand doing the manuvering and the other working the FEL), with only one hand. Backing up and turning is a breeze, since it is easy to clutch the ball and turn, while twisted around looking backward and the other arm hangs on and supports you. "

I don't hold the steering wheel, per se, when maneuvering quickly. I just use a finger or two to spin the wheel. I think I get the same benefits he ascribes to the knob when I use a finger or two to spin the wheel. Apparently the gain in speed and ease is approximately equivalent when using the knob or a finger or two vs gripping the wheel or dong the hand over hand wheel turn. The main difference I see is I don't ever have a knob in the way, no compromise, just the performance boost.

Pat

gemini5362 · Oct 8, 2008

Pat while your post is technically correct. I dont know why but I did notice after this post got started that I use the knob on my Kubota every time I drive it. Not really sure why but evidently it makes enough of a difference that I unconsciously grab it when turning the wheel.

RobJ · Oct 8, 2008

patrick_g said:
I don't hold the steering wheel, per se, when maneuvering quickly. I just use a finger or two to spin the wheel. I think I get the same benefits he ascribes to the knob when I use a finger or two to spin the wheel. Apparently the gain in speed and ease is approximately equivalent when using the knob or a finger or two vs gripping the wheel or dong the hand over hand wheel turn. The main difference I see is I don't ever have a knob in the way, no compromise, just the performance boost.

Pat

In my case without PS the ball is faster. Perhaps the ball was invented betore PS to. Dunno. Hand over hand would only work while mowing, otherwise I've got the right hand working the 3pt. I think if I had PS I'd still have one, not for speed, just easier to hang on to.

Runner · Oct 8, 2008

My grandpa had a spinner knob on his riding mower that had a "girlie picture" in it. As an 8 year old, I always enjoyed cutting his grass for him....

wushaw · Oct 8, 2008

I used to do the finger method also till I got blisters developing, also got blisters on palm.
I like my spinner on my Kubota. I will not put one on the Mitsubishi since it has no powersteering, no fel and it does not need it.

patrick_g · Oct 10, 2008

gemini5362 said:
Pat while your post is technically correct. I dont know why but I did notice after this post got started that I use the knob on my Kubota every time I drive it. Not really sure why but evidently it makes enough of a difference that I unconsciously grab it when turning the wheel.

Just to clear the air... I really don't care one way or the other if someone does or does not use a spinner. I do fine without one. At first I could make my fingers tired or sore on the surface when doing a lot. Gloves fixed that till I toughened up and didn't need them.

If I thought I needed a spinner, I'd gladly put one on, probably one of the fold down type so I could chose to have it available or out of the way and if I could find one short of paying big bucks to a collectible dealer I'd definitely want one of the one's I too recall having the girlie pix in them.

Pat

Redbug · Oct 10, 2008

I've never seen one with a girlie pic. I want one! And mud flaps with the girlie silhouettes on the bottom!

patrick_g · Oct 10, 2008

Redbug said:
I've never seen one with a girlie pic. I want one! And mud flaps with the girlie silhouettes on the bottom!

Those spinners were popular about the same time there were mechanical pencils that had a picture of a girl in them and when you turned it over her clothes fell off.

Pat

SnowRidge · Oct 10, 2008

Runner said:
My grandpa had a spinner knob on his riding mower that had a "girlie picture" in it. As an 8 year old, I always enjoyed cutting his grass for him....

Hey, I remember those.

Spinners knobs are handy on articulated machines, especially Power Tracs. Virtually everyone on the Power Trac forum has a spinner kob on his machine, since PTs come with the world's most uncomfortable steering wheels. They are rock hard and very thin.

Operating a PT without a spinner knob can actually be painful. Until I installed the knob, my hands would hurt after less than an hour on the machine.

I wonder if the "girlie" knobs are still available......