Steering Wheel Adapter

[lonfu]

Ok, I'm ready to replace the original 18" steering wheel with a 14" one. I'm sick and tired of struggling with trying to reach the pedals with my gut against the steer wheel. Figure saving on the spray and wash on the black skid marks on the fronts of my shirts will pay for it... Besides, I really hate having to move the seat back everytime I want to get out of the seat.....

But.... I'm not willing to pay the $400 for an over priced 18"wheel and adapter. Got to be a budget price unit that I can put a $100 steering wheel on. Noticed that no wants to say that the specs for the steering wheel shaft are a 36 spline with a 1 inch shaft. This is an unusual size as most are 5/8" and smaller so finding an automotive unit is not possible. Even old farm tractors use fa 7/8" shaft.

Looks like there are only 2 adapters available and both of them are over priced. one is $50 and the other is $70 just for the adapter that should be $30. They only adapt to a 5 hole pattern which means HIGH DOLLAR 18 inch steering wheel which is NOT what I want....

Any help from some one who has gone down this road before??????

I have an 01 Dutch star on an XC chassis with the tilt and scope colum. Have pulled the old wheel, easy peasy.....

Have put a 14" grant on the last 3 gasser moho's for less than $80 with no problems, but this is turning out to be a gold mine search....

Question is??????? will any 5 hole wheel fit these adapters for the freightliner??? are automotive steering wheel 5 bolt patterns the same as the freightliner 5 bolt units? Obviously a 3 bolt grant won't fit it because the bolts are only 1.5 inches apart. the freightliner 3 bolt pattern are 2.25 inches apart and all the 3 bolt wheels are 18" which puts me right back where I started, with shirt skid marks....

I'm good with with fellas that like the big steering wheels, so don't criticize me for liking briefs better than boxers...

Help???

[mike toon]

RANEYSTRUCKPARTS.COM
Has what you need.

[tderonne]

Originally Posted by mike toon

RANEYSTRUCKPARTS.COM
Has what you need.

Looks like they are a VIP retailer? Have you already worked through what VIP offers?

https://www.vipwheels.com/

(Made Raneys a clicky too.)

[alank]

I'm with lonfu, I would like a smaller steering wheel. Really wish Freightliner offered a smaller smart steering wheel as an option, with all the controls in it, or a blank wheel so all the controls could be exchanged.
Back in the 70's I took wheels off chevy cars and put them on pu trucks. When Dad saw what I did, he sent to the salvage yard to get one for his pu truck, and had me take it off when he traded, so it could be put on the new truck.

[lonfu]

Originally Posted by tderonne

Looks like they are a VIP retailer? Have you already worked through what VIP offers?

https://www.vipwheels.com/

(Made Raneys a clicky too.)

They mention an fl 2 and a fl3 but don't have any pix of them and what they are for or what the price is. not sure why they bothered with the web site

I need a horn wire pass through adpapter for the 1" x 36 spline. It is like they are trying to keep the data a secret about the adpaters. Then where are the 14 inch wheels that fit the adapter????

[lonfu]

Originally Posted by mike toon

RANEYSTRUCKPARTS.COM
Has what you need.

yeah, I looked at them, $400 is way over priced, they want $200 for just the adapter.... I don't mind paying a reasonable price for something but when they are clearly gouging me I just can't get into it....

[lonfu]

Originally Posted by alank

I'm with lonfu, I would like a smaller steering wheel. Really wish Freightliner offered a smaller smart steering wheel as an option, with all the controls in it, or a blank wheel so all the controls could be exchanged.
Back in the 70's I took wheels off chevy cars and put them on pu trucks. When Dad saw what I did, he sent to the salvage yard to get one for his pu truck, and had me take it off when he traded, so it could be put on the new truck.

I don't have any controls on mine, just a horn button. It should be a simple thing but.....

[Bob_C]

Is it possible to use factory one and bore out the Grant adaptor, or bolt an aluminum ring to factory one and create your own bolt pattern?......using countersunk allens....with a tapered head..

[Isaac-1]

That pricing sounds insane, I went the other way with the steering wheel on my P32 chassis coach, going from 15 inch to a 18 inch VIP steering wheel, mine was about $175 2 years ago for the VIP46 leather wrapped steering wheel bought directly from vipwheels.


I dealt with

Mike Adams
Customer Service Manager
(847) 395-7255 ext 12
mike.adams@vipwheels.us

[lonfu]

Originally Posted by tderonne

Looks like they are a VIP retailer? Have you already worked through what VIP offers?

https://www.vipwheels.com/

(Made Raneys a clicky too.)

didn't see anything on their site that is 14" for a freightliner.

[lonfu]

Originally Posted by bob caldwell

Is it possible to use factory one and bore out the Grant adaptor, or bolt an aluminum ring to factory one and create your own bolt pattern?......using countersunk allens....with a tapered head..

Not with my limited machine tools.

[lonfu]

Originally Posted by Isaac-1

That pricing sounds insane, I went the other way with the steering wheel on my P32 chassis coach, going from 15 inch to a 18 inch VIP steering wheel, mine was about $175 2 years ago for the VIP46 leather wrapped steering wheel bought directly from vipwheels.


I dealt with

Mike Adams
Customer Service Manager
(847) 395-7255 ext 12
mike.adams@vipwheels.us

I also have a P32 chassis and there are many styles and prices of adapters and wheels that will fit this chassis. I run a 13.5 inch chrome grant on that moho. I like them because they are very durable. it has been on there for 21 years and still looks brand new. Wheel was $40 and adapter was $25 at the time of install. Wow, priced have sure gone up....

[lonfu]

ok, got this finished. I had to make some modifications..... The adapter was a T01 from fssteering that paid $43.00 for. it has 1 inch shaft with 36 spline with no keyway. You have to be real careful about the adapter because some of them have a small keyway plus 36 splines and won't fit one with out the keyway. By keyway I mean that it has one spline that looks like it is missing so inspect the pix carefully of what you order. I could only find this one style that would fit my dutch star freightliner. The price varied from $40.00 to $120.00 for the same adapter depending on the website, I ordered mine from this company because they also had a cheapo steering wheel for $80.00 that I liked. The adapter is a 5 hole, meaning that it will, take a 5 hole steering wheel and came with long bolts. Sadly it is chrome, no black is offered. The actual adapter is metal with a plastic cover and spacer. No clue how long that will last when exposed to the sun in the cockpit area.

I had to modify the plastic cover to fit my application by shortening the length by about 2 inches. I used my grinder and belt sander to do this. I had to run the horn wire through one of the threaded pull bolt holes using a very small bullet connector. With the wheel fully extended I could push down the horn ring contact shroud and access the wire to push it up through the hole. the wire must be removed to tighten the shaft nut and remove the wheel adapter. Heh, it worked

lastly, I made a ground connecter out of some thin sheetmetal that would go between the adapter and chrome plastic shroud.

Ok, the wheel, good news is that I can now turn sideways and exit the seat with out having to move the seat back. Bad news is I had to modify the horn button to fit the hex bolts that came with the adapter. The ones that came with the steering wheel were to short and a size to small to fit the adapter. On the horn button, I had to enlarge the hole the hex bolts passed through and then counter sink the top of the hole for the heads. I choose to not go all the way to the bottom with the counter sink and just made it so the heads had a flat surface to rest on so I could get a consistent torque.

I would rate the steering wheel finish as a 5 because the oak coating or finish is very thin and looks like just one coat of some cheap clear coat. The metal work is nice looking but not sure how the metal finger groves will work on a hot day. The 5 hole pattern did fit the adapter which was as advertised and why I bought the wheel from the same company as the adapter.

The original wheel shaft nut was torqued to 40 lbs, so I torqued the new one to the same thing. The adapter hex head bolts I torqued by feel because of the plastic spacer and the aluminum wheel.

I spent a lot of time looking for the correct adapter, it is easy to get the wrong one because most of the commercial trucks run 18" or larger steering wheels and the adapters will not cross over to a moho chassis. Assembling and modifying the parts wasn't difficult for me because I am a tinker and can repair most anything. Are the counter sinks perfect?? no but unless you look very closely you can't tell that I even had to do them......

[lonfu]

pix of steering wheel install.