Steering wheel -- 2 spoke, 3 spoke and 4 spoke

[FourXFour]

Guys,
Have heard a lot of jargon about this.
Steering wheel with 2-spokes, 3-spokes and 4-spokes.
What exactly is the difference? Is there any comfort level increase with increase in spokes?
For eg: I think in the 4-spoke one you can have your hand in between the small gap provided on either side and keep the car in control.
Is that true?

Please provide gyan.

Is there something like solid steering wheel too? No spokes no probs

-4x4
Pressing shift+4 to be on top of the world :-)

[esteem_lover]

Would you prefer a joystick instead ?

[desigNation]

fourxfour,now that you have started a thread regarding steering wheels, would like to know if i changed from a "oe" steering to a smaller steering, will it affect my ride or handling by anyway??or for that matter any other problems??

[n_aditya]

Originally Posted by desigNation

would like to know if i changed from a "oe" steering to a smaller steering, will it affect my ride or handling by anyway??or for that matter any other problems??

I've been using a sports steering in my OE esteem and there are no problems whatsoever.

Go ahead with the smaller steering wheel but ensure you get a good steering hub fixed. I paid Rs. 2500 for it in chennai which included the hub and fitting charges.

BTW, it is a 3 spoke wheel.

IMO the spokes are only aesthetic... sometimes help in reaching for glasses or other nick nacks placed at the instrument console.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by n_aditya

IMO the spokes are only aesthetic... sometimes help in reaching for glasses or other nick nacks placed at the instrument console.

would be a fine sight to see when you put your hand through one of those gaps & find that there is a bloke sitting right in front of your car. it would be him or your hand that will break.

[k36]

I too have been thinking of the same topic for a long time and the only good reason I could think of was to have some masala for auto magazines to write about .

Seriously, the design of spokes on the wheel may make a difference... say while pressing the horn during a sharp turn .. but just talking about the number of spokes doesn't make any sense.

[iraghava]

Originally Posted by desigNation

would like to know if i changed from a "oe" steering to a smaller steering, will it affect my ride or handling by anyway??or for that matter any other problems??

How can it affect the ride or handling?? Think about it you're just changing the wheel not the rack or any suspension components, what kind of steering wheel you have does not make any difference to your ride/handling. You could put one made of acrylic (transperent), fake wood (both were very popular in 800's some years back) & wouldn't make any difference to you car. However, if it is not comfortable to use then you might not like using it & that would be the only difference apart from the looks.

There are lots of designs available in the market today with Wooden wheels, leather wheels, Leather & Wood combos etc. Before fitting any try them on & see if you're comfortable with it & that it should not cause a hindrance in normal driving actions like taking turns. Otherwise I see no problem whatsoever with fitting an aftermarket steering wheel.

P.S. Elf has a beautiful aftermarket steering wheel on his Lancer & aZa has one too, maybe they can post some pictures here for your idea.

[n_aditya]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

would be a fine sight to see when you put your hand through one of those gaps & find that there is a bloke sitting right in front of your car. it would be him or your hand that will break.

Sorry E_L, i just cant seem to understand your post.

[skiddyrow]

n_aditya, what e_l is trying to say is that putting your hand through the steering while driving has the same effect as a steering lock. If you suddenly find you have to make a sharp turn, your hand in the middle will lock the steering and depending on how hard you pull the wheel, you will either break your hand or lock the steering and go straight in to whatever you were trying to avoid...

[n_aditya]

Originally Posted by skiddyrow

n_aditya, what e_l is trying to say is that putting your hand through the steering while driving has the same effect as a steering lock. If you suddenly find you have to make a sharp turn, your hand in the middle will lock the steering and depending on how hard you pull the wheel, you will either break your hand or lock the steering and go straight in to whatever you were trying to avoid...

Oh.. now i get it...

i meant to reach for such things when the car is not moving.... obvious that one of the above can happen...

BTW, the spokes make it easier to reset the trip meter or ODO... Imagine curling your arm to do that...

[FourXFour]

What I have observed....
Buses and trucks esp tata and leyland have only one middle bar...so you could call it a single spoke steering.
Low end segment cars have T shaped steering.
Higher end have 4 spokes...one horizontal and the others at 45 degrees to the middle one.
Usually audio controls and in case of USA you have cruise buttons also on that steering.

Btw does the steerign gets locked even when in motion

[n_aditya]

Originally Posted by FourXFour

Btw does the steerign gets locked even when in motion

It sometimes can if the steering lock is rickety & flimsy due to age... but God forbid this happens to anyone.

[mithun]

Can someone please explain what difference does the no of spokes make when driving a car ?

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by n_aditya

BTW, the spokes make it easier to reset the trip meter or ODO... Imagine curling your arm to do that...

Actually I had that habit. The huge gaps in my Acura TL steering wheels allowed me to reset the trip meter. Once I did it while taking a left turn, one hand still pressing the trip button and the other releasing the steering wheel after completing the turn. The spoke hit my forearm and got stuck.

Two things saved me that day:
(1) I was making a left turn on right side driven road.
(2) I was driving slowing in a deserted local road.

By the time pulled my hand out, I was on the wrong side staring at possible oncoming traffic. If I was turning right, I would have hit a tree. Not surprisingly I have never since then used the steering wheel as an open window.

[gigy]

changing the steering wheel does make a difference in driving; the force required to turn the wheel increases as you reduce the overall diameter of the wheel. also making it too fat with addon covers make you loose grip once it is more than you can handle( small hands and large hands).
wheel is made smaller to enable faster turns for the same amount of travel of hand particularly in rally cars. when you change over do practice for few days before driving like your usual, else you might enter into others vehicle on side even before realising what happened. while buyinf fancy steering wheels see that the parts through which the mounting bolts or screws go are all metal and there is no fancy plastic part involved. plastic clipon are only allowed. else with time you will see that the plastic parts crack off and then the wheel looks ugly.