ljkaplan,
I don't know what shaft your '84 has, but the shaft on the pedestal on my '87 is a straight bore. Maybe that's why they are on sale????

We bought a 40" lewmar folding wheel on-line Dec 2007 (around $700) and used it last season and it was great. A real space saver and leg, hip or knee saver. We ended up getting the standard grey leather over the one with blue leather and Catalina logo. It came with both a tapered and straight shaft adapter. We used the straight one. The only issue I ran into was the autohelm. I had to sand down the clamps ( folding wheel spokes were thicker than original wheel) and get longer screws. After I finished installing- I found the clamps/ screws in one of the holds that may have worked.

Greg

Dragonfly #1522
Annapolis

You might be interested in some of the discussion here: [url]http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,4784.0.html[/url] You've already resolved the issue for you, but others may be interested, too.

Had one for a year now and love it. Can't sell my old wheel though. But it makes a pretty good decoration in my office.

Cheers,

We installed a folding Lewmar Wheel some 18 months ago and love it. Makes moving around the cockpit much easier. Defintely worth the money.

We purchased one of the Lewmar 36" folding wheels, with the Catalina blue leather cover, from Defender for $375.00 during their Warehouse Sale in March.The hub adapter fits a 1" tapered shaft but this is not a problem as the hub is a two part assembly that is held together with 6 socket head screws that can easily be removed to change out the hub adapter. I contacted Lewmar and found out that a 1" straight shaft hub adapter is available under Lewmar part number 85004994. I found one at WMJ Marine for $67.32.

The only glitch for some is the wheel is dished and a wheel type autopilot may not fit, not a problem though if you have a below deck autopilot.

Does anyone know what the largest size standard wheel is you can fit on a 36?

Nimue,
The newer C36's came with a 40" wheel. I know you can fit a 44" wheel, but anthing larger and it might rub on the deck. How big were you thinking?? ;-)

We traded up to 40 inch wheel few years ago and was glad we did, It was not that much more in cost as we sold our 36" and paid $50 more for the 40" As for storing it what we do is remove it each time were done sailing and it goes on the rail o a stub shaft that secures the wheel. The money we saved for not buying a folding wheel was spent for wine and rum. Either way it is costly

I, too, remove the wheel when at anchor if I feel comfortable doing so.

The downside is that middle-of-the-night squall where you might appreciate having your wheel functional in a hurry.

I was just thinking it would be nice to have a bigger wheel, wondering how big I could go. My '83 boat is 6 hours away so I couldn't measure for another month, when it comes home.

Thanks.