We use our riding lawn mower a lot! It would be great if there were a lawn-tractor-sized “spinner” knob that made it easier to turn the steering wheel. There is! Is it “Yea or Nay with DirtFarmerJay?”
No kidding. I had thought it would be great if there was a “spinner” knob for lawn tractor steering wheels. And, there it was, hanging on a hook at our local Tractor Supply Company. It looked well made, and for $20, I had to give it a try.
The knob is offered by GVPower.com, and this is one of their several lawn tractor accessories. We hope to review those later and see if they are legitimate solutions to the problems that we as homeowners and gardeners experience.
The Easy-Rider™ comes in green, gray, and red. We chose green to get a close match to our John Deere® lawn tractor. Everything you need to install the unit comes in the box, it and it installs in just three steps. Well, there is one other thing you’ll need - either a utility knife or a small straight-blade screwdriver to pry off the cover cap of the unit.
The instructions walk you through these steps:
1. Remove the top cover of the knob. Using the included hex wrench, remove the center bolt and washer. Set them aside, and slide up the knob off the inner molded sleeve. Remove the inner sleeve from around the ring clamp. 2. Determine if the diameter of your steering wheel is large enough that the ring clamp will tighten around it properly. If not, use the included molded shim. 3. Undo the ring clamp and place it around the steering wheel at the desired position. A good starting point is the 2 O’clock position for right-handed steerers and the 10 O’clock position for left-handed steerers. 4. Once you have determined what position on the wheel you want the Easy-Rider™ to be, place the molded inner sleeve over the ring clamp and push it down tight. Then install the outer knob over the sleeve, followed by the washer, and finally the hex head bolt. Use the hex key to tighten the Easy-Rider™ into place securely.
The process took about 5 minutes. This was very easy and we like the result.
The Easy-Rider™ gets a “Yea” from us. We are going to like using this and it is well made, so we think we’ll enjoy this enhancement for many years to come. You can get yours at: https://gvpower.com/product_detail.php?productid=Easy-Rider JUST DO IT YOURSELF!
Hey, Dirt Farmer Jay here from DirtFarmerJay.com. Welcome to this edition of
Yay or Nay with Dirt Farmer Jay, where we take a look at products and solutions around the home,
the shop, the garden that really can make a difference about getting the job done easily.
Well, if you're like us, we really enjoy having a lawn tractor and Dirt Farmer Maggie loves this
machine and really enjoys the summertime of tending to an area. She says, what else can
you do in life so you can make that kind of difference that quickly and take disorder to
order so quickly? And this machine really helps it. But one thing we noticed is when she works
with this, you go ahead and you put your hands on it to start stirring it and that's fine on
gentle curves or straight lines. But when it comes time to turn, then you have to switch your grip up,
either do an upside down grip or kind of go and turn widely. Wouldn't it be great if you could
find a way to grab onto the wheel? Well, the common way that we've seen on larger tractors
is called a spinner. And wouldn't you know it, we were recently at our friends at Tractor Supply
Company and found this little product called the Easy Rider from GVPower.com. And this is what's
commonly called a spinner on some of the other tractors. I've heard it as a Brody knob, all sorts
of things like that. But it allows you to grab a single knob that spins and turn with one hand
to make maneuvering much easier and also backing up and that sort of thing. So we're going to go
and install this unit, like I said, about $20 and then let's just see how it works and whether it's
a yay or nay. And this time we're going to let Dirt Farmer Maggie make the determination. All
right, let's do it. All right, let's get to work on it. First thing we've done is we've taken
this out of the package. There is an Allen wrench that comes with it that we're going to tighten
when we take the cap off of this ring clamp. There is also a spacer that gets placed under the wheel
in case you have a small diameter wheel. This one has enough girth around it that we don't have a
problem with that, so we won't use that. There's a nice set of instructions that are just very,
very simple because it just doesn't take that much to get this done. So it's essentially three
steps and you're finished. One other thing that you're going to need is something to pry out the
top right there. So I just have my utility knife, and what you're going to do is take that,
pry out the top, lift it out, and then you can see the access. All right, now that we have it
right there, let's go ahead and take their supplied wrench, insert it here in the Allen
key area right here on this cap bolt, unscrew this, and when you do, you're going to notice
there's a washer right under it. Be careful you don't lose that washer. Okay, so that washer's set
aside along with the bolt, and then go ahead and lift this off. So now you have the stem, but now
this stem needs to come off like that, and now you have this ring to put around your steering wheel.
Okay, so here we go. It just slips by each other like that, and I like to put this, I'm right-handed
when I'm steering, so I wanted to put it at about the one o'clock, two o'clock position. If you're
left-handed and tend to do that, then I'd put it over here at the 11 or 10 position, but we're
going to go ahead and just put it around this, and it appears that there will be enough tightening,
but I'm going to go ahead and just slip that under just in case. There we go, really easy. See there,
that just slips under. You can see it, and then I'll rotate it around, and that would kind of guard
the underside also, so it'd be easier on the top of your legs if you spin this around. Now you've got
this in the position there. We're going to go ahead and put this back the way it was. It is molded
to fit. There we go. Go ahead and take this, put it back over the top. Nice ball bearing action there.
It's very clear. Go ahead and put the washer back in place on top. Insert the cap bolt, and let's go
ahead and tighten it down. Oh yeah, that's tightening up really nicely. Oh yeah, good grip.
Feels really solid. Oh yeah, that's not going anywhere. And there we go. Now we're going to go
ahead and just put this back on the Easy Rider cap. Boom, and there we are. Well, I'm going to put
Dirt Farmer Maggie to work on this and see how she likes it. Let's take a look. All right, we have Dirt
Farmer Maggie on the tractor. All right, lady, let's go ahead and reach up there and grab that.
Put your hand on the other side where you would normally drive. So far, it looks like it's just
kind of like in a natural position, or you'd be able to steer with the one. Well, let's start
the tractor up and let you drive around on it and see what you think. All right, there we go.
All right, and there you have it. It's a yay or nay. It is a yay from Dirt Farmer Maggie.
We really like this product. So we're really pleased with the quality and the functionality
we've seen this product from GVPower.com. And in the packet, they had another little mini catalog
right there that just talks about some of their other products that we'll take a look at as well
and see if they're valid solutions for the life around the home or the garden or the hobby farm.
So we'll take a look at that. You know, another thing that's really frustrating
is trying to find the right tire and inner tube sizes for these small tires for yard equipment,
like utility trailers, as well as a yard tractor like this. Well, check out this video that we did
recently that tells you exactly how to determine them, and then better yet, how to change it with
a minimum of hassle and get the right tire and be back in service quickly. And while you're at it,
check out this other video that YouTube has chosen from our catalog that they think matches
your interests perfectly, and we think you'll like it as well. Until the next time, this is
Dirt Farmer Jay enjoying a new ride.
