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More Information Price $359.95 Shipping $24.95 Warranty 1 year

   Tip-to-Tip Distance

This custom-made JMI Large Wheeley Bar with 5" wheel upgrade gives you an easy way to roll your assembled Losmandy G-11 mount and optical tube from garage to backyard patio or driveway observing site, even over rough and uneven ground. You don’t have to take out the telescope and G-11 mount in a number of heavy individual pieces and struggle to lift and assemble them in the dark. Simply roll your fully assembled telescope from indoors to outside and start observing.

This Wheeley Bar is a custom-made special order universal model designed specifically for the Losmandy G-11 mount, although it will also work with the older Celestron CG-11 and CG-14 mounts and the Losmandy HGM200. The Wheeley Bar is designed to be used with the tripod legs fully retracted to keep the center of gravity low and allow the telescope to be moved through doorways more easily.

Specify your tripod’s tip-to-tip distance with the legs fully retracted or, alternately, the tip-to-tip distance at your preferred viewing height less the 8" height of this custom Wheeley Bar. The ends of your G-11 tripod’s legs fit into 3.25" diameter steel cups at the ends of the three arms of the Wheeley Bar’s sturdy painted steel tripod base. The cups are slanted at the correct angle to hold your tripod legs at your preferred observing height, so your tip-to-tip measurement should be reasonably accurate. For more details, click on the “tip-to-tip distance" icon above.

This Wheeley Bar has fully locking 5" diameter polyurethane wheels in place of the standard 2-3/8" hard rubber wheels. These larger wheels let you maneuver on rough surfaces such as grass, dirt, and gravel, as well as on uneven hard surfaces such as flagstone paving. Locking wheels and leveling screws on the Wheeley Bar allow you to move, lock, and level the complete telescope assembly with ease. Due to the extra weight of the telescopes typically used with this Large Wheeley Bar, extra bracing is added between the three legs of the Wheeley Bar to add strength and rigidity to the assembly. This adds stability to the scope by keeping the legs from twisting if one wheel hangs up temporarily on an uneven surface.

A pull handle and set of six optional larger diameter 10" (#WB10) pneumatic wheels are available – either at the time you buy your Wheeley Bar (#BWBARL10), or as a later upgrade – so you can maneuver on very rough terrain without snagging the wheels or sinking into soft ground.

A word of warning. Great care must be taken in maneuvering on rough or uneven natural surfaces, particularly when wet, as the wheels may sink below the surface and snag unexpectedly. We do not recommend using this Wheeley Bar on rough surfaces under adverse conditions, especially if you have a very heavy telescope.

Care should be used when moving the system on smooth surfaces, as well. Be certain the tripod legs are fully and firmly inserted into the Wheeley Bar’s leg receptacles. Pull or push the system only by gripping the telescope tripod below the center of gravity, particularly with a heavy scope mounted on the Wheeley Bar. Do not push the top of the scope to get it moving, particularly on uneven surfaces. Astronomics and JMI are not responsible for incorrect loading or operation.