Pickleball Throwing Wheel Spacing

[Netrush]

I'm altering my older tennis ball throwing machine to instead work for pickleballs. Can anyone with access to any of the Pickleball throwing machines on the market (Tutor, Lobster, Playmate, Slinger Bag, Spinshot, etc.) measure for me the EXACT distance between the center of the surface of one throwing wheel to the center of the throwing surface of the other throwing wheel? This will allow me to relocate my throwing wheels with the perfect gap without a lot of trial and error. It is not as easy as simply measuring the diameter difference of a tennis ball compared to a pickle ball and extrapolating from that, since softer tennis balls (they have a rubber skin under the yellow fuzz) get squeezed almost in half by the throwing wheels, whereas pickleballs are larger, but firmer, and do not compress as much, so apparently have to be squeezed just enough to grab them, but to not break them. (I did find a video from one guy who did this to his tennis tutor throwing machine conversion successfully, and several people asked how far to space the wheels in the comments, but no responses over the years.) My guess for the gap is about 2-1/2", but that is just a guess. Thanks! Siggy.

 

[Netrush]

I did get a response from Treo on this forum under tennis equipment where I originally posted my question before I realized this forum has a separate pickleball category. Anyway, Treo said, "The gap is 2.75" but there is a slight concave. I have a Tennis Tutor Jr. that I converted to pickleball. I ordered the pickleball throwing wheels from them and they work good." Many thanks to Treo for that response. I wonder if each manufacturer of pickleball machines uses that same gap, like Slinger Bag, Lobster, Spinshot, Erne, and the other machines that are jumping on the pickleball throwing machine market. I also wonder if the wheels having a slight cupping/concave actually throw pickleballs better than flat wheels, since pickleballs are nowhere near as flexible/compressible as tennis balls.