Sim Racing Cave Alert! Because we are weak weak people.

Alex

So brexit is a success after all!

Alex

I just moved house this week and I no longer have the big blocks of wood to pin down my pedals. Proper jonesing for an iRacing fix! Need to figure out something permanent. 🤣

BritishBean

Brave well? Did you have to pay??

Brave

BritishBean Nope. It’s a feckin miracle =)

Alex

How are you finding the race seat? After a lot of consideration I think I will need to bite the bullet and buy one. Attaching the Fanatec wheel to a desk just isn’t working.

Brave

It’s ok now I’ve got it the way I want it but by Christ I found it hard to get right. The unlockable hub system you use to adjust the settings wasn’t as easy for me as the reviews made it out to be (that may be specific to my health issues though).

There’s an infamous tripod amongst photographers called the Benbo Trekker. You unlock one lever and the whole thing loosens up, then you put it in the position you want and lock it again. Sounds great, but in reality it was like wrestling an octopus.

Some photographers hate it, some love it. I hate it. 😄

The F-GT Lite has the same mechanism except there’s like 5 of those levers and a few of them control more than one part of the seat; it was like herding multiple octopuses (correct term 😉 ) It was a bloody nightmare. Loosen the wrong hub and both the back support and the rear leg could end up flat.

That said, I’ve kind of got the hang of it now and it genuinely is rock solid, properly unbudgeable, when all the hubs are locked in place. And I’ve finally found a very comfortable position.

If I were you I’d go with the one I had previously (the only reason I swapped was because of my chonky thighs), or even better an actual playseat model with a proper racing seat. They still fold up a bit afaik and seem like zero faff .

Brave

Oh. And to further dissuade you from the fgt lite. I’ve been reading posts from users with load cell pedals saying that the rig actually lifts up a little under the load 😆

They still seem to like it mind, but I’d find that disconcerting.

Brave

Actually, this version only has one set of hubs. The GT Lite.

https://www.racefans.net/2021/01/31/next-level-gt-lite-foldable-simracing-seat-reviewed/

It looks like it would probably still tilt a little under the heavy load of a load cell, but MUCH easier looking to set up.

Alex

The Playseat Challenge looks fairly simple and is only £150 on Amazon, so I might go for that, also looks to fold up pretty well, at least well enough to stash in the cupboard.

GassyHaggis

Alex It does a decent job and folds up quite well with the wheel and pedals on it. Here’s a few photos to show it in a real world setting folded and set up.

BritishBean

GassyHaggis how do you find the pedals flat on ground with the challenge seat?

Alex

GassyHaggis Thanks for posting these, very helpful. Had a little doubt whether the Fanatec Elite pedals would fit as they are much smaller than the G29 but a google suggests that won’t be a problem.

GassyHaggis

BritishBean I’ve had no issues. The way they work is that they sit on the steel frame and then secured with the velcro strap. You can then adjust the distance they sit and tighten it up with the red screws. The pedals I have (G29) fit no bother and they are pushed against the metal upright at the end of that section. Here’s a picture to get a better idea…

Assetto Corsa Competizione required the brake pedal to be pushed pretty hard to even hit 100% pressure and they didn’t even budge whilst attached.

Angle itself, I genuinely never even thought about.

Brave

Pedal angle was no bother on my Challenge. You can alter the length of the pedal base itself and the seat is short enough that it didn’t restrict leg position in that regard either.

I’ve actually had more issues with that in my new seat as the angle of the seat and the length of it make it hard to reach the pedals if they’re flat. I took the pedal base off initially and am (funnily enough) reattaching it right now.

Playseat Challenge, that just wasn’t an issue. To the point where I wasn’t expecting to have to think about that with new seat.

Alex

Finally a load cell brake pedal.

Decided to buy the Playseat Challenge, should arrive on Monday hopefully.

Brave

I’ve gone through a lot of options BritishBean . I still have my Wheelstand Pro which was my first attempt at getting into something resembling a racing position.

I used it for some literal armchair racing in VR last year and despite being several years old it still did the job fabulously. It’s rock-solid, bomb-proof with the likes of a g29 or 920 on it.

The only problem I had was that putting pressure on the pedals could move it around a fair bit. Which I find a bit off-putting. Your own body weight holds things in place with the seats etc. That could be solved with a little bit of thought though. Especially if you butt the pedals up against a wall for example.

I think my new wheel and the one Alex has would move it around too much though.

I think that chair ( I used to have a blue one) would be great with it though. If you have the pedals up against the TV stand it shouldn’t shift too much, if at all.

Brave

Wow.

Finally got some time and space to give the rig a good run. The seat is finally set up right and super comfortable, if ever so huge. My only slight gripe is the way the wheel base swings out to allow me to sit in the seat. It feels a little awkward to get in past it but it’s not a big deal.

Wheel is several levels beyond what I’m used to. So much detail and masses more force. I had to turn it down in the control panel. Really have to hold my hand away from the wheel when it calibrates on startup. It nearly badly staved my thumbs first time I did it.

The t3pa-pro pedals work very well plugged into the wheel as you might expect. Better than they did via the adapter imo. I had so much more control over acceleration and braking than I’ve ever had before. I still need to work on my lead foot, but it was night and day compared to what I’m used to.

I fired up ACC for a couple of hours and got used to everything fairly quickly. Started with GT4s and then moved up to the Porsche 911 GT3. I had a time in that car at Brands Hatch from about 6 or 7 months ago. Not particularly fast but I don’t think I was a total n00b at the point either as I’d been racing for two or three months by then.

Anyway, my first lap was two seconds faster. Half an hour later I dropped another 3 seconds off that time too. So 5 seconds in total. Keep in mind, I haven’t raced at all with a wheel since well before Xmas I think; nearly two months, so I think I qualify as “rusty”.

I felt like like I had infinitely more information to play with. The Porsche is a lairy beast in ACC and it still bit back a fair bit but I definitely was able to correct a lot of snap oversteer moments in a way that I’ve never been able to before.

I don’t necessarily think the wheel will have this kind of benefit for most folk but it’s more that it’s helping me out more now than it might have when I first got the g29. It’s making up for my rapidly failing reflexes. 😄

I actually suspect my 2 month hiatus has helped me a little as I don’t have any muscle memory issues to overcome with my old gear.

I’ll probably drop into WRC 9 to get a solid idea of how much extra it’s giving me there too. Then I’ll drop back into iRacing \o/

BritishBean

Argh I must stop reading this thread! I have the IKEA chair below. We used it as a nursing chair but I use it as a gaming chair now. It’s very comfy and when you sit on it it lowers at the back slightly due to the weight and it’s almost racing seat position. I do wonder if I’d get away with one of those wheel stands rather than a play seat…

Brave

Actually, looking at the Amazon description, they updated it to make it sturdier. So my gripe might not be an issue anymore.

BritishBean

Thanks Brave. Mind you at £100 it’s only a little more for the chair… 😬

DrDamn

BritishBean this entire thread is slippery slope-tastic. Just set up some sort of mammoth monthly direct debit to the racing game tech gods and accept your fate 😃

« Previous Page Next Page »