Sim Controls What is a good wheel for PS 3 / 4. ?

Discussion in 'Sim Racing Systems & Troubleshooting' started by Blindman, Sep 13, 2014.

  1. Blindman

    Blindman Team Driver

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    Hi guys now I have received my new GT ULTIMATE V2 cockpit from our great sponsors PAGNIAN I'm after a wheel for it .im after something that is going to suit ps3 and ps4 at the moment I'm looking at the thrustmaster t300 is there anything else out there ? At the moment I have a g25 which will be 8 years old next month . Help please
  2. Clevohead

    Clevohead Taswegian Ambassador Team Raceonoz

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    I just ordered a T300 off Motho (he does a good deal, and great service), they are an improved wheel base over the T500 with brushless motors as opposed to brushed, improved cooling, smaller footprint. Also the T300 doesn't have the static shifter paddles, which allows easy change over of rims.

    The pedals are probably the only weak spot with this wheel, you only get a twin pedal set (acc+brake) but I believe this to be a non-issue with GT6 as I don't use the clutch.

    I have looked at the T3PA add on 3 pedal set, an reviews state they are on par with G25/27 pedals (T3PA's do have the conical brake resistance system though), so why not mod your G25 set (brake spring, load cell, pneumatics, invert etc...) and then just get a $20 Ricmotech pedal adaptor and run them if you really want 3 pedals?

    That is the way I am going after much research, and it will be the most economical as opposed to getting a Fanatec CSW $600+ just for the wheel base, no rim or pedals (which I would love to try, but their track record of reliability and customer service has me concerned)

    Hope this helps.
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  3. sparklehead83

    sparklehead83 Team Driver

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    i've had my tr500 for just over 2 years and give it a good work out on gt6 and the WRC series. no problems at all yet... great wheel. just expensive
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  4. Ad2mny

    Ad2mny Absentee Moderator / PS5 ACC Team Raceonoz Gold Member Super ROOZ

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    I'm holding out on pulling the trigger on a new wheel until I know for sure it will be compatible with project C.A.R.S, but some of the talk I hear about potentiometers and cones and static paddles and hydraulic upgrades has me puzzled and a bit more than a little scared quite frankly. Will the credit card ever recover?! Time will tell...
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  5. CobMcCool

    CobMcCool Professional Gold Member

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    Ok dudes, I bit the bullet and ordered a T300rs from our sponsors Pagnian Imports and got great service, in fact luckily I was taking the next morning off as the package arrived the very next day, (why can't all vendors be like this, totally awesome).
    Anyway here are my thoughts of the process of getting a new wheel.
    After deciding to get a new wheel some weeks ago and coming to the conclusion that the T300 was the one to go for allowing me three different options as far as a pedal set goes, 1. use the pedals that come with the wheel (more on that later), 2. continue to use my frequently modded g27 pedals with a ricmotech adapter, and 3. go a bit upmarket and get some clubsport v2 pedals with a basherboards cpx adapter. The latter 2 of these options are at this time are a bit redundant as although I thought I had allowed enough time between ordering both of these adapters and my purchase of the wheel, (so that I would have all three at the same time), neither adapter has yet to arrive, despite the ricmotech adapter being in transit since the 12th of September, while the cpx adapter has a massive lead in time and even though it was ordered on 20th of August at this stage it is still not available.
    So after staring at the shiny new box for a couple of minutes deciding whether to bother opening it if I wasn't going to use the wheel yet as I had heard bad things about the T300 pedal set and didn't really want to dismantle my rig to put crap pedals on only to have to reinstate the G27 pedals later. I knew I would have to drill new mounting holes for the wheel base and I was OK with that but I wasn't about to put unnecessary holes in my rig for :):):):)ty pedals, and at the moment there's nothing really wrong with the old faithful g27 is there? I decided to at least open the box and check out the goodies within,
    the wheel itself is sturdy and seems well made, the base seems OK, a bit heavier than the g27 base, but my worst fears were realised when I checked out the pedals, quality wise they feel cheap and flimsy, like if you were too hard on them they would break, almost a throw back to my first set of pedals that came with an ancient mad catz wheel I got for the ps1 and Colin McRae Rally (actually they were better quality, but the design used was very similar). Even so, I was not really concerned as I had plans in place for my pedal requirements, I would just have to be patient and wait.
    So I left it over night, but curiosity was getting the better of me and as the ricmotech adapter had still yet to arrive I decided that if the bolt holes for the crap thrustmaster pedals lined up with g27 pedal holes I may as well throw them on and give the new wheel a go, (they lined up). Before I did this though I dived into my box of odds and ends from four years of attempting different brake mods for the g27, (and I've tried a few) and found the rubber block with a hole in it from the AP electrix load cell I used to have in the G27 brake (it was OK, but I didn't like the almost nothing resistance until you hit the load cell, it felt like nothing, nothing, nothing ..... ROCK HARD) and it rested neatly behind the brake pedal shaft on the thrustmaster pedals to possibly give some sense of progression and maybe make them at least usable.
    So with a sense of sadness I started to remove the g27 from my rig, it just didn't feel right, it seemed like a waste, it wasn't broken, it still worked perfectly if not better now than when I got it, due to me reinforcing some internal brackets that tended to flex (and one actually broke). It was easily to mod, when I put a 320mm Sparco wheel on it (as opposed to the stock 280mm) with larger paddles and attached the wheel buttons so it actually looked stock. (This worked great for the Subaru BRZ but not so good for the McLaren or the MX-5 so I went back to the original wheel). So many good races with this wheel (and I still maintain it works 100 times better on iracing than it does on GT6) I'd never thought that I would have to replace it while it was still functioning well, but after 4 years of faithful service corporate greed had consigned it to the cupboard upstairs where old wheels go to die (still a very good spare though).
    Stand by for Part 2..........
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  6. CobMcCool

    CobMcCool Professional Gold Member

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    Wow, this is starting to get massive ....Part 2
    Mounting the new wheel and pedals was a straight forward affair but I did notice with the extra weight I may have to reinforce my rig a bit (something which would become more obvious once I fired it up). I checked the pedal feel, the rubber block actually made the brake feel OK, more throw than I was used to and the accelerator is a bit soft but it will do fine as an interim set, (provided I don't break them).
    So I hit the go button and the wheel sprang violently to life with much more force than I was expecting and my once sturdy rig wobbled a bit under the force and I went straight into free run at the Red Bull Ring with the MX-5 as this was the last track and car I had used with the G27 and should give me a good idea of a comparison between the two wheels. I set the FFB settings to 5 torque and 5 sensitivity as a baseline setting (down from 10 and 8 with the g27) and started a lap...... instantly any guilt I felt about retiring the g27 flew out the window .....THIS THING WAS FREAKIN' AWESOME (in comparison) for the first time since I dabbled a bit with iracing I felt as if I was driving a car that was connected to the road, but this was better than the g27 on iracing it felt for the want of a better term "natural, instinctive maybe, and much, much stronger, I could feel the tyres on the road and it felt right, going around corners the steering weights up nicely and gets heavier when you wind more steering lock on, when you get the bum out and need to put on opposite lock the steering goes lighter like it should, the rumble strips and even the grass felt good and I found myself going off track slightly and throwing on the handbrake just so I could feel the effects. I noticed that I was moving the wheel a great deal more than I used to making many small corrections due to the fact I could actually feel what was going on. After a while I decided I needed to turn it down a bit and settled on a 4/2 setting due to my dodgy shoulder and elbow getting too much of a workout and getting a bit sore. (but this would be best left to the individual to sort out). I then decided to throw down some fast laps and then compare the fastest laps on the g27 and T300 on the data logger (yes I finally found a practical use for it) and the results were a little surprising. At the RBR the lap speed was pretty much identical until the last corner where I got through 9 km/h faster, it doesn't sound much but it was worth nearly half a second at the start/finish line. So apart from that it didn't really make me any faster, but I felt much more confident and consistent where I was placing the car. With the g27 when you were pushing for a fast lap,the first and last corners felt like a 50/50 proposition if you were going to make the corner safely or within track limits, with T300 I just felt a lot more confident and could line up the car better and with more time in the saddle and the more I get used to it a quicker time could be possible with fewer off track excursions. The internal fan did crank up and you can hear it when you're not driving so once you're underway or more so if you wear headphones you will barely notice it if at all.
    More surprising was the brake data which showed I was using the same initial brake pressure with both pedal sets but a fair bit less brake pressure after that with the crap thrustmaster pedals during trail braking (also braking slightly later as well) so a bit of a win for the cheapy pedals there, but this could possibly be down to the longer throw of the thrustmasters compared to the g27 pedals, or it could be with the more accurate steering I need less brake, I will do more testing when the ricmotech adapter arrives (whenever that may be). So the pedals work OK, only because of the rubber block mod, but I don't think they would last long at least not in my service, like I said previously they just feel weak and flimsy almost like DFGT pedals (and I shattered a set of those, so I might be a bit hard on my pedals but I like realism).
    If you need a wheel AND pedals for PS3/4 the T500 with its good quality pedal set (these probably need modding to be made acceptable too) may be a better option, from what I can gather there isn't a great deal of difference between the two as far as feel is concerned, except that the t500 may have a slightly heavier more dampened feel too it
    The bottom line here for me is the T300 wheel is a massive step up from the G27 it just feels so much more alive and responsive (sorry old faithful you are dead to me now), the pedals are :):):):) but usable but there are alternatives as mentioned in part 1.
    I hope this gives you a bit of information to help you decide which way to go, it's not easy to make these decisions especially when these things aren't exactly what you would call cheap.
    So endeth the lesson.

    Cheers
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2014
  7. Blindman

    Blindman Team Driver

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    Luv your work mate good stuff are you a sales rep if not should be
  8. Clevohead

    Clevohead Taswegian Ambassador Team Raceonoz

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    Great to hear someone's perspective of going from G27 to T300, as that is what I am doing, and am pleased you stated that you lost all guilt once you tried the T300 ;) as I may have been feeling a little bit guilty on laybuying my T300 :oops: Sounds like I may need to get that Ricmotech adapter ordered soon if I want to use it with my new wheel :cautious:
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  9. Stumbles

    Stumbles Dave - Moderator Team Raceonoz

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    Well crap. I'd resigned myself to not updating my wheel, but now I'm having second thoughts... again, lol.

    Cheers for the write-up Cob.
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  10. CobMcCool

    CobMcCool Professional Gold Member

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    Nah dude, just a comparison between the two wheels on GT6, remember the g27 is still a good sturdy wheel and set up right on PC is a completely different animal. I only went down this path because the g27 is not going to work on ps4 for Pcars and gt7 (although PD would seriously have to get their :):):):) together) and the latest update and weak ffb for any logitech wheels on gt6 prompted me to change a bit sooner than I had planned. As the history channel would say, some ancient astronaut conspiracy theorists believe ...........that PD/Sony have deliberately stuffed up the ffb for logitechs in order to encourage people to change to OFFICIAL thrustmaster product. This is most likely bull:):):):), but if it's not well played, they got my money, but at the end of the day I'll stand by my decision the T300 is a good wheel, the pedals are :):):):), remember this is just my experience so far and individual results may vary.

    Cheers
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  11. Stumbles

    Stumbles Dave - Moderator Team Raceonoz

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    Yeah, I love the G27, but for PCars, it's defunct, so the T300 wheel looks like the go. Now, to go look for one of these adapters...
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  12. FloodSim

    FloodSim Rookie

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    I'm still not convinced just yet that PCars will live up to the hype... I'll be waiting on opinions from ROOZ members before I decide to purchase.
    It's not far away though, and still need to get a PS4 yet.
  13. t_b_williams

    t_b_williams Tim Gold Member Super ROOZ

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    I myself am waiting for other options to come up form other producers. I.E. fanatec.
    Surely others are working on new wheels for PS4.
    Unfortunately can afford to look at the T300/500 options yet:(
  14. Clevohead

    Clevohead Taswegian Ambassador Team Raceonoz

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    Did you receive the Ricmotech adaptor yet?
  15. CobMcCool

    CobMcCool Professional Gold Member

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    Yeah mate, did test it and it works well, but I'm actually preferring the crappy thrustmaster pedals with the rubber block insert at the moment, best feeling brake pedal I've used, strange but true.
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  16. Randm90

    Randm90 Team Driver

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    I went from G27 to T300 Ferrari GTE and honestly, this wheel is amazing, abolutely inlove with it, the ferrari wheel is so nice to hold and has a great weight to it, FFB is fantastic. It's much, much nicer than the G27, I love it! Only downside, of course, the pedals. But come christmas time, will get a Richmotech adaptor and possibly will get the Ferrari F1 add on as that looks very nice! ;)
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  17. Blindman

    Blindman Team Driver

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    Yes I've got it the thrustmaster T300 . Hooked it up last night and it is a very smooth wheel love the paddles shift nice feel .thanks to CobMcool for your in depth run down on the wheel .helped a lot of people me included .am still going to use the standard peddles at this stage and go from there .:thumbsup:
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  18. Clevohead

    Clevohead Taswegian Ambassador Team Raceonoz

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    I am waiting in great anticipation for mine to come, was dispatched yesterday.
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  19. Clevohead

    Clevohead Taswegian Ambassador Team Raceonoz

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    A bloke over at inside sim racing is doing these sticker overlays for the gte rim with PS related noting on them:

    [​IMG]

    He had an ebay link but sold out, he also had xbox ones as well, he is currently getting a new batch printed, when he updates the post over ISR I will post the link here.
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  20. Clevohead

    Clevohead Taswegian Ambassador Team Raceonoz

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    Quick question to the guys running Thrustmaster wheels already, are the Thrustmaster firmware updates important while racing on console, or just PC based? Just wondering as I see talk of updates on other sites but they are more bout PC based sims than console based, and wondering if they are worth the work?