Cockpits for old men

[Speednut357]

I think it's time for me to stop playing with my desk setup. However, when I browse through the available cockpit frames, I notice that they all have the pedals positioned high up in a straight-leg configuration. While this may provide the sensation of sitting in a modern sports car, I don't think my knees can handle it. I require a setup where my legs can dangle, similar to driving a bus.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a sim cockpit that can accommodate this position or any advice on this matter?

 

[Emery]

See what the American Truck Simulator & European Truck Simulator 2 crowd prefer?

For myself, it's not so much the pedal placement as it is getting in/out of the seat. Seat on the floor hasn't cut it since I was age 40 or so, so my current rig has the seat as close to chair height as possible.

 

[blekenbleu]

any suggestions

IMO, a comfortable mesh office chair strapped to a rigid wheel stand with pedals at floor level, appropriately tilted, are hard to beat. Over the years,
having in real life driven C sports racers, various British sports cars and BMWs on track in partially reclined, upright with legs nearly horizontal or modern sedan seating positions, once on track and focused on driving, seating positions were either comfortable or not, and differences in position were not significant. What mattered was being able to stay located during braking and turns so as to not compromise hand and foot controls.
Similarly, driving in VR with tactile feedback and harness tensioning,
seating position discrepancies do not (for me) promote cognitive dissonances.

 

[stigs2cousin]

You didn´t mention space or budget restraints so for starters I´ll go all out:

aluminium profile is the way to go.!!

It´s true that most profile rigs come as "lowsitters" but this a design choice and easyly remedied.

Take (just as an example) the Simlab GT1pro:

In this configuration the pedals would clearly be too high for you.

But there should be a solution to mount the pedals into the frame instead of above to get them lower. Also with some additional profiles the seat could be mounted a lot higher.
That´s the beauty of profile rigs, you can do it any way you want.

I chose the GT1pro because the uprights for the wheelbase are tilted slightly in direction of the seat, that gives a bit more foot space for easier ingress and flight afterwards.

You said you race on a desk so wheelbase and pedals will probably not excert enough force to overwhelm the stability of this rig.

Also with a "busdrivers seating posittion" pushing the pedals from above you will most probably not exceed 20-30 kg´s of braking force, so you don´t need a bucket seat and can go for a more comfortable ( good quality) recliner.

I would talk to the rig´s manufacturer and listen what they suggest, it shouldn´t be too difficult to customize a rig for you.

Or you go all in and design your own rig, there´s even software around to design and make a partslist.
In the ends that what I did, after a year i have to admit that my rig is clearly overbuilt even for a SC2 wheelbase and Heusinkveld pedals with the seating position that is comfortable even for longer races. (which is a process to find until it´s just right, so i´ll never ever buy a rig that can´t be infintely adjusted.

 

[Speednut357]

I just had to stop looking at the generic cheap crap. The brands you mention are not readily available here in New Zealand but the specialist sim racing shop has Next Level Racing cockpits. Looks like the F-GT Elite is very adjustable and even has extra brackets available to raise the seat up.

They had the Moza R5 on special so I got that too.

 

[stigs2cousin]

Great you got that sorted.

If you have a second person to help with lifting it could be easier to do the most assembly on a table or similar to avoid crawling on the floor as long as possible (from one kneecapped old git to the next )

Have fun