Little dilema, what would you do...

[racinjoe013]

When I got back into sim racing awhile back, I blew my budget on the computer so I have been using my old T150 with t3pa pedals while I save for a Fanatec. As luck would have it, the T150 is going south in a hurry and I don't have the funds for the Fanatec yet. I can afford a T300RS now to go with my upgraded pedals, but that probably means the Fanatect is out the window for the forseeable future. Or I could find a used T150 or bargain on another T150 to tide me over and just delay the Fanatec purchase since I will eat a little into the Fanatec savings.

What would you do? For someone who loves sim racing and wastes most of my free time on it but doesn't take it ridiculously serious that i'm in online leagues or competitions, is the Fanatec light years better than a T300RS to make it worth going the used T150 route for the time being. Or would I be perfectly happy with the difference in ffb from upgrading to a T300RS over the T150 i've been using and just forget about the Fanatec until the T300 breaks?

Thanks for any opinions...

 

[Kevin Troschinski]

Also, many people suggest that it is a good idea to set the fan always active as per Thrustmaster instructions. That's what I did as well.

Yes but also many people are complaining about the t300 fan beeing to loud.
After 3 years of use can i say, while playing without headset - yes the fan sounds ugly, but fortunately for me the fan enables only few minutes per hour.
But to let it run all the time, would be not an option anymore.

Btw. First year the fan was much quieter...

 

[gecco]

@racinjoe013 very good decision on that T300. That's a very decent wheel, and will not hold you back in any way. I had one for 3 years myself.

Regarding your budget, after it has has recovered, I would suggest a reasonable load cell brake (e.g Fanatec CSL Elite) as a next reasonable investment.

In my mind, a T300 + load cell brake type of setup is the sweet spot of sim racing gear price/performance wise.

 

[gecco]

My T300 developed heat problems as well after 2 years. Turned out it was dust that gathered inside the housing and blocked the airflow.

 

[maxilogan]

Yes but also many people are complaining about the t300 fan beeing to loud.
After 3 years of use can i say, while playing without headset - yes the fan sounds ugly, but fortunately for me the fan enables only few minutes per hour.
But to let it run all the time, would be not an option anymore.

Btw. First year the fan was much quieter...

I'm using an headset because I mainly play at night so I won't disturb anyone (and I don't have an audio setup that would let me enjoy as I want). However, as I don't usually have the headset on when I plug the wheel to the computer, I agree that the fan is quite loud..

 

[racinjoe013]

In my limited time with the T300, I have to say when I am in the heat of a race and the engine sounds are blaring around me, I don't even hear the fan until I pause the game. Only then do I realize it's even on.

So far I haven't enabled it to be on full time because I don't see the need to overuse it unless I have to. I have yet to read that i'm harming the unit by not having it on all the time. If I do, then I will make the switch. I may switch it to always on though when summer gets here and the room I race in gets hotter.

 

[racinjoe013]

After almost a week, I have to say i'm loving the wheel. I think the thing I like the most is I can really feel the tyres flexing against the road and can almost tell exactly what's wrong with my setup just by how the wheel feels in my hands when the tyres are struggling through a turn.

About the only con I can think of is I can't seem to tighten down the wheel coupler strong enough and it keeps coming loose every few days. I think it's because i'm afraid to overtighten the screw. They make a point in the directions of telling you not to so I'm afraid to give it a really good crank when tightening it up thinking i'm going to crack or break something. Does anyone know how far in I am supposed to screw that screw? Should it screw all the way in or stick out a little bit?

 

[Stereo]

it sticks out quite a bit, but yeah, metal screw through plastic parts, you have to be a little careful. If you can still turn the threaded coupler relative to the wheel then it's not in far enough.

 

[maxilogan]

About the only con I can think of is I can't seem to tighten down the wheel coupler strong enough and it keeps coming loose every few days. I think it's because i'm afraid to overtighten the screw. They make a point in the directions of telling you not to so I'm afraid to give it a really good crank when tightening it up thinking i'm going to crack or break something. Does anyone know how far in I am supposed to screw that screw? Should it screw all the way in or stick out a little bit?

I tend to tighten it quite strongly because another con of using the clamp is that regardless of how much you tighten it, it still can move upwards, though not much. That's because of the way the clamp is designed, with the two pivoting front "circles". I don't know if I'm sitting in an unusual position or what else (I haven't got many choices anyway) but sometimes in the ardour of the race I tend to move the wheel up (probably trying to apply more steering lock).
unfortunately I can't had mount it at the moment (have to use the desk to work as well) but other than this I love the wheel (mine is a TX but it's basically the same).

 

[racinjoe013]

I have a very bad feeling that there is something wrong with my new wheel. Hoping someone here might have some experience with this. All of a sudden the wheel has lost all of it's heavy feel. It doesn't seem to have any resistance to turning like it did before, like it has no strength. And the overall forces seem a bit weak.

I didn't change any ffb settings in the game itself and I tried reinstalling the drivers. About the only thing that did change on my system is that Windows did the 20H2 update, but I can't imagine that would impact the wheel or force feedback in any way. I'm hoping I didn't get a faulty product.

Anyone have any thoughts on what might be going on or what I can do to try and get things back to normal? Or do I need to contact Thrustmaster? Thanks for any advice.

EDIT: I rolled back to my previous Windows installation and I think things are back to normal. Very strange that a Windows update would impact the games FFB like that, but I have no other explanation. For now i'm sticking with ver. 1909 and i'm not changing until I am forced to in some way.

 

[Kevin Troschinski]

EDIT: I rolled back to my previous Windows installation and I think things are back to normal. Very strange that a Windows update would impact the games FFB like that, but I have no other explanation. For now i'm sticking with ver. 1909 and i'm not changing until I am forced to in some way.

Strange, never experienced something like this caused by win update.

But i had another strange experience about 2 times, the FFB was much stongen than before, without touching anything.
I had too tweak every driven car`s ffb down. But just restarting PC solved both times this behavior.

 

[racinjoe013]

I'm going to contact Thrustmaster on Monday because something still doesn't feel right. On top of the weird loss in strength, my right paddle shifter is not clicking correctly either. It barely makes a clicking sound when I shift.

 

[pattikins]

I'm going to contact Thrustmaster on Monday because something still doesn't feel right. On top of the weird loss in strength, my right paddle shifter is not clicking correctly either. It barely makes a clicking sound when I shift.

It sounds (pardon the pun ) like the plastic paddle shifter pivot needs to be repaired or replaced. It's easy enough to check - takes about 5-10 minutes.

 

[racinjoe013]

It sounds (pardon the pun ) like the plastic paddle shifter pivot needs to be repaired or replaced. It's easy enough to check - takes about 5-10 minutes.

If I tear the wheel apart, what am I looking to see if it's broken and needs replaced or if I can fix it?

 

[pattikins]

I've had to repair both the left & right plastic paddle shifter pivots/hinges (not sure what they're called) with superglue on my T300. That was about 6 months ago & both, touch wood, have held up well.

 

[racinjoe013]

Have to bookmark this video for future use. Thanks...

 

[racinjoe013]

After about a month with this wheel, I can say without question I should have saved for the Fanatec. In under a month the wheel has a drastic loss in FFB strength and the right paddle shifter doesn't click at all anymore. At least before it made some clicking noise, albeit a weak one. Where it is really noticeable is the wheel no longer takes any strength to turn it at high or low speeds. It's just a dead weightless feeling kind of like a non ffb wheel feels.

Worse yet, Thrustmaster doesn't seem to care when I contacted them. First they told me to test the forces in the Control Panel even though I told them the problem wasn't that the forces didn't work. It was that they are so weak that even my old T150 has stronger force feedback effects. Next they wanted me to record and send them a video of the paddle shifter problem. I guess they wanted to hear it because I don't know what else a video would tell them.

I'm past my return date with Amazon so my only hope is I can find someone at Thrustmaster who is willing to help or i'm going to be left with a $350 broken wheel that barely made it a month. I will say this, for the week or two it worked right, it sure was a nice wheel.

 

[RasmusP]

Oh crap
Yeah that's simply a broken wheel then. Annoying, but sadly happens.

In Europe, Amazon would be your contact for broken things within 2 years. Maybe it's the same for you?
My experience with Amazon is, while they're morally not the best, as a customer you have good service!

So contact Amazon and I'm pretty sure they will help you

 

[AmazingReflex]

I own a TX and a Clubsport 2.5.

I think for performance / value the T300 or TX was your best option. The feel and force of the T300 is not that far behind a Clubsport.

If you have the TM pedals then they can plug straight into a TM base.

If you had gone Fanatec you would have been looking at £395 base + £265 wheel + £132 vat + £25 shipping + £15 handling = £832 to your door. You would have then had to buy a new pedal set like a T-LCM set for £190 so your total would have been £1020.

Alternatively, you possibly bought a T300 / TX set for £200 used (includes base, rim and crap pedals) which you can use your T3PA's on for now.

If you fancy a better wheel for your T300 their are quite a few options for the TM which you can get for about £100 used or even £160 new. You could even put on a custom wheel via usb with a £20 3D printed TM adapter. For comparison, the Fanatec rims start at £318 + £25 shipping + £15 handling = £358 up to £515.

In summary, Clubsport would cost you £1020 and you spent £200 which means you saved £820. Is the Clubsport £820 better than the T300 route? Probably not.

The sad truth is, if you want to step up to the next level in performance / quality of FFB, this is the kind of money you are looking at, if not more. The logical minded would probably say you buy a DD base next but your are looking at £1200 and then you have to add rim and pedals.

The savvy would probably get a DD base that you can easily attach standard rims to. There are solutions where you have a hub attached to your base and then you can screw on standard hole pitch rims.

Each manufacturer draws you into their eco-system which makes it harder to jump to others. I wonder what is the most open system to go for measuring against cost / performance / flexibility / value?

 

[Terry Rock]

I kind of followed this post with interest after seeing statements on the T300 reliability.
It was a real dilemma for me when I sold my G25 and was in the market for a new wheel.
The T300 had pages and pages of horror stories at that time.
I eventually went with a used T500RS from a guy in Tennessee.
That was back in 2014.
I still use that very wheel today and it has never missed a beat.
That said...Thrustmaster seems to have way too many customer service horror stories...as does Fanatec.
These guys need to get their stuff together.

 

[RasmusP]

horror stories as does Fanatec.

A bit off-topic but I had the fun to write emails to Fanatec..
And it was very positive in my case!

Important I guess: I'm from Germany, 8 hours away from Fanatec by car.

I bough a bundle that came with the 2-pedal CSL Elites. 3 weeks gone by and the potentiometer in the throttle started to spike.
Wrote an email, attached a link to a non-listed youtube video showing the spiking in the driver.
Got a reply the next morning, telling me that a replacement pot would be on the way and a link to the manual how to replace it.
Got the pot the next day, replacing took 10 minutes, easy job.

A few months later the brake potentiometer did the same. Got the replacement within 72h again.

Then I bought the McLaren GT3 wheel that had, as we probably all know, an issue with the shifter triggers.
My wheel started to show issues within 2 days of usage.

Wrote an email to Fanatec, included a video showing double shiftings/no shifting and got a shipping label the next day.

Sent it to Fanatec, got a replacement wheel that had updated shifter triggers and that helds up until today, 1.5 years later
(I could see that it wasn't brand new so I probably got a wheel another customer sent in. But it looked just as new as my 2 day old wheel, so who cares!)