Playseat Challenge

Bazooka_Joe

Best of the worst, sometimes worst of the worst.
I'm planning to invest a little into something more sophisticated for my sim-racing attempts and need some advice, perhaps confirmation of my thoughts before splashing out.

Background
I'm currently using my desk and standard office chair which isn't just cutting it for me. The chair keeps going backwards every time when I'm braking and pressing clutch at the same time (or during an emergency braking procedure with no clutch), then to regain position I'm pulling myself back by holding the wheel. This process is repeated few times a lap. On top of that my better half is not happy as the wheel is always attached to my desk (lack of spare room so in lounge) as I can't be bothered to pack it to the box every time after each session.
I was looking for a chair, or a wheel stand (especially Wheel Stand Pro V2) but I don't think this will work as my sofa is quite far from TV and PC screen is only 23in, plus I'll have no way to prevent that from going away from me during the braking either, apart from chaining it to the sofa :)

Playseat Challenge chair
Then by accident I came across this seat.

challenge_6.jpg


It was like a love at the first sight :) Most important feature - it can be folded and put into storage easily, still with wheel attached, so after playing it's literally 1 minute to clear the room completely. Watched/read plenty of reviews and everyone seems to be happy with it. My wife likes it visually too, so it sounds like it might be it. The only thing is £140 for a racing looking deckchair sounds like a lot. I still quite like it, but at this price the decision is not a no-brainer. Add the gearbox attachment cost another £25 bringing it over the cost of the wheel itself (although I'm thinking of a home made attachment for it).

Since plenty of my friends are involved in social marketing I have very little trust into the overall verdicts (watching mostly to see the features/unboxing to know what to expect and trying to judge it myself) so I just wanted to double check before purchasing as I'm sure that in this wonderful community someone would have some first-hand experience of using it.

The questions:
I have some technical questions I couldn't find the answer for, targeting those who experienced this piece of kit:
1. On the scale 1 to 10 - how much would you rate it. I'm expecting a budget chair, not Vesaro £30k system with seat vibrations etc. so 10 is the best racing-deckchair ever :) ?
2. How large is it folded with a wheel (G27 here) - trying to find out whether it'll fit in preferred storage place?
3. Long term use - does it have some common faults - things to look at/prevent?
4. Is there any other interesting chair that would be better, or similar stuff but cheaper.

Cheers!
 
Last edited:
I'm digging up this old thread, sorry guys!-) I have the Challenge and at the moment it's the only option for me to have a "rig", so I'm trying to make the most of it. I think it's a good seat for what it is, but I have one issue with mine at the moment. I've added a Buttkicker and it fits the frame well and does what is it supposed to do.

However, the upper part of the chair is mounted just by sliding the metal tubes in the tubes of the lower part - they just stays there with the fabric harness. As the upper part is not fixed solid, it makes quite a rattle with the Buttkicer. Has anyone tried something to reduce this? I guess I could try some tape to make the slide fit more solid, or I could maybe drill through the bars and fix them with a bolt and a nut. Any ideas?-)
 
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