Sim Lab Order Experience

As a new customer of Sim Lab, I thought I'd share my experience on here. They seem to have a glowing online reputation and, given my experience, I wanted to provide some balance:

I ordered a GT1 Evo cockpit on 2nd June when they were (briefly) in stock. Before ordering, I exchanged e-mails with Sim Lab to confirm the lead time and was told to refer to the website (website stated 3-4 weeks and continued to do so throughout the weeks following my order).

4 weeks go by and I haven't heard anything from Sim Lab, nor have I received my order, so, on 30th June, I reach-out to them to find-out what's going on. The reply was simply 'Your order will be shipped by the end of next week'. No reason was given for the delay, or any apology offered.

By the middle of the following week, I reached-out to Sim Lab, again, to confirm my order was definitely going to ship that week. The reply I got was 'It still hasn't been shipped. It will be next week. So sorry for the waiting'. Again, no reason given for the further delay.

At this point, I post a thread on here (entitled 'Sim Lab Lead Times') and, on the same day, 'Richard' from Sim Lab registers and replies to my post saying how busy they are and to PM him with any order issues. Given the nature of my post, I'm not sure why he didn't PM me, or refer to my issue in his reply, but I waited to see if he'd PM me (he didn't).

After a day or two, I sent Richard a PM saying I'd been waiting for my order for nearly 7 weeks and if there's anything he could do. I never received a reply to this, but received a shipment notification the next day, so I'm assuming he pulled some strings, but as he never replied to me, I'll never know.

Couple of days later, my cockpit arrives courtesy of UPS. However, the floor-mounted monitor stand I'd ordered at the same time was missing and they'd sent me an integrated stand instead! So, again I reach-out to Sim Lab explaining the order is wrong. They respond with an apology and dispatch the correct stand to me, which arrives a couple of days later. I'm asked if I want to keep the integrated stand for a 25% discount, or if I want to return it via a pre-paid label. I opt to return it.

So, now I'm starting the assembly process of the stand and cockpit and the first thing that surprises me is there's absolutely no assembly instructions included (or even a packing list). I had to go online looking at the Sim Lab schematics (which weren't very useful) and doing Google Image searches to figure-out the assembly process. Come on Sim Lab, aren't assembly instructions a pretty obvious and fundamental thing to include in the box?

At this point, you may think my problems are over... but no, there are several corner brackets and bolts missing from the supplied bag of fasteners. Thankfully, the integrated stand hadn't yet been collected by UPS, so I was able to take the missing fasteners from that. Again, I reach-out to Sim Lab to tell them about this, but, again, was offered no apology or reason for the missing components.

Finally, the supplied corner brackets have alignment tabs cast into them to locate them in the T-slots. Around 8 of these brackets had to be ground down (good job I own a grinder) since those brackets needed to mount at 90-degree to the T-slot.

Just wanted to post this to help others when making purchasing decisions and choosing a supplier. Make your own judgments about the competency of Sim Lab and the quality of customer service I received.
 
A little OT and maybe a dumb question: Why are those pre-designed 8020 rigs so popular? Are there any real benefits compared to putting together your own list of stuff you need to build a rig and just order those parts? When I did this I felt this is just part of the fun. And if I forgot something, it was at least my fault:)

The advantage is that if you make a mistake, you could end up spending a lot and also not ordering the right parts. It's true that 8020 is very flexible and has a lot of adjustments. But if you don't order enough brackets or the right kind, you could end up spending money inefficiently or not being able to rotate brackets the right way. This will lead to you either ordering too many parts or not ordering enough parts.

Companies like Sim Lab and Sim Racing Rigs have an exact part list of what you need, and usually throw in extras (If there's no issues). Even if they miss a few parts, they'll ship them to you free of cost because it's their mistake.

Building by yourself, if you make a mistake, it's your fault.

There's also the custom mounting solutions that companies use. But most of those companies sell them separately. If you build your rig the same width, you can probably buy their mount. (Sim Lab's is 60cm wide, so is Trak Racer's and Sim Racing Rig's).

If you're confident in your ability to plan and design one, don't make a mistake with your ordering, you can save money and build one yourself. I and many others have.
 
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A little OT and maybe a dumb question: Why are those pre-designed 8020 rigs so popular? Are there any real benefits compared to putting together your own list of stuff you need to build a rig and just order those parts? When I did this I felt this is just part of the fun. And if I forgot something, it was at least my fault:)

I've zero experience of planning out exactly what dimensions are required. The umber of connectors needed. How I'd construct an adjustable pedal plate which can go forward, backwards, up, down and tilt. How to ensure the rigidity for the wheel mount would be good enough etc.

I am not a "handy" person so outside of a hammer and a screwdriver I've no tools to aid in custom fabrication, and don't have a room to set up a workshop to cut, die or otherwise modify profile.

For me it was a simple case of wanting something that has been recommended and assembling it. That was pretty simple with the P1-X with the online manual and the youtube videos available. The month wait I had gave me time to find the right information for when I received the rig, and from receiving it to being in the seat was a 5 hour process for me with some spare parts as per sim-lab's way.
 
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I've zero experience of planning out exactly what dimensions are required. The umber of connectors needed. How I'd construct an adjustable pedal plate which can go forward, backwards, up, down and tilt. How to ensure the rigidity for the wheel mount would be good enough etc.

I am not a "handy" person so outside of a hammer and a screwdriver I've no tools to aid in custom fabrication, and don't have a room to set up a workshop to cut, die or otherwise modify profile.

For me it was a simple case of wanting something that has been recommended and assembling it. That was pretty simple with the P1-X with the online manual and the youtube videos available. The month wait I had gave me time to find the right information for when I received the rig, and from receiving it to being in the seat was a 5 hour process for me with some spare parts as per sim-lab's way.

The interesting part to me was that I'm the same: Having no idea on which side to hold any kind of tool and zero possibilities to alter whatever profile I order I had to make a good plan. Think about it. Rethink. Actually the whole project was a lot of fun (and still is - adding accessories, rebuilding as I added tactile feedback etc.).
Thanks to both of you for your input - I guess I understand the motivation behind a ready-made rig now better.
 
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The interesting part to me was that I'm the same: Having no idea on which side to hold any kind of tool and zero possibilities to alter whatever profile I order I had to make a good plan. Think about it. Rethink. Actually the whole project was a lot of fun (and still is - adding accessories, rebuilding as I added tactile feedback etc.).
Thanks to both of you for your input - I guess I understand the motivation behind a ready-made rig now better.

I felt achievement on building the ready-made rig. It was like a massive, but not too complex, mechano set. When it came down to building the P1-X the only parts I found tricky has been adjusting it to be comfortable for several hours of racing. Pedal height, tilt and distance, wheel height, tilt and distance and seat distance and lean need a lot of thinking about, and moving one can lead you to adjusting another. I've had the rig a few weeks and am still making small adjustments, each one improving the position a little.
 
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I would like to share my experience with my recent Sim-Lab order. I ordered a black GT1 Evo at the beginning of June, and received the shipped/tracking email on 7/15. The items (4 separate packages) were at my door on 7/20, and I am in the USA. I was worried about the parts being damaged by the looks of the shipping boxes (UPS are known to toss packages), but they were spotless, not a scratch anywhere. The packaging was top notch, everything was tightly wrapped in various protective plastic.

I was worried that the GT1 not being rigid enough, but let me tell you this thing is solid. The black finish is very durable as well, I don't know if it's a powder coat but it feels like an anodize. The only thing I would change is to have black angle mounts instead of the silver, nonetheless, I am really happy (will post pics when I receive the wheel and pedals).

The install was so simple, looked at the schematics a few times, and really never needed it. The truth is that there are countless configurations with 80/20, everything is adjustable, and all you need is a little common sense. I had no prior experience with 80/20 builds, this is my first sim rig.

Yes, 7 weeks is a hell of a long time to wait, but in all fairness, I knew that when I ordered. I also ended up with tons of spare parts, this is great for additional future mounts.
 
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I was worried that the GT1 not being rigid enough

I have a custom built rig using 80/40 profiles — much like the GT1. I have a direct drive wheel mounted on to it. It is way more rigid than it needs to be. There's zero diagonal flex with the drivers weight and the adjustable feet uneven.

I reckon you could probably build a rig out of just 40/40 and some consideration to structure — for instance putting a couple of 45-degree braces from the pedal area to the upper part of the wheel uprights. But then it wouldn't look cool and beefy and chunky and hardcore "pro"...
 
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I ordered on June 8. Last week I inquired about when it would ship and was told end of this week. No shipment yet and now at end of week. Disappointed.

If this doesn’t ship soon I’ll cancel and build my own with profile from 8020 Inc.
 
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I just made a copy of the sim labs but that still took me like 5 weeks for the parts came, my motivation was that they (sim labs) could not deliver fast enough and i am from the netherlands as well. But i was unable to make it for the price they sell it, they are really cheap.
 
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Only on anecdotal evidence, it seems obvious that there are severe shortages of the material that is required, and Sim Lab are not able to get their hands on enough. For a firm to have to shut down new orders for a month, only to have to do it again a month later shows that they’re having issues with supply.

It also however shows that they’re committed to not taking orders blindly when they can’t service them which should be commended.

If you ordered on the 1st June you got the delivery in about 4 weeks. If you ordered later in the month, lead times quickly went south. God knows how many orders they received on the 1st, but it seems like it surprised them.
 
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After corona started every one started sim racing demands are higher than stock.......i mean try to get a Simucube DD wheel every thing seems to be on back order
 
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Only on anecdotal evidence, it seems obvious that there are severe shortages of the material that is required, and Sim Lab are not able to get their hands on enough. For a firm to have to shut down new orders for a month, only to have to do it again a month later shows that they’re having issues with supply.

It also however shows that they’re committed to not taking orders blindly when they can’t service them which should be commended.

If you ordered on the 1st June you got the delivery in about 4 weeks. If you ordered later in the month, lead times quickly went south. God knows how many orders they received on the 1st, but it seems like it surprised them.

I woke up at 4am on june 1st to place my order....let's just say the website was not working very well. I had a tab for each item i was going to order, and kept having to refresh the pages until it would let me add to cart =) After an hour I got my order in!
 
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I woke up at 4am on june 1st to place my order....let's just say the website was not working very well. I had a tab for each item i was going to order, and kept having to refresh the pages until it would let me add to cart =) After an hour I got my order in!
That might get better as they are updating their system.
1595623441122.png
 
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I just made a copy of the sim labs but that still took me like 5 weeks for the parts came, my motivation was that they (sim labs) could not deliver fast enough and i am from the netherlands as well. But i was unable to make it for the price they sell it, they are really cheap.


Being in New Zealand, I looked at making my owd due to the cost of shipping here and the exchange rate. Not everywhere has cheap 8020. I could only save myself dollars to make it cheaper and that would not have been with their nice laser cut mounts. The P1 also had more buts/etc that would have cost me to to buy all the extras. Those extras have been very useful as I added to the rig.
 
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For reference, I prefer Sim Lab’s way of handling demand over companies that just accept as many preorders as they can get without telling you when something will be available or not or constantly moving goal posts.
They’re not the only solution though and like me you can DIY if you want (no shortage of aluminum profile from my local distributor in Japan, got all my parts in 4 days), but Sim Lab seems to be having the same logistical challenges anyone is with the pandemic. At least they’re shutting down and dealing with it.
Unlike a DD wheel or pedal set, a rig can be DIY without any significant issues and if you build it to be 60cm across, you can just order Sim Lab’s wheel mount later.
 
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My SimLab order made on June 8 shipped yesterday and should be delivered to me in US tomorrow. Here’s hoping the order is complete (GT1-Evo and accessories, 5 boxes).

Communication could have been better, but if I get what I ordered I’ll be happy. I knew it was going to take a while when I ordered.
 
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