Best Wheel Setup For Sim Trucking (Logitech or Thrustmaster?)

hi guys school here now for many years i've used the same wheel setup for my sim trucking namely the logitech g27 wheel with a manual shifter and a csio skr shifter on top the problem is none of this equipment is now available to buy brand new it's all been discontinued so if you was in the market to buy a wheel setup for your sim trucking what are the best choices well in this video i'll take a look at three popular steering wheels and shifters and we'll find out what is the best wheel setup for sim trucking [Music] we start our review off with the logitech g27 now the g27 will act as our baseline it's a reference point for all the other reviews we'll do it was actually a very affordable wheel at the time and quite a versatile one for sim trucking unfortunately logitech discontinued it in 2015 and replaced it with the g920 and the g29 the package itself comes complete with the wheel the manual shifter and the pedals which you'll see later isn't always the case with the wheels so let's dive in and look at the specifics of the g27 the g27 is a 270 mil leather wrapped wheel with a full 900 degrees of rotation inside is two force feedback motors with helical gears which are less noisy than the g25 this replaced behind the wheel are two paddle shifts both left and right which are both mappable and there are six buttons on the front three on either side located roughly where your thumb would sit when you're holding the wheel it comes with stainless steel pedals which include an accelerator with a light spring a brake with a heavy spring and a clutch with a medium spring and on the underside is a rather useful spring-loaded carpet grip to stop the pedals from moving under use it comes with a shifter unit this has eight buttons four laid out horizontally and four on top in a cross pattern and additionally there's a d-pad the stick itself and this one has an skrs on top the default is just a small round blob the actual shift itself is a six-speed h-shifter pattern with a push down to access the reverse there are clamps on the underside of both the shifter and the wheel to operate them there are two screws one on either side which are simply undone and tightened to clamp the units onto the desk or table underneath are jaws which are then pulled up by the screws this hold the wheel quite firmly although it does have a tendency to move if you pull it build quality on the g27 is generally pretty decent it can be a little bit creaky on the plastic but the leather wheel offers really good grip and the desk clamping is quite effective if that's not good enough there are many third-party cockpit mounts available for the g27 in terms of force feedback the force feedback is reasonable for the price point it can be a little bit noisy but it is usable in both trucking and racing just don't expect the world this is a low to mid price point wheel so the force feedback is okay but it's not fantastic it's not like something that you might find on a higher end wheel on the software side of things the this is the old logitech drivers there are more modern ones available but this is what i tend to use for the g27 they're okay they're adequate they allow you to have different profiles for each game so for example i've got profiles for the euro truck farming sim and some racing games that i play within each profile you can allow you can set different settings for example the strength of the force feedback the spring effect the dampening effect and whether you want it to auto center or not it's decent but it's not fantastic as for the price for the g27 now bear in mind you can't buy this anymore but it used to retail at 300 pounds it was often available on sale for 150 pounds now considering this included the wheel the pedals and the manual shifter and this manual shifter was pretty versatile not just for racing but for non-racing sims such as trucking it was terrific value for money sadly it's no longer available onto the logitech g920 introduced in 2015 it's still available for sale and it comes in two variants the g29 which is compatible with pc ps3 and ps4 and this the g920 which is compatible with the pc and xbox one apart from the branding and the button layout the g920 and the g29 are structurally similar to the g27 so they both have a 270 millimeter leather wrapped wheel with 900 degrees of rotation although the g920 and the g29 has better leather it's a better quality and there's also the addition of the center marker at the top of the wheel which is very useful when racing there are two force feedback motors with helical gears exactly the same as a g27 and the wheel has left and right paddle shift buttons the main difference between the models comes on the front this model the g920 has button layouts identical to an xbox one controller now what you'll find is the xbox one button down here a d-pad the standard four button layout from an xbox controller and the left and right bumpers and menu options the stainless steel pedals include an accelerator with a light spring a brake with a very stiff spring particularly geared towards racers a clutch with a medium spring and the underside has spring-loaded carpet grip exactly like you found on the g27 now the g920 and the g29 does not come with a manual shifter by default this is an optional purchase it has exactly the same six-speed h-pattern layout with a push down for reverse but with no mappable buttons on the controller and such a short stick it's ill-suited to truckers this shifter is aimed squarely at the races it has exactly the same clamping system as the g27 and the jaws are removable have removable spacers to accommodate larger and thicker desks and tables although on the g920 the jaws seem to clamp much firmer and it doesn't suffer from the same rocking motion that the g27 did build quality is much better than the g27 it doesn't have the same plastic feel to the body nothing creaks like it did on the g27 the leather wheel itself feels a better quality and the hand stitching is more noticeable and again with the grip it has a much firmer clamp on the desk the force feedback is almost identical to the g27 although the feedback on the 920 does feel stronger but it's also more noisy you can feel and hear the gearing as it operates now logitech will tell you that the system is advanced compared to the g27 i find that it's just stronger and slightly more noisy software on the g920 and g29 has been vastly updated it's much more comprehensive than the g27 software it automatically scans for your games and it will create a profile for each one in the setting you can then go ahead and you can choose which profile is active by default or you can manually force it into a persistent profile otherwise what it will do is when you fire up a game it will automatically choose the profile for that game now in terms of button mapping button mapping is much more comprehensive in this software you can map buttons to macro keys to media keys even to mouse functions it really is a world apart from the g27 software when the g920 and the 29 first came out pricing point was well over 300 pounds and that was without the manual shifter which meant it was worse value than a g27 which it replaced these days however this wheel can be picked up for around about 200 pounds brand new but do bear in mind that the shifter is an optional extra so this will set you back another 30 pounds now logitech argue that most people will generally use paddle shifting anyway so this is only aimed at racing certainly for truckers this represents no value for money sure you'll get the manual shifting but adding an skrs on top is going to be difficult and without the extra buttons you're going to be left with just the buttons on the wheel to map to the various functions of your truck certified for use on pc and xbox one the thrustmaster tmx pro is built to compete with the logitech g920 button layout is as an xbox one controller with the b x and y buttons a d-pad left and right bumpers and the menu buttons down here it comes complete with the t3pa adjustable pedal set and like the logitech g920 there is no manual shifter included but it is compatible with the th8a shifter sold separately the 280 millimeter wide wheel is slightly larger than that of the 270 mil g27 and g920 but it's not covered in hand-stitched leather instead the wheel is plastic with rubberized grips on the side offering a full 900 degrees of rotation but there's no center marker on top for racing force feedback is provided by a mixed pulley and gear system which thrustmaster claim is more efficient and fluid and less noisy than the helical gears found in the logitech wheels it also claims optical reading of the wheel position with accurate 12-bit resolution the wheel has left and right metal paddle shifts which i found to be more noisy than the logitech counterparts the included t3pa pedals are slightly shorter and wider than the logitech ones the pedals are metal in construction and the position of each can be adjusted for lateral spacing and tilt something the logitech pedals don't offer the throttle pedal is also height adjustable i found the springs to be softer than logitech ones and whilst neither the thrustmaster or the logitech pedals offer any stiffness adjustments the t3pa does include a conical stop mod which can be fitted to the brake pedal and adjusted for improved stiffness useful when racing the clamp is attached by a single bolt and arm and accommodates a thick desk or table it works pretty effectively although i would have preferred the arms to be a little longer like the logitech both the wheels and pedals have mounting screw points the tmx pro has a plastic feel to the body and wheel and although it doesn't creak like the g27 it doesn't feel as quality as the g920 outside of the grips it's actually quite slippery one point about the power the logitech wheel have a separate power adapter but with the tmx pro the adapter is built inside the wheel so there's just a plug that emerges from the rear i'm a bit of a fan of separate power adapters as they do fail and having them externally means that they can easily be replaced even though externally the tmx pro feels cheaper than the 920 the belt driven force feedback system appears smoother and more accurate i use a belt driven fan attack wheel when racing and whilst the power and accuracy of the tmx pro cannot match that it certainly felt more precise and alive than the logitech helical gear system of force feedback noise level is on a par with the logitech wheels maybe slightly quieter the included software takes care of calibration and testing but does not allow the creation of gaming profiles or automatic selection of settings based on the game you start this is an oversight on the part of thrustmaster and it means that you'll have to rely on settings being available within each game or adjust settings manually the thrustmaster software allows you to test your force feedback so with this screen you can adjust the overall strength of the forces and then you can go into this screen and test them for example this is what it would be like with some engine feedback and this for example with a blown tyre open c and maybe a car crash and for rumble settings as a bumpy road tmx pro retails for 240 pounds which is slightly more than the 920 even including the additional shifter however the tmx pro does not include the shifter the th8a is sold separately for 168 pounds the tx leather edition is the highest priced wheel in this review as with the tmx pro the tx leather edition is certified for use on pc and xbox one and aimed at drivers that want better build quality better force feedback and switchable wheels the button layout includes a d-pad and y buttons along with menu buttons and a three position mode switch it comes complete with t3pa adjustable pedal set the same pedals used in the tmx pro likewise it doesn't include a manual shifter but it is compatible with a th8a shifter sold separately the 280 mil wheel is the same size as a tmx pro but remember the wheel is detachable and can be swapped the included wheel is made from a quality leather and has a racing marker at the top and offers 900 degrees of rotation force feedback is provided by a dual belt brushless servo motor system and has a contactless magnetic sensor with 16 bit resolution that offers more accurate positional information than tmx pro or the logitech wheels the wheel has left and right paddle shifters which unlike the tmx pro feel and sound quality the included t3pa pedals are identical to those found in the tmx pro and plug in on the rear of the wheelbase the clamp is attached by a single bolt and arm and accommodates a thick desk or table it has a different locking bolt to the tmx pro and i found it to be very effective even considering the powerful force feedback motor that this wheel has to offer it also includes screw threads on the base for attachments on cockpits the wheelbase is larger and heavier than all the other wheels and is made from plastic which looks and feels deserving of its price point likewise the leather wheel exudes quality rising slightly above the g920 for look and feel as with the tmx pro there's no external power adapter but it does have a detachable plug again i would have preferred a separate power supply unit the force feedback is provided by a dual belt system with a brushless servo motor the force feedback in the tx is stronger it's more accurate and quieter than any other wheel in this test it's expected really given that the higher price and better technology used internally even so noise level is kept low thanks to the belt driven system [Music] the tx leather retails for 320 pounds with the th8a shifter sold separately for 168 pounds [Music] let's talk more about the shifters that come with these wheels so this is the shifter from a logitech g27 this has an sks on top normally it would have one of these on top of here this is the thrustmaster th8a and this is a shifter from the logitech g920 or g29 now both of these are sold separately this used to come with the g27 now this is the thing that i've been using for quite a few years this is my g27 shifter off my g27 wheel and as i say it's not available for purchase anymore which is really quite sad because it's actually a very capable shifter and in terms of trucking it was very versatile mostly because the availability of these buttons this d-pad and these buttons up here you could map these things to powering off and on your truck detaching trailers viewpoints lights beacons wipers all kinds of things the point is that this had the buttons that make it more useful to uh trucking however in terms of the actual shifting although it's a six-speed gated shifter it's okay quality it's not bad but it's it's doable if you take the top off the stick here you can put an skrs on top as i've done here this is a csio skrs which is no longer available but the point is that was a pretty good trucking setup and worked well for me for many years so what might be a good alternative to this if we move on to the thrustmaster th8a this is a shifter that is very versatile because of the of a couple of things firstly it connects to usb whereas this only work to the g27 so this will work on ps3 ps4 xbox and and pc it's very very versatile because of the usb connectivity it is an eight-way gated shifter so it has eight different positions that you can move it into it also has a sequential aspect to it this plate here can be rotated so it can be used just for sequential aspect in terms of the actual mechanism this thing is big and it's solid and heavy it clamps really well onto the desk and the clamp can be removed and it can be mounted individually into a cockpit in terms of the actual operation it's very firm very sleek and very good quality in fact it has no internal switches it relies on a magnetic system that detects the position of the stick so there's nothing that can go wrong in terms of switch operation but unfortunately it doesn't have any buttons no mappable buttons are available on this thing which means for trucking it kind of loses out to the g27s button mapping which brings me on to the logitech g29 g920 shifter like the thrustmaster it doesn't have any buttons either and this thing is considerably cheaper this retails for about 30 pounds as an additional option this retails for over 160 however this shifter will only work with a g29 or a g920 so if you don't have one of those wheels this shifter is no use to you this on the other hand will work with any wheel you like now there are a few things to say about this it's a six-speed gated shifter but it is cheap and tacky the button operations have no quality feel to them at all which is kind of what you expect considering the thing only costs 30 pounds so really this is great if you've got a logitech wheel already you can spend 30 pounds and get this thing on top of the price this is more useful if you're wanting to add to your existing wheel or you want a quality shifter or you want something you can use for racing because this for racing is fantastic as well as for trucking this is so versatile but it's way more money than this thing [Music] let's move on to the skrs now as i mentioned before this sky rs is not available to buy anymore this is a csio one and on top it had a a plate a gearing mechanism that was off a kenworth 18 speed there is one available now that's made by a polish company it's called the almar skrs and this is it here this is aimed more for european trucking but you can use it for american trucks in no problem at all it has the same high low range shifter on the front there and the same split shift on the side on top you can buy different versions of this this is laid out for a scannier uh a scanier gearbox but you can get man the idea of this thing is very much like this skrs it sits on top of the stick that comes out of the shifter so for example on g29 you pop this cover off remove the screw and this then lifts away on the th8aa you simply unscrew it and remove the top and now you're good to put the skrs on top now the almar skrs comes with a screw to clamp it on and what you do is you put this on top and then tighten the screw like so you then pull this side skirt down which then covers up the gearing mechanism tighten the screw and you're good to go this on top of the th8a is absolutely wonderful in terms of the way that it feels the way that it works it's terrifically good the downside is this skirt here so by default the skirt will just sit around on top of this mechanism unlike the g29 you can't really tuck it inside and mount it physically but what you can do is you can either cut it or as i've done here just turn the skirt inside of itself and then it just sits on top of the plate on the g29 the g920 again it sits on top but you could you could undo these screws here and whether it's already got a skirt you could instead replace it with the one from the skrs and sit it on top now do bear in mind if you do racing as well then this kind of operation rule would require you to screw and unscrew this every time you want to race because you don't really want to race with this skrs on the th8a it's quite a simple aspect of loosen the screw remove it put the original knob back on and you're good to go racing so in that sense it's more versatile so which shifter should you buy what's the best for you well we can eliminate the g27 because unless you can get this second hand and you happen to have a g27 as well this is no good for you really you're down to these two the logitech one is only applicable if you have a 920 or a 29 wheel in which case it's a very simple 30 pound edition but just remember it only plugs into that wheel it has to connect to the wheel so you spend 30 pounds on this you spend approximately 140 pounds on a shifter and for 170 pounds you've got a nice little trucking setup there for manual shifting if you don't have a logitech wheel or you just simply want to add a more versatile and higher quality shifter to your setup then you're going to be looking at this which is a 160 pound shifter which on top of the 140 pounds that you'll need for this you're looking at over 300 pounds for this setup but for your money you get a shifter that is built to last and is versatile for not just trucking but also racing the downside is both of these shifters don't have any mappable buttons so unlike the g27 you're gonna have to find some other way of mapping your various controls if you've got the money this is definitely the better purchase this will see you through various wheels over the coming years this is bound to your logitech [Music] so the logitech g27 the logitech g920 the thrustmaster tmx pro and the thrustmaster tx leather which of these is the best wheel setup for sim trucking the answer to that question lies in your budget what you're looking for in your wheel setup and whether or not you want to use manual shifting the logitech g27 is no longer for sale so we can instantly rule this out what we have left is what i would call the budget end which is the g920 and the tmx pro and then the higher end which is the tx leather the g920 is a slightly better build quality in terms of the way it looks and the way it feels the wheel is made out of hand-stitched leather it has a good firm grip to it and it operates well the thrustmaster tmx pro on the other hand just looks a little bit cheaper it's not quite got the same build quality but what it does have is better force feedback than the 920 so if you're looking for force feedback quality particularly if say you're a racer then the tx tmx pro is probably the way to go that brings me to another aspect of your wheel choice namely the pedals since the wheels come bundled with pedals it's an important consideration when you're thinking about what wheel to go for with the logitech g920 you get these pedals now these are not adjustable the braking can't be adjusted and the pedal spacing can't be changed either that's not the case with the tmx pro with the tmx pro and also the tx leather you get the t3pa pedals these pedals are adjustable you can undo the screws on the pedals and adjust the lateral spacing and you can also increase or decrease the height of the throttle pedal additionally these pedals come with this spacer block which can be adjusted this sits behind the brake pedal and allows you to adjust the stiffness or the feel of it this is more important to you if you're also a racer so if you're considering racing these pedals may sway your decision as to which wheel to go for so if your budget allows the extra 80 pounds or so for the tx leather it's a significant upgrade on the tmx pro and the g920 and well worth the money in my opinion that brings us to another piece of this jigsaw which is the shifter if you're not into manual shifting then you don't need a shifter anyway in fact you could just paddle shift or if you're trucking just have automatic shifting turned on but if you want to take your simming to the next level as it were you might want to try out manual shifting now if you've got the logitech wheel the g920 you've got the option of getting the 30 pound shifter which is a very cheap introduction to manual shifting however it is a low build quality you get what you pay for at the end of the day but it will introduce you to manual shifting on the other hand if you go for the thrustmaster wheels you don't have that option so then the only recourse is to go for the th8a shifter which is another 160 pounds however for that you get a very good quality shifter the th-8a is a versatile shifter it can work with the logitech and with the thrustmaster wheels however the additional price point of 160 pounds is not to be sniffed at but for the money you get a very good quality shifter and you can use it in sim trucking and sim racing in summary then which is the best wheel setup for sim trucking well if you're on a budget and you're not too concerned about manual shifting the best solution is probably the logitech g920 it has a good build quality reasonable force feedback and non-adjustable pedals that's going to suit you fine for sim trucking it also has the option of the 30-pound manual shifter should you decide you want to try a little bit of manual shifting however if you're after something that you can also use for racing you might want to consider the tmx pro with an improved force feedback over the 920 and adjustable pedals it will take you further than the 920 wheel for racing both of them have similar button layouts so it's not a problem in terms of mapping controls in your trucking or your racing when you're ready to move up to the next level and you want some significant manual shifting then you're going to need the th8a and the skrs shifter the ch8a is 160 pounds and then the skrs will set you back another 140 that's 300 pounds to be able to manual shift but for that you're going to get authentic truck shifting with high and low range split shifting and a wonderfully gated shifter and finally if budget is not a concern then you might want to consider moving up to the tx leather wheel the tx leather is well worth the money it'll set you back about 80 pounds more than the other two wheels but for that you get great clamp wonderful build quality a great leather wheel and superb dual belt force feedback if you're into racing as well as sim trucking this is by far the better choice that concludes my review of the best wheel setup for sim trucking all of the hardware that you've seen today will be linked in the video description below i hope you found this video useful and informative please give me a thumbs up if you did until next time take care and happy trucking

Channel: Squirrel

Views: 1,615,390

Keywords: simulator, gameplay, commentary, walkthrough, tutorial, asus, trucking, logitech, thrustmaster, G920, G29, G27, TMX Pro, TX Leather, TH8A, Almar SKRS, euro truck simulator, american truck simulator, best, vs, compared, review, top 10, overview, info

Id: c4KouyyHj20

Length: 29min 2sec (1742 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 22 2018