Should You Get a Direct Drive Steering Wheel?

In this hardware review we take a look at Direct Drive Steering Wheels and answer the question: should you get one for your own sim racing setup? Which advantages do these steering wheels have and what other options are there besides Direct Drive Steering Wheels?

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[Xboxracer]

"A DD wheel can help you feel the impending oversteer and react on instinct rather than on sight". That is perfectly put. 👌

[georgegalea]

Warning!

Within 4 months of light use my FANATEC McLaren wheel cracked at the shifter pivot point and where it mounted to the QR. I was accused of over tightening although I used a torque wrench set at 3nm.

FANATEC then replaced the wheel chassis admitting in writing it was a weakness in the wheel.

Very soon after my CSL load cell pedal failed. I sent a video before sending the pedal set back as requested.

I was required to make a follow up email after not hearing back.

FANATEC said they can not fault the pedals asking if I want then sent back which I found a strange thing to ask?

Eventually they were returned however within minutes I experienced the same issue which was consistent with magnetic interference from the CSL DD wheel base before the load cell pedal would completely shut down.

I was beyond my limits at this point and driven to warn as many potential customers as I could while demanding a replacement.

Following the usual delayed response, FANATEC then offered a replacement only if a show proof that they faulty load cell was again on its way back to them.

FANATEC’s poor response time drove me to desperation.

Keep in mind I have owned this new product for around 6 months when 2 major failures occurred.

An electric technician overheard my experience and offered assistance.

I was able to demonstrate the issue and within minutes the technician diagnosed a defective voltage regulator attached to the load cell circuit board.

The voltage regulator is designed to reduce 5 volts coming from the wheel base or USB down to the required 3.3volts. There was no signal out of the regulator which he replaced.

No thanks to FANATEC I am now enjoying my sim racing again while I hold my breath for the next FANATEC failure.

Please take my advise and look at the FANATEC’s own forum in regards to all the issues they have and their terrible customer service.

[datguy]

how the hell did they mess up the angle of the wheel on their rig its almost straigt up

[josuefloresmerino]

I'm glad to see how direct drive wheels has growth and now with distinct brands and options to choose from and now with a competitive price.

[G.Wee_Rallying]

In my opinion, don't but a Thrustmaster T150 if you want to rally a lot. I have been using Thrustmaster T150 Pro for more than a year and I have to say it wears out very quickly. In just a couple of months the wheel gets a little loose, the rubber grips wear out a lot and has some weird black stuff on it and the pedals gets squeaky, the force feedback will feel worn and rough. In a few more months half a year the pedal potentiometers will have stuttering issues, the paddle shifters will rust (if not wearing gloves) and the wheel will creak from the flexing of plastic. It can also overheat and turn off mid-game which is extremely frustrating but it only happens after prolonged rallying (maybe 45mins-ish?). The wheel has its force feedback set to 75 % when you get it and I assume it is a way to make the wheel last longer but I find it too weak and turned it up to 100% then after it kept overheating I set it to 95%. I got mine in march 2021, got it replaced around July (using warranty), and now it feels horrible despite me taking better care of it. So yea I wouldn't recommend it, the build quality is horrible.

[ImKevan]

Facts are, the more important part is resolution, stronger and more detailed force feedback is cool, but means absolutely nothing if you can't break or accelerate smoothly and consistently.

Personally, I use a really old Logitech Driving Force GT, yeah I can get pretty decent lap times with it, considering my skill level in general, but I have used better setups, and the thing found far more impactful than the force feedback strength or detail was the resolution of the pedals, for anyone who doesn't understand what resolution means, lets say you turn a wheel 1 degree, a cheap wheel might only register 1 point of motion, i.e. 1 degree of movement, a more expensive wheel might have registered 10 points in that same range, an even more expensive wheel might have registered 100 points, down to small fractions of a degree, this leads to far smoother motion in steering, but you can get away with less sensitive steering, its much harder to get away with less sensitive breaking, things like good and consistent trail breaking almost require good pedals, or extreme skill and practice in using the less sensitive pedals, far more than would be required by using good pedals.

at least that's my experience anyway, cool video though, and I think the takeaway really is, if you can actually afford it, DD wheels are far better, just like really expensive loadcell pedals are better too, but realistically, those aren't and were never made for people who just enjoy playing racing games, those sorts of hardware are made for esports sim racers, or actual racecar drivers who want a far more accurate and realistic simulation of a real car for practice, but you don't NEED that to do well, or to have fun racing, but if you can afford it, it certainly is better.

[RajinderYadav]

i'm jumping from the controller to the fanatec cls dd pro premium, decided to go baller 1st time in my life. for me it's more of an escape to drive and relax but feel immersed in the experience. i'm new to gaming and driving sim, i'm old school gen going through my 2nd childhood :-D but with cash. yolo !!!

[icecreaminc]

the top guy in epsorts for ACC uses a logitech gear driven wheel... no matter what wheel you have, PICNIC. it stands for "Problem In Chair, Not In oh and if you are serious or semi serious about Sim Racing... PEDALS are way more helpful in lap time than the wheel. anything that uses potentiometres (all cheap pedals) for pedal travel are crap. end of story. using quality pedals (T-LCM or better) will get you better lap times.. another thing that helps with lap times (and you cant buy it anywhere) ... confidence. They don't setup a car to make it go faster, the car is already fast, they set it up so it does what the driver wants it to do...when the driver feels more confident, he can throw the car around, when hes supremely confident, he throws it around like a toy.

[eriknaamot]

Atm I use T-GT from Thrustmaster! But have just invested in a new rig & a DD1 from Fanatec. Cannot wait for it to arrive :D

[gentlemanedriver]

I have been sim racing for about a year and a long time f1 fan so my question is with a direct drive such as fanatec dd2 running at 20nm is that the same as a f1 car strength of steering I. Understand gt3 is around 15nm but this is what guides my purchasing decision for the direct drive will the strength match a f1 car or even f3? Thank you great video

[thorist]

with the latest DD offering from Fanatec there is almost no reason anymore not to get into DD tbh.

[Lnny]

fanatec csl dd bout to revolutionize the game

[HangmanOfficialUploads]

Did you guys forget about the Microsoft Sidewinder series of ffb wheels when you gave their credit to Logitech or something?

[lennertester]

I use a tm tgt2 tlcm pedals and the 2011 Ferrari f1 rim

[Designer_Opine]

T300rs and Thrustmaster Ferrari F1 rim on a PS4 pro. If I had the living space for a dedicated rig (nyc) my savings account would get violated for sure.
This clip is Designer approved ✅

[eugene_kono]

Maaann.. the price.... the price... :C I'm from Ukraine, Euros are not cheap... Very frustrating when it comes to price.

[sermerlin]

Literally.... FIrst thing to upgrade should be pedal set with load cell THEN DD wheel. You won't benefit as much from a smooth instant response wheel as you will from a pressure braking.

[Maartwo]

For anyone living in third world shitholes like myself where DDs are not readily available and cost the same as an used car: try to see if you can upgrade your pedals instead. The benefits of a Load Cell pedal set vs potentiometer are greater than DDs.

[spacecalander]

Unless you do it for a living, it is not worth it to me