My new Forza wheel stand and seat.

Yesterday I made a complete setup for my enjoyment. The whole thing goes together and comes apart in about 2 minutes.
And it is very very stable. It's made out of pine and costs about $50 total.
Tips if you want to build one yourself: Pre drill all your screw holes. Check and double check to make sure everything's square.
Glue the whole thing together and wait a night before screwing and keep the kids away from it at all times in the drying phase.
Here are some pics.





PS anyone can do this. It is not hard. I am not normally handy with tools, but this I could manage. (some of the bits might not be pretty, but the things that matter most are square.

Ya need those GT stripes and maybe a candy pack paint job!

and where's the stubby holder!

luv the bit of foam under the brake pedal, Ive got two pieces stuffed under mine

RU

Nice setup! Why wait 24hrs after gluing before screwing? I generally glue and then screw it in right away, that way the screws hold it while the glue dries. If you let the glue dry and it's not 100% square, when the screws go in they might pull the glue apart. My thoughts anyway (but I'm no carpenter either). :-)

I second RU's query regarding the stubbie holder. I'm pretty sure that's compulsory (at least for Friday night racing).

I need to make something new since I ditched my old one when I moved state and I am really hating driving with the wheel on my lap. I want to make mine so I can sit on the couch and use it without having to lean forwards to reach the wheel.

Chris (OD)

I'll put a stubbie holder in asap lol (why is it we all forget about that)

And keeping the thing square was really hard. I'm sure that if I screwed it in something somewhere would have gone out.
Plus, with the added strength of the glue on the endgrain, the timber was less likely not to bite into the thread or split.
I'm not a carpenter, actually, I'm a bit of a hack so I'm glad it worked as well as it did lol

OctarineDream wrote:I want to make mine so I can sit on the couch and use it without having to lean forwards to reach the wheel.

Chris (OD)

My homemade wheelstand works perfectly from the couch and like crimson eagles only about $40 bucks and a bit of time. Pic below along with my crappy but still working Logitech DriveFX.

Yep, that's pretty well what I had in mind. Will be a bit diff of course since the MS wheel sits on a horizontal surface. Just drew up a plan in between races. Will work on it some more.

Chris (OD)

Can't wait until April when I get my fanatec and bolt it on. I'm hoping that it sits flat like the MS wheel. Does anyone know how it bolts on? Do you get the bolts and template with the wheel?
Should beat the living daylights out of the ms wheel. I am so sick of the random button presses that come at the most inconvenient time with the ms wheel. Also, looking forward to getting rid of the ms wheel on ebay. Most people are getting huge amounts of dollars for it second hand.

crimson eagle73 wrote:Can't wait until April when I get my fanatec and bolt it on. I'm hoping that it sits flat like the MS wheel. Does anyone know how it bolts on? Do you get the bolts and template with the wheel?
Should beat the living daylights out of the ms wheel. I am so sick of the random button presses that come at the most inconvenient time with the ms wheel. Also, looking forward to getting rid of the ms wheel on ebay. Most people are getting huge amounts of dollars for it second hand.

Hi mate,

The fanatec wheel has a flat base with a clamp. It also has 4 threaded inserts so the wheel can be bolted down.

There's a support page on the fanatec website that has the user manual and a drilling template for the GT2 wheel. I don't think they come with the wheel but you can download them Here
Make sure you print the drilling template at 100% print size.

The wheel base takes 6mm screws/bolts, length required will be determined by the thickness of the material you're bolting it to. I'm pretty sure you'll have to buy your own bolts to suit.

Would love to get the Fanatec, but my work future is up in the air as of 3 weeks from now, so definitely can't justify the outlay. The MS wheel did a great random button press last night in practice - simultaneously jumped down a gear and opened up the heuristics page to show my tyre temperatures.
erm... yeah, thanks MS...

Chris (OD)

Thanks for the pointers iWolf. Don't know about you but I'm all set for this baby. I'd want to be after dropping $800 on it lol. OD I hope your work situation gets better. Wonder why they haven't bothered doing a flash update for the ms wheel to fix some of these bugs.

crimson eagle73 wrote:Thanks for the pointers iWolf. Don't know about you but I'm all set for this baby. I'd want to be after dropping $800 on it lol.

No probs mate I thought you'd already found that part of the fanatec site, otherwise would've mentioned it earlier.

I'd like to have the wheel now too, and could bolt the fanatec to my existing stand.
Currently I'm on the third variation of my setup (some pics here) and am now using a "lowered" camp chair for a seat. But the chair is starting to break up due to the mods I made to it.
I'm trying to find time to build my new frame/seat, which is something I threatened to do about 12 months ago. Watch this space...

Have you thought about getting a second hand car seat and throwing a cover on it like mine? It's really comfortable and totally adjustable just like a real car. You just cant raise/lower it (also like a real car lol)
I got mine for free off the side of the highway near a camping spot but I'm sure they are out there at scrap metal places of not many dollars.

BTW stand looks really well done. Does the middle bit get in the way of the pedals though Esp with clubsports as you're prob going to use one foot for Acc/brake and one foot for clutch. Also where are you going to put the shifter. The side bars on the fanatec wobbles around a bit apparently. I was going to make something on the side of my seat to clamp it to depending on how long the cord it between the shifter and the wheel..

crimson eagle73 wrote:Have you thought about getting a second hand car seat and throwing a cover on it like mine? It's really comfortable and totally adjustable just like a real car. You just cant raise/lower it (also like a real car lol)
I got mine for free off the side of the highway near a camping spot but I'm sure they are out there at scrap metal places of not many dollars.

BTW stand looks really well done. Does the middle bit get in the way of the pedals though Esp with clubsports as you're prob going to use one foot for Acc/brake and one foot for clutch. Also where are you going to put the shifter. The side bars on the fanatec wobbles around a bit apparently. I was going to make something on the side of my seat to clamp it to depending on how long the cord it between the shifter and the wheel..

Mate a car seat is a good idea but I don't have room to keep a permanent race cockpit with a car seat in the room where I play (keeping the team boss happy). So I'm looking at something portable that I can at least partly fold up so it doesn't take up too much space.

My current setup works fine with the M$ 2 pedals, don't even notice the post is there, but it might cause problems with a 3 pedal system. The plan is to build a new stand from metal (aluminium and/or steel tube) but with the post coming from back near the seat so the pedal area is clear of obstructions. I bought a kart race seat to use in the new frame, but may go to a canvas hammock type seat which is similar to the camp chair style I'm using now.

Reckon I'll leave a decision about how to mount shifters until I've had a chance to try it out when the wheel arrives. If the standard mount is too wobbly maybe a special bracket could be made to mount the shifter to the wheel stand. Something like that should work with your setup as well.

My setup is not permanent. It pulls apart in about 2 minutes. The seat is bulky, but the kids love sitting on it to watch their tv shows. All I do is pull the wheel away leaving the seat and the base.

It's gotta be said, If your prepared to spend $800 on a wheel with pedals why wouldn you get a purpose built wheel stand to suit that folds up?

Because after spending said money, you have used up every brownie point from the significant other in your life, and usually they do not share your passion. So you have to be careful or you might find you and the wheel and the stand locked out of the house lol

Sleuth 101 wrote:It's gotta be said, If your prepared to spend $800 on a wheel with pedals why wouldn you get a purpose built wheel stand to suit that folds up?

Good question sleuth.

We all do things the way we want, as you can see from the various stands guys here and other places have built already. All of them are purpose built.

I want something purpose built as well. But I haven't seen anything in the market that combines adjustable wheel and pedal support and a seat, is reasonably compact, portable and can be easily folded with the wheel and pedals attached for storage when not in use. Those are my requirements, so I'm building my own
Currently in the design phase

As an owner of a Fanatec wheel (well former owner...have just sold it a matter of hours ago to Don Stylz)...i can say that such a wheel is great to own and use - but to get the most out of it you really need to get a cockpit of sought. They can provide a simpler, more compact design and in most instances (I imagine) that they would be more comfortable for those who desire doing an all-nighter on FM3/F1. And for those who are not tradesman....something that doesnt fall apart.