Reliability of LWFF and ACT Labs RS ?

I want to buy a FF wheel soon and by reading this NG I think I will buy either the LWFF or the ACTLabs RS. My questions: Has anybody experience about reliability of these wheels ? Does something go loose after heavy use or are the pots wearing ? Has anybody looked inside the wheel and can tell me if the pots are accessible and can be exchanged by hand ? (Do they even use standard pots in the wheel ?) I know, the big 'FF rush' started with the GPL 1.1 patch, so many of you won't be able to tell about reliability and servicing of FF wheels because you don't own 'em long enough, but who knows... Yes, before I forget: Has anybody info or links about the ACTLabs RS shifter ? I can't find much about it on the ACTLabs page. Will it be possible to use it as normal up/down shifter in games, which don't support it ? Maybe this thingy makes the decision for ACTLabs for me. Thanx for help ! Peter Vienna, Austria

The ACTLabs shifter has templates that make the original HH pattern look like your 4spd, 5spd, 6spd or sequential shift patterns (probably more choices too). Jason.

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> I want to buy a FF wheel soon and by reading this NG I think I will buy > either the LWFF or the ACTLabs RS. > Has anybody info or links about the ACTLabs RS shifter > ? I can't find much about it on the ACTLabs page. Will it be possible to use > it as normal up/down shifter in games, which don't support it ? Maybe this > thingy makes the decision for ACTLabs for me. > Thanx for help ! > Peter > Vienna, Austria

-------- Jason Monds "My other car is a Ferrari" http://members.home.net/gpl.mondsj/gpl - For my combined gas/brake setups (Please remove 'no extra spork' when replying)

Same here, used my LWFF every day since November with no problems. don [|]-(_)-[|] >>I want to buy a FF wheel soon and by reading this NG I think I will buy >>either the LWFF or the ACTLabs RS. >>My questions: Has anybody experience about reliability of these wheels ? >>Does something go loose after heavy use or are the pots wearing ? >Got my LWFF at the end of last year (when it was first released) and since then, >have used it almost every day. It is still as tight and accurate now as it was >the day I got it.

The biggest problem with both wheels seem to be the pedals. The ACTLabs pedals "stick" mechanically for most and there seems to be no fix. The Logitech FF wheel has pedals that many complain about as being too cheesy. I find that they are totally awesome for GPL is you separate the axis. IMHO you have to make sure you are using separate axis for gas/brake with whatever pedal you get. I have had my Logitech wheel for almost 2 months and use it quite often. So far so good! (knock on wood). -- Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes. cisko [AT] ix [DOT] netcom [DOT] com >I want to buy a FF wheel soon and by reading this NG I think I will buy >either the LWFF or the ACTLabs RS. >My questions: Has anybody experience about reliability of these wheels ? >Does something go loose after heavy use or are the pots wearing ? Has >anybody looked inside the wheel and can tell me if the pots are accessible >and can be exchanged by hand ? (Do they even use standard pots in the wheel >?) >I know, the big 'FF rush' started with the GPL 1.1 patch, so many of you >won't be able to tell about reliability and servicing of FF wheels because >you don't own 'em long enough, but who knows... >Yes, before I forget: Has anybody info or links about the ACTLabs RS shifter >? I can't find much about it on the ACTLabs page. Will it be possible to use >it as normal up/down shifter in games, which don't support it ? Maybe this >thingy makes the decision for ACTLabs for me. >Thanx for help ! >Peter >Vienna, Austria

I bought my LWFF about a month and a half ago, and being the curious person I am, I wasted no time in disassembling my new wheel just 3 hours after I bought it to see how the cable force feedback worked. Don't try this at home kids, it took me almost 7-8 hours and a lot of cursing to get the cable and gears back together in the right positions so that the wheel turned at the right angles, but what I did learn from it is that Logitech has really designed this wheel very well indeed. Even after all the aborted re-assemblies I did to it, once I finally got it back together the wheel has worked spotlessly since, with no looseness or anything, runs just as well as it did when I first opened the box. I also wired in my old T2 pedals in place of the stock LWFF pedals and am very happy with this wheel. I can't speak for the ACT Labs since I've never seen one (lucky for it since I would probably have to get a peek at the internals on that one too), but at least the LWFF is well built and stands up to abuse from idiots like me :-) And most importantly, it feels great in GPL. Seeyas on the track. --John (Joao) Silva

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>I want to buy a FF wheel soon and by reading this NG I think I will buy >either the LWFF or the ACTLabs RS. >My questions: Has anybody experience about reliability of these wheels ? >Does something go loose after heavy use or are the pots wearing ? Has >anybody looked inside the wheel and can tell me if the pots are accessible >and can be exchanged by hand ? (Do they even use standard pots in the wheel >?) >I know, the big 'FF rush' started with the GPL 1.1 patch, so many of you >won't be able to tell about reliability and servicing of FF wheels because >you don't own 'em long enough, but who knows... >Yes, before I forget: Has anybody info or links about the ACTLabs RS shifter >? I can't find much about it on the ACTLabs page. Will it be possible to use >it as normal up/down shifter in games, which don't support it ? Maybe this >thingy makes the decision for ACTLabs for me. >Thanx for help ! >Peter >Vienna, Austria