Just do yourself a favor and get $20 electric screwdriver and some metric hex bits. It cuts assembly time by 2/3 at least. But yeah it took me about that long including a couple of revisions to get stuff positioned correctly.
Well you will do the whole assembly in like 2 or 3 hours if you're doing it alone, and after that it's just constant adjusting until you find the right spot.
I researched a lot for the right sitting position before starting because of my lower back problems, but even after all that you still need to change stuff because everyone's body is different from others.
But don't be discouraged my good sir it's really fun to do all of that and really rewarding when you get it right.
Itās a pain in the ass, but a fulfilling challenge that is one of the key dimensions of the hobby. Dialing in and adding / modifying the rig is very satisfying when you finally get it right.
In my experience every time anything moves, everything gets reevaluated where they are placed. Itās not as daunting as it all sounds, and I rather enjoy the tweaks to get more comfortable or more immersed. First time assembly took a few hours, but it kind of helps you understand everythingās purpose. Good luck and try and enjoy it along the way.
If you mean seats with adjustable back support, no they don't i think most of the seats available in the market use the same mounting points. If the seat has sliders underneath it's even easier to find your preferred position.
Don't over think it too much when you get your stuff you'll know what to do, even if you're puzzled about something at that point you know where to ask for helpš
One of the best investments on my TR80 LITE was the Universal Seat Brackets for Recline Seats and Office Chairs. Iām 6ā1ā, and found that with that on top of the seat slider allowed me excellent adjustability as well as seat height. Seat height is kind of on the lower end without the additional bracket. Also consider the pedal plate slider if u truly want the maximum adjustability. The rig it basically designed to be static. These 2 options will give you more flexibility and allow you more options to fine tune your seating/ pedal positions.
So I started with the Trak Racer GT style seat and mounting bracket with sliders.. if you're young and pliable it's not a horrible seat but there are better bucket seats for the money. The GT style seat does have some flex which I think exacerbated my back pain.
After a second Momo bucket seat I ended up with a Mercedes junkyard seat on my first go round..
Personally I highly recommend considering a junkyard seat but if you really want a bucket try and find someplace you can sit in them before you buy them to see if they are comfortable for you or not.. everyone's body's a bit different so some seats fit some people better than others.
I don't have a Trak racer seat but the recliner ones on the website look fairly similar to what i have and i have mounted mine only using the slider directly to the rig.
You have to insert the T nuts and align everything before the screws go in. Once one side is in it can be a pain to get the other sideās T-nuts lined up. Then letās say you need to re-align that piece, have to unscrew everything and and sort of take the weight off of it to get the T-nuts to slide in the tracks. Itās a pain. I probably did mine faster than 7 hours but like other have said Iāve spent more hours than I can count re-adjusting to get better ergonomics.
It's just a bunch of hardware in bags with metal struts. Each connection of two metal struts is minimum 4 screws with 4 t nuts and probably 4 washers, plus brackets. There are probably at least 16 of those intersections, so you're at 250 pieces of hardware immediately. Then you have to align it all and set it up for your body.
The benefit of extruded aluminum is that it is very customizable, rigid, and cheap because the parts are so standardized. The downside is that there is a lot of adjustment.
The actual assembly, probably not unless you're really slow..
However I'd seriously google "ricmotech seating position" and read that document thoroughly.
I had so many problems getting comfortable and having neck and back pains until I read that and followed their setup exactly. Now I can race almost pain free. It was super helpful to me, hopefully it might help you or someone else out.
Back pain plagued me for months until I followed that doc exactly turns out seat height is more important that I thought.. anyway enjoy man it's a fun hobby once everything is dialed in.
Yeah nothing worse than a T nut that decides to roll in the slot.
Or getting it in just the right position when you have 3 out of 4 nuts already screwed in so you need a screwdriver to slide it down and position it just right behind a bracket. My back and knees hurt just thinking about it.
I own this. Took me 8 hours because I took my sweet time and made sure everything lined up precisely. I highly recommend using a metric tape measure and combination square -- even if in the USA.
I work with 8020 a lot. 7 hours is normal for folks with zero experience. Takes me around one hour total to assemble things after getting them unpacked normally and catalogued.
Mate, it all depends on how good you are with a drill/screwdriver for the basic assembly. Everyone else saying āyouāll be adjusting foreverā is right. Itās just common sense. Every time you get in your sim rig to race youāll adjust it somehow, whether itās the distance from your pedals or the height of your wheel, itās human nature.
Youāll have it up and running in about 4 hours with everything connected and attached (wheel, pedals, seat, screen, pc, ect.)
The website may say 7 hours, that doesnāt mean itāll take that long, itās just an estimate.
If itās too hard for ya, send it my way bro.
My dad can for sure help me! Hes a pro with drills and screwdrivers, and is reclining seat enough adjusting or do i gotta like move the whole seat too dude
Iād say youāll need a proper seat not just your run of the mill computer chair, these setups are like a real car dude, the seat sits on rails, reclining seats arenāt really made for this setup.
Cmon man seriously, if itās the same company as the sim rig, why wouldnāt it work? š¤£ All the info youāre looking for is right there on the website Iām sure.
ChatGPT is flawed as my bro, I wouldnāt trust it too much man. If youāre asking a website all your questions and not figuring it out for yourself by simply reading instructions or just having a go, I seriously worry for ya buddy š
Add seat sliders and as previously mentioned- Universal Seat Brackets for Recline Seats and Office Chairs. This will give you height and tilt adjustment.
Took me 5.5hrs to assemble to T160S (basically the same thing but thicker). It will go a LOT faster if you have the appropriate sized allen key drill bits so you don't have to manually crank them as the back forward will take a lot of time.
Positioning things for your exact preference can take about an hour or so to get it to like 95% of your liking. The last 5% comes with time and small tweaks.
For your first time building one? Yeah maybe. Especially if you want it wire managed nicely. The chassis itself, I can build those in under an hour now, first one maybe took me 2 hours (don't recall the brand, but the instructions weren't great, and possibly out of date with revisions to their product)
I have the TR160S. It was my first ever rig, so it took me like 9 hours over 3 days. But I also have the integrated Monitor mount, which also took some time and a second person to hold all the stuff while you are screwing and tightening everything.
In general a second person helps alot!! Thanks to my dad for helping me :-)
For example I had a midrange base, bought SC2 Pro, that means another montage session, added monitor bracket, a few times put the gear lever part and removed, maybe a dozen times I adjusted for ergonomics, nowadays I dont do anything but it really takes long time to make it perfect. I do endurance races and all it must be good or else it can cause injuries or long lasting pain. And this is exactly why I never recommend non alu profile rigs because adjustability is unlimited on these. But yeah it takes time to find perfection.
granted i had a fever while i put mine together, but i started at 11am when i was putting mine together, and didnt finish reconnecting the seat and wheel and all that until about 3am. a lot of that time comes from micro adjustments and making sure things are even on both side. taking the extra time is worth it though
If you are just gonna go Huh haH and tighten evrything down somehow, you will be done in 2h. If you are gonna make evrything sqaure, install the seat brackets perfectly, tighten the bolts with preload and then checking evrything-> Yes
Get an hour into building, realize something a few steps back is on backwards, undo everything
Get another few hours in and I just canāt find the one screw I need. Fuck it, Iāll use something else close enough
More backwards parts, but eventually the whole thing is assembled. Sit down and realize you forgot to attach the seat to the thing.
Get that fixed, everything should be fine now finally! You boot up the game, you get a race going and realize āI need to disassemble the whole bottom half because I forgot to plug the fucking pedals inā
My initial assembly was 36 hours of blood, sweat and tears. I like everything to be level. Like everyone said you keep adjusting things until it fits you like a glove which might take 2-10 years š
That's what keeps me from buying this, not to mention the 14 boxes you get, I'm just not trying to sit for 15 hours building shit, an hour or 2 fine, naw fuck that, I aint trying to be in pain while building a racing rig, the fuck is that? No, no, no. It'll cost me a chiropractor and a knee surgery, but hey, at least I got the immersion lol no.
With good tools and familiarity with aluminium profiles this could take 1 hour. Average Joe with an Allen key maybe 2-4. Really depends on how particular you are with the positioning and cable management.
Idk how well the trak racer things are packaged, i bought the aluminium my self and evry piece (i had like 40 aluminium bars because i made a really customizable cockpit) had come with a sort of a foil that wasnt that easy to peel of. So unboxing evrything and laying evrything out and chamfering the edges took me 2h...
the tools you need should come with it, but just to be safe make sure you have a set of pliers as well, always good to have something to hold other bits in place while tightening bolts
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u/IsbellDL 21h ago
Basic assembly, no. Getting everything positioned just right, probably closer to 70 hours. You'll be tweaking things for the rest of your life.