The TSW Speedshifter is the best gated shifter on the market, but for some applications the offset shift pattern may not be ideal. We offer custom shifters with a true H-pattern to satisfy those who prefer this type of shift pattern. This is a tricky one as i have long been a fan of thomas superwheel. the build quality is superb. the action is really smooth. i am sure that mine will still work in 20 years time. The one drawback is that it’s not force feedback. I now own a logitech momo aswell and i have to admit that the force feedback definitely adds to the realism. I still use the thomas pedals as they are many times better than the logitech ones. If you want to try before you buy, you’re welcome to try mine. I have a basic set for sale but it needs the usb upgrade. I believe lack of FF is a major drawback. But that opinion isn’t shared by the Thomas developers (and some other people) as they believe that force feedback is distracting. A more serious drawback is that the Thomas Wheel sometimes doesn’t work correctly with recent versions of Direct Input (the interface that LFS and most games use to get the position of the axes). The consequence is that the Thomas Wheel always works correctly with older games like GPL and N2003 which use the older Direct Input, but sometimes doesn’t work with LFS and some other new games, though that seems to depend on the computer or Windows version. I seem to remember some users solved this by doing some rewiring. Earlier this year I bought the TSW 6 speed H-Shifter. At nearly $400, I was hoping it would be the best shifter I could get on the market. The resistance was a bit weak in between the gears, and it wasn’t the prettiest shifter around. However, with it’s super simple design, all metal construction, it was very easy to mod and make it the perfect shifter, with the perfect resistance feel, and upgraded look. This is probably the most expensive and least documented shifter out there. After debating for some time, I decided to purchase one. It arrived today. I will try to document all details on the shifter for the benefit of anyone else who would like to learn more about it. Packaging Arrived in a relatively big heavy box. About 11lbs. The shifter and its accessories were tightly wrapped in paper. The package included: 1x Shifter fully assembled to order specs. 1x Mount 4x Nuts for mount 4x Washers for mount 1x USB cable 1x Instruction manual 1x Piece of black pained wood. – Neutral button switch There is a small switch that toggles the shifter in either pressing a 7th button when in neutral, or pressing nothing. This has to do with how some games recognize the shifter. – USB Plug & Play The shifter plugs with a USB cable directly into the PC. There are no drivers to install. Windows automatically recognizes the shifter and maps 8 buttons to it. 6 gears + 1 reverse + 1 optional neutral. – Mount The shifter can be mounted a number of ways, however some positions are limited by the external electronics housing box. Best way to mount the shifter is as advertised. However it is still quite easy to be creative and find other ways of mounting it. 4. Feel This is the probably the most important feature of any shifter. I’ll break it down. – Shifting Force Surprisingly the shift offers only slightly more resistance than the G25’s shifter when sliding it in gear. Very little force is required to move the shifter into the gates. Fanatec shifters on the other hand require much more force to put into gear. However, since it’s all metal, you can bang it around as much as you want and shift it as hard as you want! Even the manual says best way to shift is hard and fast! If you shift hard and fast, you don’t even notice that very little force is required to shift. In fact, it feels as if you’re really forcing the shifter into the gate. Feels almost the same as when you go to the arcade and bang around those shifters. Solid as a rock. There is also a certain mechanical feel to it, as if you’re shifting metal components internally. All of this is due to the ball detent mechanism of course, and even though it is quite simple, it still feels good. Overall, provides a very pleasant feel and gives you confidence in shifting. Update Turns out that if you tighten the nut on the bottom shaft it tightens the overall gate movement resistance. So you can actually adjust how easily you can throw the shifter into and out of gear. – Gates The gates are guided by a metal gate plate. There is a tiny bit of play in the gates, however nothing major, and certainly won’t cause you to miss any shifts (unlike the 3-4 slots of the G25 shifter.) The gears are also engaged quite early when shifting into the slot, so gear changes are quite fast. – Throw Even though the shifter sits taller, the throw is not long at all. It’s actually quite a normal throw. A bit longer than the G25’s shifter. About the same as a short shifter on a real car. I didn’t need much time to get used to it Feels quite natural. – Knob The knob is a bit small. It feels more like shifting a stick than a ball. The optional carbon style knob I ordered is actually smaller in diameter than the G25’s shifter knob, and also a bit smaller in diameter than the standard ball knob available. 5. Internals Everything inside the shifter is metal and can be seen by just looking under the shifter. The shifter housing has no bottom! The shifter works pretty much the same way most of the shifters on the market do. There is a ball detent mechanism that keeps it in gear, and two parallel springs that keep it centered. The gears are guided by a metal plate which is under the leather boot. Each gear is selected via button that has a long metal extension that is depressed when the shifter is in gear. There is grease on the internal components so I don’t advise to stick your fingers in there. …or any other appendages. 6. Modding So far I’m just taking guesses at what could be done to the shifter by looking at it. Not sure how much potential this shifter has for modding, but definitely looks easy to disassemble and reassemble. Given that all internals are exposed from underneath, you don’t really need to do much if you want to do stuff to it. – Knob It is not possible to mod this yourself. Choose carefully when ordering. The knob is attached via a very tight locking mechanism and TSW does not recommend taking it apart as the procedure is complicated. They will happily change it for you if you send back the shifter though. – Centering spring It looks quite possible to replace the centering springs with stiffer ones, or even shove something in them to make them stiffer. – Gear force Unfortunately, unlike the G25, I don’t see how it’s possible to mess with the ball detent mechanism to create more resistance. However, it is possible to tighten the nut on the pivot bolt to increase the overall resistance when moving the shifter in and out of gear. This would not only tighten the resistance of putting the shifter into gear, but also the resistance when taking it out of gear. 7. Value At nearly $400 this is an expensive accessory. You can easily accomplish the same tasks with many other shifters, even mod some of them to get them to your liking. However no other shifter is made out of all metal components. It also looks very maintainable in the long run, and appears that it should easily outlive any other peripheral you may own. Is it worth it? That depends on you. If you’re going for quality, you can find a million ways to justify the cost. If you’re not as serious about your sim racing gear, you’ll easily find just as many ways to not justify the cost. http://www.thomas-superwheel.com/shifters/gated-manual-shifters/custom-6-speed-tsw-h-shifter-detail High end one off sim gear is like looking at rare birds. stuff: My first contact with TSW was for an information request, as I was unsure wether they sold or not the digital wheel separately from the pedals (Their web configurator shows only the analog as basis for a separate wheel build), because I already have Fanatec Clubsport Pedals + tuning kit, so I didn’t really need any of those and it would increase shipping costs to Spain considerably. Dave Thomas Jr. replied quickly and informed me well, then everything lagged a bit while we exchanged some more mails regarding different options, until I settled for the TSW720. It seems they had plenty of work at the time and IIRC it was also E3 time, so I guess it’s normal. After placing my order at their web, I received my confirmation e-mail and despite the configurator showing other price, I was billed exactly what Dave said for shipping to Spain (The configurator gave a wrong pricing, for wheel plus pedals and only wheel is of course cheaper). I was lucky because they had a 720 almost finished and it shipped inmediately, but Dave told me that after that it would take some time until they produced another bunch of them (This all was March/April 2011). The shipping process itself took several weeks because I live in Spain, so the package had to go through customs etc., but came in the predicted day and I could follow it thanks to the tracking number. The wheel was very well wrapped and protected (Plus it’s solid as a german Tiger tank) so it had not even minor scratches after the long trip and worked flawlessly. In general, I would rate their sales service and communication with 9/10 Quote: Does the wheel and any buttons fitted to it show up as one usb controller device Yes they do, my wheel came with the paddles (two buttons), two more buttons on the wheel itself, and then 7 more in the console (An option I ordered) and shows as one controller. AFAIK it will still show as a single controller with up to 24 buttons if you order the full monty, pedals and all buttons, and my calibration page (Which is the generic from Windows, as there is no custom software/driver involved) seems to confirm that, as it shows three unused axis and lots more of unused buttons. In fact, if you have moderate skills you could easily plug more buttons yourself (Or more axis from a simple controller) directly to the TSW control board in the unused slots. Quote: How do you find the adjustability of the wheel and did you order any extra springs? The wheel is easily adjustable regarding lock to lock limit and springs. It comes with a kind of hood that you open after loosing two bolts (You can do this with your fingers, no need for tools) and then have direct access to springs and stops. Changing stops is a matter of seconds, you take the pin from one hole and drop it into another. The rotation each one allows is not marked there, but you can read in the printed instructions your receive that it is 300, 380, 450, 540, 630 and 720 degrees. I’m currently using 540, as this is what many real racing cars with quick steers have. What will be longer instead is the calibration process to the new limit, but again no more than a minute or so -and if you can adjust steering angle in your garage, you probably don’t even need that. Changing springs is also very easy, but since you need to operate with your fingers in a more small area (Chains and axis are around) it can take some seconds more. No big deal anyway, I guess you can change everything -lock, springs and calibrate- in less than two minutes. Yes, I ordered the extra springs as I feared the wheel might feel too soft with default ones (I like heavy steering). I have mixed feelings about that, first of all there is not a huge difference between many of the intermediate springs (Though it is quite noticeable between the softest and hardest) and you can even combine two of them, as they both act together instead of one for each side of wheel turn. This gives even more options to mix them for the perfect strength, but prevents f.e. having a strong one for left and a soft one for right turn, which could be quite interesting in ovals. Note that, in any case, getting similar springs custom made for you in the local store should be quite easy. Second, there is a problem with the wheel if you are using the stronger combinations, I’ll explain later when I comment how it’s using it. In any case, this wheel has also an amazing modding potential if you are interested in tinkering around. The straightforward and simple construction and design ensure that making changes to it is very easy, so you can f.e. bolt almost any aftermarket wheel you want with no need for adapters, you can add buttons, axis, (F.e. from Leo Bodnard) to the controller board and bolt them to the wheel chassis, etc, etc. Quote: Generally hows the build quality TSW is well know for building strong products, and deservedly so. I can’t imagine any way of breaking this thing (Electronics aside) except dropping it from at least a 5th floor. Unlike older wheels or pedals they have done (Which were very sturdy anyway) this one is made completely of steel, except the thin plastic front cover where you can see the TSW logo and the optional buttons go. Design-wise, the less appealing part is probably the default steering wheel, which is probably adequate for NASCAR and TRANSAM games, but feels out of place in anything modern like F1, Indycar, Sportscars, etc. (Not that I play much modern cars anyway). I did not order the optional MOMOs they offer (Which they do at a VERY competitive price -check and you will see that adding them to your order with paddles is much cheaper than buying them later or without paddles) because they seemed small to me and were of suede -which wears easily unless you use gloves. After using the wheel for some time I think I will end up using gloves anyway, because the paint in the paddles has started to wear out and show the metal. Other than that, paint, finish, etc. are adequate, though don’t expect almost invisible solderings in the wheel chassis -they are quite visible and clearly meant to reinforce the thing even more. As noted, the paint in the paddles wore out, as everything is coated externally, no paint mixed with metal. Probably adding some thin rubber cut in the same shape over it would both prevent the wear and make them more comfortable for your fingertips in long sessions. The only failiure I have had so far has been quite peculiar and very unusual according to Dave, and that was the controller board. For some reason we haven’t been able to explain, it died and refused to start all of a sudden when I started my computer. Dave guided me quickly through several tests to determine the possibel cause, and as it did not work he promptly sent me a replacement board (At no cost except shipping), which I bolted in 2 minutes and has been working perfectly since then. Quote: how do you find using the wheel I have been a long time simracer, so I have had a good amount of wheels, generally from low and mid ranges. Most have been without force feedback, and the last two, a Thrustmaster NASCAR and a black MOMO have had it. They both broke down miserably and by the time the last one did, I had been using almost only the spring effect in the FF, so the transition to the TSW was not difficult. However, at first it seemed light, actually too light until I got used and installed harder springs. The precision and smoothness in the weel are great, and so is its speed -you can really throw it and make quick, ample countersteer with no fear of ripping motors, belts or whatever. Its very pleasing to use, though I suspect it is even better for oval racing (Which is what TSW controllers were originally created IIRC) than for road use, as in ovals you will really take all the juice out of that precission, more so than on normal tracks. Taking the high banked turns and/or changing lanes at Daytona or Talladega with Nascar Racing 2003 and the TSW720 you can’t avoid thinking that you have some kind of unfair advantage over the competition, even if in the end it might not be so at all -as FF users might actually feel better the moment when the tyres let go. But as far as pleasure of driving goes, the TSW is in my opinion a fantastic wheel. As long as you understand what you are buying -no FF-, its weak and strong points, you will never be dissapointed an have a wheel that will last a lifetime. The only problem its use has, -I already hinted this- is that if you are using the stronger spring combinations and let the wheel spin freely, it will easily lose its calibration centre. It seems that the optical sensor is unable to cope with the speed that the strong spings can put on the wheel and jumps some steps, resulting in the wheel off-center. Of course, this will happen only if you have the wheel rotated more than 90� to a side and let it completely loose to spin freely -which no racing driver does- and it will not happen even if you let it spin freely rubbing against your palms during countersteer. But sometimes you spin and raise your hands in anger … only to find that you rejoin the track with the car pulling strongly to a side. Human nature, I guess http://www.thomas-superwheel.com/shifters/gated-manual-shifters/custom-6-speed-tsw-h-shifter-detail https://www.fanatec.com/us-en/shifters/clubsport-shifter-sq-us.html http://www.derekspearedesigns.com/2015-dsd-pro-sequential.html https://www.motionsys.it/product/motionsys-sequential-shifter-rally/ http://www.manu-factory.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24&Itemid=20 http://www.arc-team.it/en/ http://www.frex.com/gp/shifter/ http://frex.xsrv.jp/gpshop/catalog/default.php?cPath=1_23&sort=2a&page=1&language=en