CHEAP Cockpit Alternatives ONLY

[Stanley^Carter]

Thats a mighty fine wheel you got there! 👍 But the shifter is on the wrong side.

LOL!

 

[MasterGT]

There are a lot of interesting ideas in your design, Any Man, but having the dead-pedal so far away from the brake pedal is a problem. I will study this on carefully. 💡

Cheers,

MasterGT

 

[Vince247]

full size

the quality isnt so nice from the pc screen , so ordered an s-video cable.
for the rest it wasnt that expensive, the wood was in my barn, the crt screen was already in my room. only the dfp cost me €100
its 60 cm high, 60 cm wide, 60 cm deep. This was done because i wanted a nice cockpit that wouldnt take to much space.

If you are interested in it, pm me for more information.

 

[Kris Radke]

There are a lot of interesting ideas in your design, Any Man, but having the dead-pedal so far away from the brake pedal is a problem. I will study this on carefully. 💡

Cheers,

MasterGT

Sorry, while in theory, you can drive much better with a two foot method, I chose not to do this. My pedals are spaced just about as comfortably as possible apart, as I chose to be comfortable while in my gameroom, unlike when I am crammed into my corvette actually racing. I knew that I would probably never be in a position to brake with my left foot in real life, therefore I didn't want to start that "bad" habit in my "real driving simulator".

I am brainstorming an adjustable footpedal design composed of structural framing aluminum, which would be much less bulky than the 2*4's currently used. I will post some pics and send you a personal message when that time comes, if ever.

thanks for looking.

 

[seizure_]

Sorry, while in theory, you can drive much better with a two foot method, I chose not to do this. My pedals are spaced just about as comfortably as possible apart, as I chose to be comfortable while in my gameroom, unlike when I am crammed into my corvette actually racing. I knew that I would probably never be in a position to brake with my left foot in real life, therefore I didn't want to start that "bad" habit in my "real driving simulator".

I am brainstorming an adjustable footpedal design composed of structural framing aluminum, which would be much less bulky than the 2*4's currently used. I will post some pics and send you a personal message when that time comes, if ever.

thanks for looking.

i'm trying to prevent using my left foot for braking as well. Now, if only I'm able to control my left foot for braking while driving in real-life

 

[MasterGT]

I play racing games much more than I drive a real car and I don't have problems using the two braking methods, but to each their own.

Getting the pedals supported properly is difficult, so I would be very interested in what you design.

Cheers,

MasterGT

 

[TSR53]

I read all the pages in this thread and just couldn't take it any longer .

In-progess low cost cockpit and seat. I plan to paint and decorate in proper Audi Sport fashion. I have a Porsche Cup 1 rim left over from my Audi S4 and a front drivers fender, should be kewl.

- Audi 200 leather 8-way adjustable heated RECARO Sport seat (1990 version, FREE)
- 1 EVO magazine ($8 bucks)
- Driving shoes (Christmas present last year)
- Spare wood around the house
- DFP (Christmas present this year )
- Porsche Cup 1 rim (FREE - thanks Tire Rack!)
- 255/40-17 Kuhmo tire (FREE)
- Audi 100CS 1992 front fender (FREE)

 

[MasterGT]

I just had an idea... Has anyone used an exercise machine, or something similar, to make a wheel stand out of it?

 

[godzilla_GTR]

lol that would be awsome!

 

[PyroZona]

Ok, so I looked around for ideas on how to build one myself. Saw a couple on eBay, a few in different forums...none of which I really felt would be stable enough, yet light and not so bulky. The prices were a bit higher than I'd pay for what was offered, as well. So then I'm in my local Home Depot one day, just cruisin down one of the aisles, and something caught my eye - BLACK PVC TUBING!! 💡 Honestly, it took me all of about 15 minutes of playing with pipe sizes and the available couplers whilst sitting on the floor of Home Depot to figure out what I needed to purchase in order to build my cockpit/stand...and less than $35 US for the black PVC parts I chose, a can of PVC glue and a ratcheting PVC pipe cutting tool!

Got home, sat down in my black recliner (yes, it's falling apart a bit, but makes a great driving seat when one shoe is stuck under the front of it and one under the back, to secure it at whatever tilt angle I want instead of rocking back and forth) and started my build-on-the-fly, if you will. Nice part about PVC is that you can test fit everything together and make sure you have exactly what you want before cementing it all together permanently. Then I found a small piece of counter-top material out in my garage and screwed it to the top of the stand for a place to mount my DFP. Almost perfect, but while I was cementing it all together, I decided to not use cement on the 90 degree elbows that determine the height the wheel sits above the chair/couch that you're sitting on (you'll see hose clamps on the 90 degree elbows that are just outside my thighs when using this stand), so that I could always adjust the height of where the wheel sits above my lap. VOILA!!

Here's my finished product, complete with stick-on cable keepers to prevent connecting cables from getting tangled up on the pedals or your legs while racing:

Very stable, adjustable, easy to store and not too tough on the eyes. 👍

I impressed myself with this one!

 

[TheCracker]

That's a great idea PyroZona 👍 - do you find it stable enough?

 

[PyroZona]

Absolutely! But even if I didn't, I can always fill the legs that sit on the floor with sand or even cement if needed. The rubber caps on the 4 legs of it really help it stay in place.

 

[MasterGT]

PVC is a great stand building material and you certainly are not the first to discover this. I've seen some very elaborate stands made out of it. It is strong and light, looks good (or paint it) and flexible (in design).

Here is just one.

Cheers,

MasterGT

 

[MasterGT]

PyroZona:

You can drill holes in the PVC to feed cables through them, plus you can fill the plastic tubes with dry sand or clean garden gravel, to give the base some weight and dampen the wheel shaking (um, missed you understand that, too...).

Cheers,

MasterGT

 

[PyroZona]

Hi MasterGT,

Thanks for the ideas, but I can't run the cables through the PVC (I wanted to, though) due to the fact that doing so would pretty much attach the pedal unit to it, via the cable going to it. Didn't want to do that, wanted to be able to have the pedal unit easily store-able. I also didn't wanna have the big Logitech A/C power plug "box" thing dangling from the stand. Much easier to just unplug the power wire from the wheel and tuck it under my couch when not in use. Although, I'm now thinking about running the USB cable through the PVC. Guess I didn't remember that the USB cable could be routed through the inside when I was scrapping the idea of running the other 2 wires through it.

Thanks for reminding me of the idea!

 

[MasterGT]

Actually, you could probably still run cables through your plastic pipe and make them all detachable at the same time. All you would have to do is wire both ends with the proper extension wires and connectors, then you could just "unplug" wires when you put the stand away.

Cheers,

MasterGT

 

[Vince247]

look here

its a nice site!

btw does anybody know where to find a cheap car seat? the seat you can see in my cockpit belongs to my bro, and he wants it back, so im looking for a car seat.

thanks

 

[TheCracker]

look here

its a nice site!

btw does anybody know where to find a cheap car seat? the seat you can see in my cockpit belongs to my bro, and he wants it back, so im looking for a car seat.

thanks

Like it says in the link you posted - a scrap yard is by far the best place to find a cheap car seat.

 

[Vince247]

Like it says in the link you posted - a scrap yard is by far the best place to find a cheap car seat.

yea, i know, it just happens to be that the scrap yard isn't in the neighborhood.
And, ive already put 170 euro's (220 bucks) in my cockpit. so I dont want to put to much money in a train ticket, going to a scrap yard pretty far away, and coming home without a car seat.

but, I lately discovered a second hand shop nearby. they had some nice leather chairs.(30€/35$) so I'll have a look there tomorrow.
will post pics later.

 

[kawi29]

Im in the middle of designing my cockpit but i need some help making a seat out of wood. My cockpit is the style of on F1 car so your are pretty much lying on the ground. Any ideas or pics would b great. Ill try and post some pics of my design.

 

[kawi29]

How do i aedd pictures to my reply

 

[Vince247]

How do i aedd pictures to my reply

edit > attachments(button right above the remove link button)

 

[kawi29]

I can't upload them. I used google sketchart and it wont let me upload them and i cant change the picture to jpeg or whatever i need to to upload it

 

[Vince247]

have you tried to do a printscreen?

it's simple: look in google sketchup/art at what you want to post, press printscreen, open paint, press ctrl + v. save it as .jpg and youre done!

 

[kawi29]

Here is my first attemped at making a cockpit. Let me know what you guys think. Any ideas to make it better or inprove it are more then welcome. Im not sure yet how im going to attach the pedals or the shifter. I like the pedals were they are i think. I also nedd ideas on a seat that i could use. Im not totally done yet sone any ideas would help. I also need to some how make the pedal lengths adjustable so my son can use it to. Thanks

 

[Vince247]

Here is my first attemped at making a cockpit. Let me know what you guys think. Any ideas to make it better or inprove it are more then welcome. Im not sure yet how im going to attach the pedals or the shifter. I like the pedals were they are i think. I also nedd ideas on a seat that i could use. Im not totally done yet sone any ideas would help. I also need to some how make the pedal lengths adjustable so my son can use it to. Thanks

it looks a little bit big to me. try to make it a little smaller on the sides, and paint it.💡 I would also suggest to have a look through this thread if you haven't done so. there are a lot of ingeneous cockpits in this thread, so it's really worth the time reading!

 

[kawi29]

what sides should be smaller

 

[Vince247]

what sides should be smaller

left and right from the wheel. have you found a chair yet? and maybe add a place to put a cup in or somtin, we all need a drink sometimes

 

[TheCracker]

yea, i know, it just happens to be that the scrap yard isn't in the neighborhood.
And, ive already put 170 euro's (220 bucks) in my cockpit. so I dont want to put to much money in a train ticket, going to a scrap yard pretty far away, and coming home without a car seat.

but, I lately discovered a second hand shop nearby. they had some nice leather chairs.(30€/35$) so I'll have a look there tomorrow.
will post pics later.

If transport is an issue, have you tried ebay? - i'm sure you could get something decent delivered for $35.

 

[articzap]

Cheap!