I'm guessing that adding bass shakers might muddy the waters to the delicate balance of these sensations? Also, are they particularly noisy for others in the room?
Like you, I am new to the subject of sim-racing tactile feedback and rig haptics, but unlike you I don’t have a TF wheel. I have just last week spent hours and hours researching the subject, partly because I’ve been very poorly and had little else to do during sleepless nights. The subject is vast, complex, and full of very opinionated stances. There are some classic, very-long forum threads around, running into thousands of posts on the subject, and some highly knowledgable contributors who seem to forget that not everyone has hundreds of pounds to spare, let alone thousands.
I have read more on this subject than most, and have merged what I’ve read with my RL racing experience and fast-jet engineering background, to come up with an affordable solution for my particular circumstances …costing around £200 for the rig-side kit, plus £220 for a Windoze laptop because I’m a Linux and Mac kinda guy. All the parts are on order and I should have everything working within the next few weeks. This is a very crude summary of my findings, conclusions and intentions, although I’m not going to know if it all works until I actually sit in it during operation for the first time…
Properly configured haptics on a sim-rig are more important to many than motion - so say those who have both, properly set up.
The best way to turn GT7 telemetry data/metrics into haptic feedback is to run SimHub (free or by donation) on a PC (a very basic W10/11 laptop will do) and connect it to an amp with an integral sound card, which then drives various transducers (these are like sub-woofer speakers without the cones). This allows complete control of every haptic element so that you can fine-tune your experience for your rig and preferences.
The best way to produce haptic feedback is by using a wide array of transducers including low frequency bass-shakers and higher frequency exciters, layered and combined to emit just the right vibrations in exactly the right places. But this can get incredibly expensive and time consuming, and involves diving down a rabbit hole of experimentation and, it would seem, loss of ability to keep it (life) real (no pun intended).
By far the best value entry-level transducer to use (if you are only going to fit one or two) is the Dayton Audio BST-1 which can be bought from the Netherlands for around £50 including tax and delivery (currently twice the price on Amazon). Two of these can be driven by a Nobsound NSG-1 Pro costing around £30 from fleebay. There are lots of YouTube videos showing how to fit just this sort of set-up.
If you own a good aluminium profile rig then any transducer bolted to any part of that rig will be felt in every part of the rig unless you take very careful steps to isolate each haptic zone. This is why strapping a bass-shaker to each corner of an 8020 rig is a really bad idea and largely a waste of time and money. It’s also a great way to annoy the household and neighbourhood, it would seem.
A much better solution is to define and isolate haptic zones where the targeted vibrations encounter your body e.g. the seat and the peddles (at a simple level), or the bottom of the seat, the back of the seat, the sides of the seat, the left peddle and the right peddle (at a more granular level). A good DD wheelbase should take care of the hand haptics although obviously a TrueForce wheel is going to be a bonus in this regard.
If the haptic zones are effectively isolated from the rest of the rig, it shouldn’t be necessary to do much else beyond sitting the rig's feet on rubber mats, but I have yet to test this conclusion. It is widely reported that a well constructed haptic solution can be almost completely silent to others within the household.
So for my first attempt at a rig with haptics, I have decided to run SimHub on a new laptop, feeding a Nobsound amp that drives two BST-1s in two zones: base of seat, and pedal base. I may or may not expand or change this over time, but this is my affordable way to test the water and see what I think.
My seat is a GT-Omega XL RS on a Trak Racer universal base, so I am going to isolate the seat immediately below the runners. Vibrational isolation requires a degree of flexibility, which is counter to the notion of zero flex in a sim-rig, which requires, so I have found, a great deal of thought and research into acoustic science. There are dozens of methods of vibrational damping out there, the most common being the rubber bobbin type. But without an in-depth understanding of the Shore scale and it’s various classes, and the manufacturer's max longitudinal sheer tolerances (if available), you are never going to know what bobbin type or size to use for the best.
Instead, I have opted to use rubber stand-off washers (I’ve ordered a range of heights and Shore ratings from flee-bay) with nylon shoulder washers and rubber washers below the bolt heads and nuts. The aim here is to be able to tighten the bolt to achieve maximum isolation with minimum flex, whilst maintaining zero contact between any metal component. I’ll let you know how I get on if anyone is interested.
I have ordered a 300mm x 400mm sheet of 3mm aluminium (about £15) on which to mount the seat transducer directly above the isolation mounts, completely out of sight. Thus the BST-1 will fire upwards into the seat base cushioning, vibrating through the entire seat frame, but will be isolated from the pivoting Trak Race base and the rest of the rig. That's the theory, at least.
My pedal set is a Fanatec CSL two-pedal set configured 'kart style' with a 150mm gap between the peddles …coincidentally exactly the right space for a BST-1 (I love it when a plan comes together). This sits on an industrial piece of heavy metal ironwork straight out of Telford, that is part of my Sim-Lab Eco cockpit. Again I want negligible flex but also, because I'm 6’2” with spine problems, I need to keep any height gain to a minimum. Thus I have ordered a 300mm x 300mm plate of 4mm aluminium onto which I will mount my peddle set, with a BST-1 between the peddles. This will all be raised onto 15mm standoff washers, again with shoulder washers and rubber washers, and an M8 bolt with which to tension everything to perfection. Again this is the theory - any flex should be negligible at worst.
Finally I will have the unenviable task of setting everything up and testing, probably spending endless hours sending the right frequencies to the right places at the right levels. The maxim here is 'less is more' in that there’s no point swamping the entire rig with a wall of vibrations. The trick, it would seem, is to be able to feel the engine gurgling through your seat on tickover; to feel the road surface throughout once you move off; to feel the kerbs as you kiss or mount them front or back; to feel the whack of the car that just hit you from behind; or the nudge into the bumper of the car in front; and to feel what the tyres are doing at the limits of grip and beyond, be that at the front or back of the car.
Beyond that I may or may not connect the SimHub outputs to a seat harness tensioner for deceleration, or a couple of fans for acceleration, or to individual peddle shakers. Who knows how far I’ll want to go once I get the basics sorted out.
Sorry; I had no intention of posting this long a reply, but now it’s written I might as well press the button. Feel free to comment or even disagree with me on any point …I’m on the same learning adventure as everyone else here 😁 …This Is The Way 😎
it works great 
