HUM24H
Godspeed
Welcome all to my thread on the Heusinkveld Engineering Pro Sim Pedals, now some of you may remember my post I did on a brake mod for the Fanatec Clubsport V2 Pedals which I loved at the time but it wasn't enough for me so in the end I decided to sell them and save up for the Heusinkveld Engineering Pro Sim Pedals.
Firstly let's get the cost out of the way, these pedals are €719.00 (£570.00) for the 3 Pedal Set and €599.00 (£480.00) for the 2 Pedal Set. Now this does not include shipping, the cost of shipping to the UK using Netherlands Postal Service was around €24 (£19) and once in the UK the package switches to a UK National Courier (Yodel in my case). So overall the cost is around £600.00 depending on currency exchange which is a lot of money to spend on sim racing pedals but then this is a lot of pedals for the money, so I would say the cost is justified because of the amount of work, engineering and R&D that has gone into these pedals.
So now that we have gone over the costs, let's now take a look at each pedal and talk about each pedal.
Throttle:
The throttle is a very well machined pedal, as with all pedals in this set it consists of two pieces of Stainless Steel which is held together with 6 Bolts & Washers to give it a strength. You can see a Blue Polyurethane Bumper which is the stopper for the pedal, Neil's started using this type of bumper as the stopper to prevent wear on it allowing it to last a lot longer than the previous version that Neil's was using.This can be adjusted by unlocking the two M6 Bolts that hold it in place and moving it forward or backwards in the slot. The spring used on the throttle is a good sized spring with good coil thickness, there are two nuts that can be used to increase or decrease the preload of the spring. The best part about the throttle for me is the smoothness, it has no catchy feel or notchiness, the pedal travel is smooth allowing for easy modulation and also allows you to be gentle with it so that you don't spin the tires. Also on all pedals you can adjust the angle of the pedals forward by unlocking the M6 Bolts located on the rear feet of the pedals and sliding the pedal through the slot, this is extremely useful if you are going to invert the pedals as it means you can achieve the angle needed for inverted pedals.
Brake:
The brake pedal is similar in construction to all the other pedals in this set but as you can see Neil's has reinforced this pedal a lot more than the Throttle or the Clutch, we still have two pieces of Stainless Steel but the two pieces are held and reinforced by 10 Bolts which is because this pedal can take forces up to 60kg, so the pivot part of the pedal needs to be reinforced to hold that weight to ensure it does not flex under the load.We can also the Blue Polyurethane Bumper but it is not adjustable on the Brake Pedal mainly because if there was a slot there then the bumper would get moved when subjected to near 60kg of force. Now the rear of the pedal is where we find that Mavin 60kg Load Cell which is held in place in two parts, the first part is in the main body of the pedal which you can see the slot for just next to the rear feet and the second part if held in place by a separate body from the pedals which consists of two pieces of Stainless Steel. The reason we have the separate body is because the way the mechanism work, it works when you press the pedal you push down on a bolt behind the main shaft which pushes on the load cell and then the whole back piece pivots. Adjusting the feel of the brake is easy, all you need to do is pull back on the main shaft and it will be released from its slot on the back and from here you just remove or add bumpers that you need. You are able to have a nice compression feel as I have setup here or get it to be really stiff like an F1 Pedal. Overall I really enjoy the brake pedal feel, it is hard at first because of the amount of pressure that it requires and can take but honestly keep working out and you will be rewarded, it is a great feeling and great performing brake pedal.
Clutch:
The clutch is very similar in terms of construction so I won't repeat myself, it also has the same bumper which is easily adjustable by unlocking the two M6 Bolts and moving the bumper in the slot. The real difference is the mechanism it uses, the way Neil's has designed the mechanism used in the clutch is very good. You can see that the spring and the mechanism are pretty level with a slight downwards angle, once you press the pedal the mechanism starts to pivot up and you get to a point where the whole mechanism springs up. Now the point between in extending up fully and just about to feels actually quite good, it feels just like the bite point you would find we pressing in the clutch in a car and once you release the clutch the whole mechanism springs back with some force like the clutch in a car. So overall the clutch feel here is really good and Neil's has done a great job in developing this mechanism.
Controller:
To get all this pedals connected to your computer, Heusinkveld provide a custom 12-Bit Controller which is used to connect all 3 pedals and then it sends the signal out via a standard A-B Type USB Cable. Connecting the pedals to the controller board is done via a RJ Network Style Connector, this provides a nice clean installation of cables. There is also pin outs on the top of the controller board to which you can connect Buttons and Encoders if you want to have a custom Button Box then you can route the connectors for it to this controller board.
Mounted (Modified GT Omega Wheel Stand):
Right we have talked enough of the pedals, this is what they look like installed on my GT Omega Wheel Stand. Now as you can tell they are not mounted on the original Pedal Plate, the reason for this is the original Pedal Plate was angled and also it was not strong enough. Removing the original Pedal Plate took abour 30-60 minutes, all I used was a Dremmel and a Cutting Wheel, once I had cut the small front welds the plate was able to pivot on the rear welds and then snap off. Now this new pedal plate which I made consist of 15mm MDF Boards which are held with 4 M6 Bolts in the main chassis of the wheel stand. Then on top of the MDF Boards I have placed 2 sheets of 2mm Stainless Steel (370mm x 500mm) and then the Pedals are mounted through both the Stainless Steel Sheets and the MDF Boards to provide a very solid platform which I recommend you have if you intend on getting these pedals.
Final Thoughts:
If you have made it this far I congratulate you and thank you for reading the whole thread, it has taken some time to write this out but I wanted to show everyone these Pedals and how I managed to mount them to the GT Omega Wheel Stand to which I hope this inspires more people to get into DIY'ing/Modding as it opens a lot more doors and possibilities. Now my final thoughts on these pedals, I honestly love them and I obviously I would as I spent so much on them but if we put costs aside the way these pedals feel is what matters to me, I have gone from a Logitech Driving Force GT to a Thrustamaster F430 to a Fanatec GT3 RS to a Thrustmaster TX and then a TX Wheel with these pedals. So I have traveled very far in my Sim Racing world to get to this point, throughout my journey I have learnt exactly what I want from a sim racing setup and what I want is: a solid Cockpit, it doesn't need to be the best or expensive. A responsive and fast wheel with a smooth set of pedals and a stiff brake. I have now reached that point and I love it.
Always remember that it doesn't matter how much you spend on Sim Racing, make sure you are comfortable and happy with whatever you decide to buy. Just because you buy a set of £600 does not mean you will be faster but in some case (Like Me) you will be faster but only because it suits me meaning i'm more comfortable when racing. Also decide whether you are a Sim Racer (someone who wants to shave of every millisecond) or a Sim Driver (someone looking for the best realistic/immersive setup), for me I know that I am a Sim Racer but you could be different.
Thank you all for reading this and I hope you all enjoyed it, please leave your opinions and comments below.
Godspeed!
Firstly let's get the cost out of the way, these pedals are €719.00 (£570.00) for the 3 Pedal Set and €599.00 (£480.00) for the 2 Pedal Set. Now this does not include shipping, the cost of shipping to the UK using Netherlands Postal Service was around €24 (£19) and once in the UK the package switches to a UK National Courier (Yodel in my case). So overall the cost is around £600.00 depending on currency exchange which is a lot of money to spend on sim racing pedals but then this is a lot of pedals for the money, so I would say the cost is justified because of the amount of work, engineering and R&D that has gone into these pedals.
So now that we have gone over the costs, let's now take a look at each pedal and talk about each pedal.
Throttle:
The throttle is a very well machined pedal, as with all pedals in this set it consists of two pieces of Stainless Steel which is held together with 6 Bolts & Washers to give it a strength. You can see a Blue Polyurethane Bumper which is the stopper for the pedal, Neil's started using this type of bumper as the stopper to prevent wear on it allowing it to last a lot longer than the previous version that Neil's was using.This can be adjusted by unlocking the two M6 Bolts that hold it in place and moving it forward or backwards in the slot. The spring used on the throttle is a good sized spring with good coil thickness, there are two nuts that can be used to increase or decrease the preload of the spring. The best part about the throttle for me is the smoothness, it has no catchy feel or notchiness, the pedal travel is smooth allowing for easy modulation and also allows you to be gentle with it so that you don't spin the tires. Also on all pedals you can adjust the angle of the pedals forward by unlocking the M6 Bolts located on the rear feet of the pedals and sliding the pedal through the slot, this is extremely useful if you are going to invert the pedals as it means you can achieve the angle needed for inverted pedals.
Brake:
The brake pedal is similar in construction to all the other pedals in this set but as you can see Neil's has reinforced this pedal a lot more than the Throttle or the Clutch, we still have two pieces of Stainless Steel but the two pieces are held and reinforced by 10 Bolts which is because this pedal can take forces up to 60kg, so the pivot part of the pedal needs to be reinforced to hold that weight to ensure it does not flex under the load.We can also the Blue Polyurethane Bumper but it is not adjustable on the Brake Pedal mainly because if there was a slot there then the bumper would get moved when subjected to near 60kg of force. Now the rear of the pedal is where we find that Mavin 60kg Load Cell which is held in place in two parts, the first part is in the main body of the pedal which you can see the slot for just next to the rear feet and the second part if held in place by a separate body from the pedals which consists of two pieces of Stainless Steel. The reason we have the separate body is because the way the mechanism work, it works when you press the pedal you push down on a bolt behind the main shaft which pushes on the load cell and then the whole back piece pivots. Adjusting the feel of the brake is easy, all you need to do is pull back on the main shaft and it will be released from its slot on the back and from here you just remove or add bumpers that you need. You are able to have a nice compression feel as I have setup here or get it to be really stiff like an F1 Pedal. Overall I really enjoy the brake pedal feel, it is hard at first because of the amount of pressure that it requires and can take but honestly keep working out and you will be rewarded, it is a great feeling and great performing brake pedal.
Clutch:
The clutch is very similar in terms of construction so I won't repeat myself, it also has the same bumper which is easily adjustable by unlocking the two M6 Bolts and moving the bumper in the slot. The real difference is the mechanism it uses, the way Neil's has designed the mechanism used in the clutch is very good. You can see that the spring and the mechanism are pretty level with a slight downwards angle, once you press the pedal the mechanism starts to pivot up and you get to a point where the whole mechanism springs up. Now the point between in extending up fully and just about to feels actually quite good, it feels just like the bite point you would find we pressing in the clutch in a car and once you release the clutch the whole mechanism springs back with some force like the clutch in a car. So overall the clutch feel here is really good and Neil's has done a great job in developing this mechanism.
Controller:
To get all this pedals connected to your computer, Heusinkveld provide a custom 12-Bit Controller which is used to connect all 3 pedals and then it sends the signal out via a standard A-B Type USB Cable. Connecting the pedals to the controller board is done via a RJ Network Style Connector, this provides a nice clean installation of cables. There is also pin outs on the top of the controller board to which you can connect Buttons and Encoders if you want to have a custom Button Box then you can route the connectors for it to this controller board.
Mounted (Modified GT Omega Wheel Stand):
Right we have talked enough of the pedals, this is what they look like installed on my GT Omega Wheel Stand. Now as you can tell they are not mounted on the original Pedal Plate, the reason for this is the original Pedal Plate was angled and also it was not strong enough. Removing the original Pedal Plate took abour 30-60 minutes, all I used was a Dremmel and a Cutting Wheel, once I had cut the small front welds the plate was able to pivot on the rear welds and then snap off. Now this new pedal plate which I made consist of 15mm MDF Boards which are held with 4 M6 Bolts in the main chassis of the wheel stand. Then on top of the MDF Boards I have placed 2 sheets of 2mm Stainless Steel (370mm x 500mm) and then the Pedals are mounted through both the Stainless Steel Sheets and the MDF Boards to provide a very solid platform which I recommend you have if you intend on getting these pedals.
Final Thoughts:
If you have made it this far I congratulate you and thank you for reading the whole thread, it has taken some time to write this out but I wanted to show everyone these Pedals and how I managed to mount them to the GT Omega Wheel Stand to which I hope this inspires more people to get into DIY'ing/Modding as it opens a lot more doors and possibilities. Now my final thoughts on these pedals, I honestly love them and I obviously I would as I spent so much on them but if we put costs aside the way these pedals feel is what matters to me, I have gone from a Logitech Driving Force GT to a Thrustamaster F430 to a Fanatec GT3 RS to a Thrustmaster TX and then a TX Wheel with these pedals. So I have traveled very far in my Sim Racing world to get to this point, throughout my journey I have learnt exactly what I want from a sim racing setup and what I want is: a solid Cockpit, it doesn't need to be the best or expensive. A responsive and fast wheel with a smooth set of pedals and a stiff brake. I have now reached that point and I love it.
Always remember that it doesn't matter how much you spend on Sim Racing, make sure you are comfortable and happy with whatever you decide to buy. Just because you buy a set of £600 does not mean you will be faster but in some case (Like Me) you will be faster but only because it suits me meaning i'm more comfortable when racing. Also decide whether you are a Sim Racer (someone who wants to shave of every millisecond) or a Sim Driver (someone looking for the best realistic/immersive setup), for me I know that I am a Sim Racer but you could be different.
Thank you all for reading this and I hope you all enjoyed it, please leave your opinions and comments below.
Godspeed!