Hey guys I am still looking for some feedback on both thes rigs,
I just recently received the Trak Racer TR8 Pro and I've had it a few days but only raced on it for about 15 minutes, but based on my experience receiving and assembling it I will give you some pros and cons.
Pros:
extremely sturdy frame made out of heavy duty iron. once it's setup and tightened, it does not budge or make a sound.
some of the bolts/washers/nuts etc. come pre-installed in their intended positions on the frame. this means you must remove them first before actually putting those pieces together, but it does make things a bit easier.
only a few major pieces make up the frame, and it's easy to figure out how they fit together just by looking at them
Cons:
Trak Racer communication about shipping was terrible. I did receive an email saying it was shipped, but the links to the tracking info took me to some commercial company they used to get the boxes local, and that company's website had zero information on it about when my package should arrive. As it turns out, that company later used UPS to ship from their facility to my house, which I had no idea about until I received an email from UPS directly saying my package would arrive the next day. Everything worked fine, I was just in the dark about when my packages would arrive and if I needed to be present for signature.
there were a couple slightly misplaced pre-drilled holes on the frame that made it difficult to align the bolts. not too bad, but I had to loosen/tighten/loosen/re-tighten several times in different orders to make it fit just right without stripping threads.
It's very heavy. I knew it would be, but didn't anticipate how heavy. You will not be moving this thing by yourself once it's in place. Well, you can, but you have to step it back and forth slowly and gently and will likely damage whatever surface you are on unless you are very careful. I have mine on top of a cheap rug to prevent it from damaging the nicer carpet underneath.
The hardware they provide (bolts, screws, nuts, flange nuts etc.) seems cheaper than what you can buy at your local hardware store. The bolts they provide for attaching the adjustable wheel mount to the frame got stripped out mainly because of their poor design and lack of detailed instructions. After it was tightened, the wheel still tilted front and back with a little force when it shouldn't have. Tried tightening the bolts more, but this caused the flange nut cap on the opposite side to bottom out, thus stripping the bolts in the process. Turns out, that flange nut cap doesn't even need to be there because the wheel mount has threads machined into it, so the nut is unnecessary and was only there to provide a physical cover on the end of the bolt. I purchased sturdier bolts and washers and am now using them without a nut on the adjustable portion of the wheel mount.
Terrible manual. There is no paper manual with the package, only accessible online. The online manual has very few words, and mostly pictures, and it focuses on assembling the frame but is lacking regarding the various seats and monitor stand setups. Not only this but since there are not many words there are crucial details missing, like how to adjust the height of the seat, which there's no way to know you need to do until your seat is fully mounted and if you want to adjust the height now you have to remove the seat all over again in order to access the brackets that determine the height.
4 of the bolts they sent for the monitor mount were too short to reach through the mounting strut and catch the threads on the flange nut. Manual says they are supposed to be 16mm length and they were, but I needed just one more thread in order to reach the nut. Had to go to a specialty bolt store and get myself a 1-inch length flat screw. Since it was a flat screw with a large head (head sits flush with the surface) none of the normal hardware stores had just the right size.
I sent them an email about those bolts not being long enough, that was a week ago and no response.
The list of cons seems long but in a nutsell, all of the issues can be summed up by them having poor customer service so far, providing less than great quality bolts, screws, nuts etc., and having really bad manuals. However, I really like the quality of the rig now that it's setup and I'm over all the roadblocks. If I had to do it again it would go much quicker and I recommend that you stock up on various lengths of M6 and M8 bolts along with washers and nuts to match. If you have those as spares it'll probably save some trouble.
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