I'm putting this together for those who were thinking of buying the WheelStation to go with their DFP's (www.capitoldiecast.com).
The WheelStation has an upside and a downside, and oddly enough, they're both caused by the same thing.
The upside: Those of you worried about stability needn't bother.. this thing ain't going nowhere. Not necessarily because of it's design, but because of it's sheer size.. this thing is bigger than the pictures on the site would lead you to believe. A LOT bigger. Make no mistake, this thing is ****ing huge. The base is over two feet wide on each side.. you'd have to physically push it (hard) to get it to fall over. There's a tiny bit of side-to-side wobble, but that's a side effect of the design, and the wobble is very minimal. The top portion is also very sturdy.. latch the DFP on, and it ain't going anywhere.
The downside: This thing is ****ing huge. It's so big, in fact, that I can't use it on my couch, as shown in the pictures on the site. If you have a rather high couch with very stiff cushions, you could probably do it. But my couch sits a little lower, and it's also very soft. When you sit down, your butt sinks about five or six inches. Quite comfy. On the flip side, it puts the DFP at about eye-level... I feel like one of those blue-haired old ladies when I'm trying to drive from the couch, craning my neck up to see over the wheel, or driving from one side of the wheel. Uh-uh. I actually had to pull in a chair from my back porch just to drive from a reasonable height.
It's not just a stand.. it's a piece of furniture. I have to rearrange my living room just to drive, moving my coffee table to one side of the room just to make room for the chair and the stand. Which is why the thing is currently sitting in a closet.. there's just nowhere to put it in the living room when I'm not actually driving with it.
The size inadvertantly causes another problem, as well, depending on how your living room is set up. Because of how far I have to have it away from the wall, I'm stretching the power cord to it's limit (from behind the couch, all the way past the lawn chair and up to the DFP). Depending on your living room, you may or may not have this problem.
The only other downside I noticed was the small "lip" on the back of the base, which is designed to keep the pedals from sliding off. In that aspect, it works very well, but the DFP's pedal cable comes from the back of the pedals.. that cable get crammed up against this "lip" when you drive, and could concievably cause connection problems with extended use. I'm thinking of adding some sort of "buffer" to that lip to allow the cord to sit freely rather than having it crimped every time I play.
The pedals will still "lift" with hard pressure to the brake (those of you with a DFP know what I mean), but that's a fault of the DFP itself and not the WheelStation. A bit of duct tape along the front edge of the pedals should solve this.
But on the whole, I'm actually happy with the purchase. The WheelStation is pretty cheap (only $50, which is half what you'll pay for something much flimsier on Ebay), and it is much better than what I had before. With the DFP latched onto my coffee table, I felt like Andre the Giant driving a VW Beetle, hunched forward to grab a wheel that was only a foot or so above the pedals beneath it. The only real downside to it is the sheer size of the thing, which may or may not be a factor depending on the size of your couch (for the record, I'm of "average" height and build.. around 5'10-11", 160lbs). I'm thinking of actually reducing it's height by cutting six or eight inches from the main supports so I can drive from the couch, but I'll need more tools to do so (currently lacking things like a saw and a drill). But, as I said, on the plus side, the size does make it VERY stable.. there's no way in hell you could call this thing "flimsy".
The WheelStation has an upside and a downside, and oddly enough, they're both caused by the same thing.
The upside: Those of you worried about stability needn't bother.. this thing ain't going nowhere. Not necessarily because of it's design, but because of it's sheer size.. this thing is bigger than the pictures on the site would lead you to believe. A LOT bigger. Make no mistake, this thing is ****ing huge. The base is over two feet wide on each side.. you'd have to physically push it (hard) to get it to fall over. There's a tiny bit of side-to-side wobble, but that's a side effect of the design, and the wobble is very minimal. The top portion is also very sturdy.. latch the DFP on, and it ain't going anywhere.
The downside: This thing is ****ing huge. It's so big, in fact, that I can't use it on my couch, as shown in the pictures on the site. If you have a rather high couch with very stiff cushions, you could probably do it. But my couch sits a little lower, and it's also very soft. When you sit down, your butt sinks about five or six inches. Quite comfy. On the flip side, it puts the DFP at about eye-level... I feel like one of those blue-haired old ladies when I'm trying to drive from the couch, craning my neck up to see over the wheel, or driving from one side of the wheel. Uh-uh. I actually had to pull in a chair from my back porch just to drive from a reasonable height.
It's not just a stand.. it's a piece of furniture. I have to rearrange my living room just to drive, moving my coffee table to one side of the room just to make room for the chair and the stand. Which is why the thing is currently sitting in a closet.. there's just nowhere to put it in the living room when I'm not actually driving with it.
The size inadvertantly causes another problem, as well, depending on how your living room is set up. Because of how far I have to have it away from the wall, I'm stretching the power cord to it's limit (from behind the couch, all the way past the lawn chair and up to the DFP). Depending on your living room, you may or may not have this problem.
The only other downside I noticed was the small "lip" on the back of the base, which is designed to keep the pedals from sliding off. In that aspect, it works very well, but the DFP's pedal cable comes from the back of the pedals.. that cable get crammed up against this "lip" when you drive, and could concievably cause connection problems with extended use. I'm thinking of adding some sort of "buffer" to that lip to allow the cord to sit freely rather than having it crimped every time I play.
The pedals will still "lift" with hard pressure to the brake (those of you with a DFP know what I mean), but that's a fault of the DFP itself and not the WheelStation. A bit of duct tape along the front edge of the pedals should solve this.
But on the whole, I'm actually happy with the purchase. The WheelStation is pretty cheap (only $50, which is half what you'll pay for something much flimsier on Ebay), and it is much better than what I had before. With the DFP latched onto my coffee table, I felt like Andre the Giant driving a VW Beetle, hunched forward to grab a wheel that was only a foot or so above the pedals beneath it. The only real downside to it is the sheer size of the thing, which may or may not be a factor depending on the size of your couch (for the record, I'm of "average" height and build.. around 5'10-11", 160lbs). I'm thinking of actually reducing it's height by cutting six or eight inches from the main supports so I can drive from the couch, but I'll need more tools to do so (currently lacking things like a saw and a drill). But, as I said, on the plus side, the size does make it VERY stable.. there's no way in hell you could call this thing "flimsy".
