Sim-Lab Launch Their Black Friday Deals For 2024
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Sim Racing Product Guides » How To Setup Thrustmaster Racing Wheel on PC, Xbox & PS5
Read our quick guide on how to correctly set up your Thrustmaster racing wheel on Xbox, PS5 and PC. Follow our simple how to guide.
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Thrustmaster makes some of the best racing wheels around. Products such as the Thrustmaster T248 offer great product quality for a budget sim racing wheel and are often the starting point for many sim racers. Then there are the higher quality products such as the Thrustmaster T818 direct drive racing wheel, which offer incredible force feedback detail and strength for those looking to improve their sim racing setup.
In this guide, I’m going to show you how to connect your Thrustmaster racing wheel to a PC and ensure all of the drivers and firmware are downloaded and up to date. I’ll also look at how to connect a Thrustmaster wheel to PS5 and Xbox consoles.
If you are sim racing with a Thrustmaster racing wheel on PS5 or Xbox, you can scroll down to the calibration section that is specifically for Xbox and PS5, as you won’t need to worry about installing any drivers.
Thrustmaster sim racing products can be rather tricky to correctly set up on PC. It isn’t always clear where to download the drivers and firmware, and installing the right drivers can sometimes be a trickier process than it should be. The first step for any Thrustmaster setup is to download and install the Thrustmaster drivers so your PC can recognise your racing wheel as by default, your PC won’t know a Thrustmaster racing wheel is connected..
When you are starting your Thrustmaster setup on a PC, like most input devices, you will need to install the correct drivers. These will allow the PC to recognize your racing wheel. After you have installed the drivers you should look to update the firmware to ensure you are running the latest version. We will cover the firmware after we have installed the drivers.
A note, in case your wheel isn’t connecting correctly, some Thrustmaster racing wheels have a mode select. This will switch the wheel base between Xbox, PS5 and PC compatibility modes. When connecting to your PC, ensure you have the PC mode selected.
Once you have installed the Thrustmaster Control Panel by following the steps above, you can update the firmware of your Thrustmaster products. This can all be done from the Thrustmaster Control Panel although it isn’t always obvious how to access this Control Panel.
Even if you have been using your Thrustmaster racing wheel for a while, you may want to periodically check to ensure there isn’t a newer version of firmware available. If there is, you should always look to update it, as each firmware version fixes certain bugs.
Before using your Thrustmaster racing wheel, or after any firmware update, you should always recalibrate your wheel. Calibrating will ensure that your wheel is correctly centered and using the right steering lock. If you don’t recalibrate your wheel, you may find some strange behaviour in game, so it’s always a safe thing to do before racing.
The calibration method differs slightly depending on which platform you are using, PC, PS5 or Xbox. Below we show how to calibrate your Thrustmaster wheel on PC.
The calibration process for Thrustmaster racing wheels on PS5 and Xbox is very similar to doing it on PC, however, you won’t be using the Control Panel, and there are a few things that can prevent correct calibration.
There is a setting on PlayStation 5 consoles that can prevent you from calibrating your Thrustmaster wheel correctly. This is the “keep applications suspended” setting. To ensure you can correctly calibrate your Thrustmaster racing wheel on PS5, you may need to navigate to the power settings on your PS5.
There you should untick the option to “Keep applications suspended”. The reason for this is that you need to connect your Thrustmaster wheel to your console before opening and playing any games. This will mean that you can’t sleep the console with games suspended, and will have to restart your game every time you power on your PS5.
Once you have disabled the above PS5 setting, you can continue to calibrate your Thrustmaster wheel in the exact same way as outlined above.
I completed all of the above calibration and set-up steps using a Thrustmaster T818 direct drive racing wheel and a Ferrari SF1000 steering wheel. And in my eyes, this is one of the very best Thrustmaster racing wheels around. However, there are a bunch of incredibly good Thrustmaster racing wheels that are ideal for different scenarios and budgets.
If you are looking for the best Thrustmaster racing wheels, you have a wide range of choice. I have compiled some of the best wheels that Thrustmaster currently sell in the table below. All of these wheels are fantastic choices in their respective price ranges.
Racing wheel | Compatibility | Price | |
---|---|---|---|
Thrustmaster T128 | Xbox, PS5, PC | £169 | |
Thrustmaster T248 | Xbox, PS5, PC | £299 | |
Thrustmaster T818 | PC | £599 | |
Thrustmaster T-GT II | PS5, PC | £429 | |
Thrustmaster TS-XW | Xbox, PC | £379 | |
The current best premium Thrustmaster racing wheel has to be the T818. This racing wheel is the first and only direct drive racing wheel that Thrustmaster currently sell. It is capable of producing up to 10Nm of peak torque from its direct drive motor.
The other perk of the T818 being the first direct drive Thrustmaster wheel is that the force feedback detail is vastly improved over any other Thrustmaster wheel that came before. Direct drive wheels don’t suffer from any loss of force feedback detail thanks to belts or gears because the motor is directly mounted to the steering wheel.
Currently there is only a PC version of the Thrustmaster T818 available, however, it is very reasonably priced to compete with competition from other sim racing brands. Add on the fact that Thrustmaster make some of the best steering wheels like the SF1000 steering wheel, and you have an incredible mid-range to premium racing wheel.
Racing Wheel – Thrustmaster T818
Compatibility – PC
Price – £599/$649
Where to buy –
Buy Thrustmaster T818 UK/EU /
Buy Thrustmaster T818 US
On the other end of the price scale, Thrustmaster also produces some brilliant low-cost budget racing wheels. There are actually a few budget Thrustmaster wheels to choose from.
These include the Logitech G923 competitor, the T248, and this costs from £299.99. However, there is a cheaper Thrustmaster racing wheel that I would recommend. The T128 is the company’s cheapest ever force feedback racing wheel coming in at just £169. It’s also often available for cheaper than this price on retailers like Amazon.
The Thrustmaster T128 is impressive as it is incredibly low-priced compared to other racing wheels that produce similar amounts of force feedback. The T128 can produce around 2.5Nm of torque from its hybrid force feedback that consists of both gears and belts just like its bigger brother, the T248.
Racing Wheel – Thrustmaster T128
Compatibility – PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox Series X|S
Price – £169/$169
Where to buy – Buy Thrustmaster T128 UK/EU / Buy Thrustmaster T128 US
You can use the links below to shop for your favourite sim racing products, or for any products that we may have recommended. These links are affiliate links, and will earn us a small commission, with no additional cost for you.
You can find the latest Thrustmaster drivers and firmware for your racing wheel on the Thrustmaster website, on their support page. From there you can search for your specific product and then scroll to the driver download file which is indicated by a gear icon next to the name.
You can perform different tests on your Thrustmaster wheel via the Control Panel on PC. There are input tests that you can complete in the Control Panel, and you can see your steering wheel’s rotation as you turn the wheel.
You should always calibrate your Thrustmaster racing wheel after completing a firmware update. You shouldn’t need to re-calibrate your wheel every time you use it as it will remember its calibration settings after being powered on and off.
You can connect your Thrustmaster racing wheel to your PC via the USB cable on the rear of the wheel. Modern Thrustmaster racing wheels use a USB-C to USB-A cable, while older wheels use a USB-A to USB-A cable.
Rich is the co-founder, and one of the main F1 setup creators and content writers for SimRacingSetups. With over a decade of experience as a graphic designer, marketing director, competitive sim racer and avid motorsport fan, Rich founded SimRacingSetup.com to share his passion and knowledge of sim racing and Formula 1 with other sim racers. Regularly writes for sim racing website SimRaceReviews.com
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