Moza TSW Truck Wheel

Chinese Moza has been going from strength to strength of late and despite their shaky launch a couple of years ago for the disappointing R16, they have recovered fully now and churned out a bunch of very nice sim-racing products. The R12 is a very impressive and above all very affordable steering wheel base, the FSR is a very alternative wheel, and the SGP Sequential Shifter is by far the most affordable gearbox you can find on the entire sim-racing market right now. I was therefore not particularly surprised by the fact that the newly released TSW Truck Wheel proved to be a consistently well-built product.

Part of me may find it strange to say the least that neither Fanatec, Logitech, Thrustmaster, Turtle Beach, Simagic or Simucube has come up with a dedicated truck wheel. Moza is the first to do so, and it is of course an extremely clever move considering how popular truck simulators such as Euro Truck Simulator and American Truck Simulator have become. The idea is of course simple. Offer a classic truck wheel to all aspiring virtual truckers and complement it with a bracket for the R12 that allows placement that gives just the right real feeling. Squeezing the TSW Truck Wheel onto its GT-positioned steering wheel base and driving it like any other race car feels wrong, of course. Moza's "Truck Clamp" allows you to adjust the steering wheel base downward and have the steering wheel angled like a plate. Just like in a real lorry.

The steering wheel itself is simple but well-built. It's big, measuring 40 centimetres and set in aluminium with a fake leather and plastic casing. There are 14 programmable, backlit buttons on the wheel and four special buttons that you can use to navigate through various menus or scroll through lots of different settings. There are 10 LED lights at the top as well, which can also be programmed to show everything from engine speed to indicators, and everything in between. On the whole, I don't miss anything here and without thinking that I'm an experienced truck expert, it feels like Moza has hit the nail on the head both in terms of design, size and the amount of buttons. The only thing I can think of that feels like a minor let down here is the fake leather. For almost $300 it should have been covered in real leather.

I have never driven as much Euro Truck Simulator 2 as I do now, and I won't beat around the bush... I've hated every second of it. I'm into sim-racing for one reason; To simulate being a racing driver driving lightning fast race cars. Having said that, I do of course see how the popularity of truck games has grown over the last year in particular and of course realise how smart this product is, and that it has been released at just the right time and with just the right timing. Moza Racing is, as I said, spot on at the moment. I would like the addition of external turn signal controls on this steering wheel if I were to choose to drive more trucks but other than that and the fact that I would rather see real leather on the wheel, I have no objections here. If, unlike me, you want nothing more than to shout "Breaker, breaker" and drive around the roads in a 25 metre long truck, there is no better option today than a Moza R12 and this wheel.