Not to sound like Forrest Gump contemplating shoes, but I’ve owned lots of wheels and pedals. I bet if I think about it real hard I can remember my first pair. (Mad Catz said they’d take me anywhere on PS One, despite being held together by rubberbands and hope.) Though I’ve gotten behind dozens of these peripherals over the decades, I’m only just now ticking off a longheld desire today—wrapping my mitts around a “big mutha trucker” setup.
You may have seen that I’ve recently heaped well-deserved praise on the Moza R12 Direct Drive Wheelbase in its ideal F1 / GT3 layout, secured to a dedicated cockpit. This time around, I’m going to radically transform that setup to suit a big rig config as mounted on a desk with a beefy Moza HGP Shifter.
During the rebuild process, I’ll have Johnny Cash’s Convoy playing on repeat, too.
Before I do dive into the hardware appraisals—and also give you the big 10-4 on all of the clamps and mounts required—we should really talk cost of setup. Simulating the semi-truck / bus / large farming implement of your dreams is not an inexpensive pursuit. Below are Moza’s hardware prices at the time of writing. You can skip that eye-watering window shopping by clicking here to jump to my continued thoughts.
The Moza Truckin’ Test Setup
Moza Truck Wheel Clamp – $75Moza Handbrake / Shifter Clamp – $89
Moza R12 Wheel Base and CRP Pedals
We should probably start with the lynchpin of this whole setup, the wheel base that I’ve covered extensively here. Long story short, the Moza R12 is the business—worth every penny of its considerable asking price. It’s a solidly built nerve-centre that will serve as your hub for Moza’s highly interchangeable wheel / pedals / shifter ecosystem.
Boasting an aviation-grade aluminum alloy housing with sexy laser-etched accents, this bad boy delivers 12nm of force feedback, which, frankly, is overkill if you’re only looking to play the more sedate, highway-haul truck sims (I’d aim lower for Moza’s R9 if that’s your jam). However, the R12 is a blast if your use case is replicating those absurd BHPs and bunghole-puckering torque of a race-prepared truck.
Another great thing about the R12 is that it comes with pre-drilled mounting holes on the top of its chasis, which allows snug coupling into a dedicated Truck Wheel Clamp (sold separately). I’ll talk more about that in a sec, but I will take this opportunity to mention that all of Moza’s many previous wheelbases will fit into said apparatus. You’ve got to love a friendly ecosystem.
I’ll also give you a quick and dirty recap on my previous thoughts on Moza’s solidly-built, surprisingly gorgeous CRP pedals. First of all, I love that they leverage rear-mounted load cell sensors and magnetic Hall Effect Sensors for increased durability for many happy hours of stomping. Be warned though: you’ll need fifteen minutes to cobble everything together, from the metal base plate and heel-stop strip, to slotting in the three pedals into a surprisingly large array of spacing slots on offer.
That said, the customisability of this pedal design is ideal for making everything as truck-like as you please using the veritable Mechano box of adjuster tools, spring swaps, and rubber dampeners supplied. With minimal spannermonkeying, you can quickly tweak from the short-travel snappiness of F1 pedals to the deeper pushes you’ll want when using the anchor dropper or “loud pedal” of your prime mover.
Moza TSW Truck Wheel
It’s hard to not give an appreciative whistle when this absolute tiller of a wheel is freed from its box. I’ve said it before, and I’m happy to say it again—the bigger the wheel, the more it’s going to sell the experience for me. With its classic four-spoke design and standard 400mm diameter, Moza’s first attempt at a truck wheel totally looks and feels like the real thing. It’s arguably better built than the steering wheel of my actual car.
Boasting hand-stitched microfiber leather overlaid on a 2 kg, aerospace-grade aluminum alloy frame, this wheel is both robust and comfy to the grip, even after marathon deliveries. You’re also getting two clicky scroll wheels, and 14 sensibly placed, short-travel buttons that are LED backlit (great for night driving). There are also two thumbsticks, which are great for head pivoting your view at T-junctions and feel highly reminiscent of the analog “nub” of a PSP, though theyre only digital hat switches.
As is the case with 90% of sim peripherals I’ve ever used at the expert / obsessive level, I feel there aren’t quite enough buttons on this. That’s most keenly felt in the indicators/headlights/wipers department, though I have heard Moza has a Multi-function Stalk cluster that will handle all of that authentically. 26 extra functions—that’ll be the ultimate.
It’s arguably better built than the steering wheel of my actual car.
Speaking of the less than optimal, it’s annoying that the (sold separately) mounting bracket comes with no printed instructions, rather some small diagrams on the box. The initial configuring is only half a dozen screws, though there may be some confusion, because this system may be setup in two different ways. These remarkably sturdy twin c-clamps can be made to poke up above the desk, or descend below to offer about 60mm of height adjustment. I prefer below as it’s cleaner looking.
After that’s sorted, you’ve got about 70 degrees of pivot to play with. I recommend setting at about 30 degrees worth, then going into Moza’s expansive Pit House app to hard set your wheel max rotation to 1440 degrees to get the authentic hand-over-hand turning feel of the real McCoy.
Moza HGP Shifter
As somebody who spent their first decade of driving with manual transmissions, only to downgrade into modern automatic car subsistence, I cannot overstate how much I love this HGP Shifter. It’s chunky, robust as hell, and delivers a satisfying “ker-chunk” surety with every gear you move into. That goes doubly for the “push downward, shift over” action needed to access Reverse and 7th gear. This thing is serious business—perfect for big riggin’.
For those of you truck newbies who may be wondering, yes, you can totally make a 12-14 gear box work with a 7 shifter. Real rigs don’t have 12+ positions either, as the problem gets solved via a switch, slap over, or collar somewhere on the gearstick. That function is typically pressed ‘down’ for low box range (Reverse, 1-6) and ‘up’ for high box (7-12 and beyond).
Sadly, the shifter bears no buttons to achieve this in any authentic, IRL fashion, so you’ll have to assign dedicated buttons to your wheel. That’s not super ideal, but I found I could adjust to it just fine. As veterans would know, handling the transmission of a truck is quite a bit more involved than your average car. There are (literal) tons of clever gear skips / shortcuts to achieve optium revs, whether you’re no load or full load trucking. I found the Moza HGP Shifter handled all of that stickery with aplomb.
All Together Now
When all the hardware comes together and it’s time to get moving on, I must admit to being what my truck-driver Pop called a Billy Big Rigger. (Greenhorn translation: a ‘supertucker’ prone to bragging about how big ‘n’ shiny his gear is.) The Moza setup looks serious and is spatially formidable—a real desk dominator. When your goal is to emulate a seven-ton titan of the asphalt, that feels like half the battle won.
Given the nature of this wheel, I veered hard towards the most appropriate test titles. Essentially, that was a mix of high speed circuit truck racing, meticulous cargo hauling sims, and those wonderfully ridiculous “runner” puzzlers that have you bush bashing across awful terrain. If you’re keen to try this out yourself, I’d recommend:
Euro Truck Simulator 2American Truck SimulatorSnowRunnerBeamNGExpeditions: A MudRunner GameFIA Euro Truck Racing Champ.
One thing I should mention from the get-go is a general sense of dampened force feedback. The rotating mass of a chonkier wheel of increased size and weight will conspire to lessen your direct drive sensations. Be prepared for a culture shock if you’re coming from Moza’s diminutive F1 wheel. For the record: on the R12, I was still quite impressed with what was being communicated through my tyres in terms of bumps, bitumen changes, and rumble strips.
Though I sampled a bit of everything, I mainly gravitated to those load deliverin’ truck sims. In Euro Truck Simulator 2, the authentic feel of this peripheral setup turned a laborious task of lugging ore across Germany (to arrive on time with great fuel consumption and no damage) into a zen-like pleasure. The sheer immersion of having a bad-arse H shifter and a huge, weighty wheel elevates this experience so much, I simply cannot go back to using anything else now.
I simply cannot go back to using anything else now.
Bombing around in a 480 BHP Renault T High Sleeper—something with grunt that perches me up high, like a king of the road—also felt great during the short-game moments. For those of you unfamiliar with the genre, truck simming isn’t just about powering down the straight fairways of a highway, it’s also about putting your cargo backwards into a Terminal hole. If you want that sweet Precise Parking Bonus XP, the highly-responsive Moza setup can deliver the goods in these critical, fine-motor skills moments.
At the end of the haul, I’m sold on the whole concept here; the build quality and the sense of vehicle connectedness provided by this setup really draws one in. Yes, you’ll be paying a lot to feel that privilege, but you’re getting what you pay for. This is an admirable first attempt at a truck wheel, and I’m keen to see how the Moza will expand further in this niche peripherals space (particularly with the proposed indicators add on).
Until then, you better believe I’m gonna keep on truckin’. Most likely with a mod for American Truck Sim that effectively makes me Jack Burton, heading into a questionably rendered San Francisco with my “Pork Chop Express” Freightliner Classic XL. That ought to keep me well amused during the ongoing and agonising wait for the devs of Truck World: Australia to pull their finger out.
Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays practically everything, often on YouTube.
