FANATEC CSL Elite Pedals Loadcell Kit Review
<This is based on my Japanese article>
Introduction about FANATEC CSL Elite Pedals Loadcell Kit
I paid a lot, $140, for one pedal, “FANATEC CSL Elite Pedals Loadcell Kit.”
My Motivation for Purchasing FANATEC CSL Elite Pedals Loadcell Kit
When driving a fast car, especially after the long straight, braking needs sensitive control.
I couldn’t notice the importance of the Loadcell when I drove MX-5, Skipbarber. However, when I drive Porche 911 or F1, etc., speed was so fast and I easily locked the tires. So I bought the loadcell to step up the categories. This is my tweet when I drove Porche 911 GT3 CUP without the Loadcell kit. I was very suffered from tire locking.
I tweeted “Always happen haha” in Japanese.
My Impression after getting FANATEC CSL Elite Pedals Loadcell Kit
The heavy pedal is very important to control the brakes precisely. As I told you above, after applying the Loadcell kit, I could brake more sensitively by using the loadcell kit. When stepping on the pedal, the force needing to stop is so heavy (we can adjust the feedback as mentioned below). And then, my brake becomes more stable than the normal CSL Elite pedals.
Please note that you have to hardly fix the loadcell kit on the cockpit when you bought the pedal.
This is my tweet about the effect of the installed FANATEC Load Cell kit. I wrote, “After getting the Load Cell Kit, the driving becomes stable and I feel fun.”
Story till I Purchased FANATEC CSL Elite Pedals Loadcell Kit
At the end of July 2020, I ordered Fanatec products, including the Fanatec CSL Elite Pedals, and stuck them on a wooden desk for the time being to play with a regular chair. (Left) After I got the bucket seat, I put the seat on the box and play with it. (Right)
At this time, I hadn't bought a load cell pedal, because it was out of stock due to the influence of COVID-19.
In the middle of August, I completed assembling the sim cockpit. And my room becomes a crazy room when ordinary persons see this.
Having this sim shows that I am a kind of a SIM racing madness. However, I hadn’t gotten an item. That was Loadcell Pedal below.
Though I was thinking that I would buy this near future, I compromised and avoid buying this, and I continuously used the normal pedals (Fnatec CSL Elite Pedals), which work with the detector, “potentiometer.” Additionally, I tried to extend the period in which I used the normal pedal to modify, like this:
The price of the Loadcell kit is $140. Only one pedal costs $140. I fully understand, maybe, many people think they will buy other something for $140.
As the people on Twitter always said “a loadcell brake is super important,” I was continuously thinking my brake skill may improve drastically. As I played iRacing for 1 or 2 hours per day, I thought $140 was worth paying.
After all, I bought it in October.
Fanatec CSL Elite Pedals Loadcell Kit had Come!
Fanatec CSL Elite Pedals Loadcell Kit Unboxing movie
The back of the pedal is as shown in the picture below, and consists of 5 hard rubbers and 1 hard sponge. This sponge makes the pedal response soft.
Three types of hard rubber with a pedaling force of 65, 85, 95 kg are attached, 5 each. Below are 85kg and 95kg of rubber.
From the left, for pedaling forces of 95 kg, 65 kg, and 85 kg.
iRacer purveyor? called VRS, website contents explain that a Lladcell brake pedal is harder the better, so I set 95 kg. By the way, I tried to replace the sponge part with one 65kg hard rubber to eliminate the margin, but I gave up because there was no clearance to re-assemble.
There seems to be a technique to insert a washer so that the sponge is sandwiched in order to eliminate the margin when stepping on the brake.
The other person provided further additional information. If you want to put a washer in the Fanatec CSL Elite Pedals Loadcell Kit, you should put the washer on the innermost pedal side! At first, I couldn’t understand why, but when I saw the real structure, I understood the meaning. Below is my response.
“Since the rod moves, if the washer was bottom, the rod and the washer will cause friction! On the pedal side, the friction is almost zero!”
Replacing the rubber is easy. You can remove it like this by pulling it a little.
The front item is the hub that came with this load cell kit. The back item is the hub came with the normal Elite Pedals in the back.
If you buy a load cell pedal or set, the sockets for a clutch, handbrake, and USB are be added to the hub. So you can connect the pedal to your PC directly without a wheelbase. The normal 2-pedal model cannot be used on a PC unless it is connected to the wheelbase (motor).
Fanatec CSL Elite Pedals Loadcell Kit Assembling
For installation, the pedals must be disassembled from the cockpit once. That was a very hard job. In addition, the hub in the photo above must also be unscrewed, removed, and replaced. Therefore, if you are interested in load cells even a little, I strongly recommend that you purchase a 3-pedal model from the beginning and avoid such annoyance. 3 pedal set will be cheaper and you will buy it anyway, so lol
I assembled Fanatec CSL Elite Pedals Loadcell Kit. Actually, it’s not the correct way to install it. The two sticks on the back are a little bad.
If you do not put every black part in the middle, you will not be able to fix the lateral displacement. However, even if you don’t have these two rods, I think there is no problem if the pedals are firmly attached to the lower frame with bolts.
The original way of assembling seems to be a little different. ↓ Official video. It will be played from how to use this stick.
Finally, the number of pedals has increased to 3 pedals, it is very difficult to control 3 pedals due to clutch. I must have practice!
<My article related to Pedals>
