There's more choice and competition than ever these days when it comes to choosing a wheel for your racing or other virtual driving scenarios. But Thrustmaster has been around longer than most and has established itself as a popular choice on PC and console.
Its latest product isn't for sim racing, though. I mean you could use it for racing, but it's pretty big. Thrustmaster has joined the ranks of truck sim, as both Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator, in particular, continue to grow in popularity.
The SimTask Truck-40 has a dedicated wheel and a kit to mount it at a more horizontal angle (which would also be good for bus driving games and even Farm Simulator), and it's designed to be entirely plug and play going forward with the SCS truck simulators.
I've spent a little time getting to know it, and the TL;DR is that it's a really solid truck sim wheel. It isn't perfect, and I'm not sure it would convince you to leave your existing setup for a Thrustmaster one, but I also don't think that's the intention.
I'll start at the very top. The SimTask Truck-40 is compatible with virtually every Thrustmaster wheelbase from the past decade or so. Assuming, of course, you have a wheelbase that has the ability to change the wheel.
I no longer have my old trusty Thrustmaster TS-XW, but I was surprised upon opening the box that the truck wheel would be compatible with it. I reviewed that wheelbase back in 2020, so credit to Thrustmaster for keeping the older hardware relevant.
That's despite having changed its quick-release system on more recent wheelbases. In the box you get two adapters, and you attach the one that fits your wheelbase to the back of the truck wheel. In this case, I'm using a T598 direct-drive wheelbase for PS5 and PC, so I went with that one.
While I appreciate the compatibility with the older hardware, I appreciate the actual process of attaching the adapter far less.
Because you need a way for the electronics on the wheel to communicate with the wheelbase and then the PC or console, Thrustmaster's solution is a ribbon cable on the adapters. You attach this to the circuit board inside the wheel to make it happen.
The trouble is it's really hard to do. My sausage fingers had a pretty bad time attaching it, and it took me about 15 minutes in all and a lot of swearing. I hate ribbon cables enough on laptops, but at least you have more space to work in there. I hope that for future iterations, Thrustmaster can figure out a better solution if they're going to continue supporting legacy wheelbases.
Once it's on, though, all is well. The newest quick-release connector is simple to use. Simply lift the catch on the wheelbase, slot the wheel in, and put the catch back down. The added size and weight of the truck wheel doesn't make things any less stable. It's solid and secure.
The other part of the SimTask Truck-40 full kit is a bracket that you can attach to your desk or to whatever other setup you have to hold the wheelbase more horizontally so you can get a more realistic large vehicle experience.
You don't have to use it this way, though. For my tastes, it's a little too horizontal to be comfortable, at least in front of a desk. The truck wheel is pretty big, and while cruising it's actually really good because I can rest my arm on my armrest and keep the truck going straight.
But I'm not so much of a fan personally when it comes to maneuvering. Still, it's not a requirement; the choice to use it or not is yours, I just personally prefer it without.
Being plug-and-play with Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator is what really matters, though. While some will take delight in setting up custom layouts, I am not one of them. I'm too lazy; I just want to get in and drive. I should note, though, right now Thrustmaster's website does warn folks that it's not yet live. If you use older versions of the game for whatever reason, you'll have to update or just set it up yourself when it is.
The Thrustmaster truck wheel has dedicated controls for the essential truck features. You have a button for cruise control, a button for your high-beam lights, GPS, and for navigating through the menus without taking your hands off the wheel.
It doesn't have as many buttons as, say, PXN's upcoming truck wheel, but there are enough to cover the main functions you actually want while driving. For me, the cruise control is the big one, and adjusting it on the wheel like in real life is a far better experience than using keyboard or gamepad button presses.
Is there anything I don't like? If I had to pick, I'd have to point out it's quite plasticky, and being black, it shows it off probably worse than something that was grey.
It's not bad, and it is well made, but outside of the rubbery grips (which are very comfortable), the rest of the wheel rim is a smooth plastic finish. Which is not as nice when maneuvering your truck and using all of the wheel.
It is also fairly pricey, but that's more of a PSA than anything. If you have a Thrustmaster wheelbase and you want a proper truck wheel, then it's your best shot, but it's also a niche product. It's not going to appeal if you're not into truck simming. $300 is still a significant investment, and I would like to see it available without the SimTask bracket as well for folks like myself that won't use it and would like to pay a little less.
But I'm really glad to see this come out as someone who's got into American Truck Simulator, especially this year. I've used Thrustmaster wheels the most over the years, and I was a little surprised the company wasn't first to this growing space. But it's here now, and it's a whole lot of fun to use.
It may not be enough to convince you to leave your existing truck wheel, but again, I don't think it was ever meant to. It's there for Thrustmaster owners, of which there are many. What's also key is that this is out before Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator come to Xbox and PS5. Thrustmaster is pretty popular on consoles, and by the time they finally launch, you've got a wheel ready and waiting.
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