Mounting a Direct-Drive Wheelbase Safely

A direct-drive wheelbase puts its full torque into whatever you bolted it to. Get the mounting right and the rig disappears underneath you. Get it wrong and you get flex, then movement, then fasteners working loose. This guide covers what manufacturers actually publish about mounting — and it is a different shape of information than most people expect.

Published: September 20, 2026 | Reading time: Approximately 14 minutes

Quick Answer

🔴 "What's the bolt pattern?" is the wrong question for about half of this market. Fanatec, Asetek and Simucube 3 mount on T-slot rails where fore-and-aft position is continuously adjustable — there is no fixed rectangle of holes to quote. MOZA and Simagic use a fixed four-hole pattern. Simucube 2 uses a circular pattern on a front flange.

Three things actually decide whether a mount is safe: using every mounting point the manufacturer provides, getting bolt length right so thread engagement is correct without bottoming out, and mounting to something rigid enough to take the torque.

And a caution: bolt size can differ between faces on the same base. Fanatec specifies M6 for bottom mounting and M8 for side mounting on its Podium DD1 and DD2.

Three Mounting Systems, Not One

Direct-drive bases do not share a mounting standard. They use three genuinely different approaches, and confusing them is the root of most fitment trouble.

System	How it works	Used by	What to ask for
T-slot rails	Slots on the base accept sliding T-nuts. Fore-and-aft position is continuously adjustable within the slot length	Fanatec (CSL DD, ClubSport DD), Asetek, Simucube 3 bottom mount	Slot spacing and usable slot length — not a hole pattern
Fixed four-hole pattern	Four threaded holes in a fixed rectangle	MOZA, Simagic Alpha EVO	The pattern in mm, plus thread depth
Circular flange pattern	Bolts on a pitch-circle diameter through a front motor flange	Simucube 2	The PCD and the centring hole diameter

What that looks like in published figures

Fanatec ClubSport DD / DD+ — underside: four T-slots at 40 mm spacing, 125 mm usable slot length. Side: two slots 123 mm long, 70 mm apart vertically. (Fanatec Hard-Mount Planner)
Fanatec CSL DD — underside: four T-slots at 40 mm spacing, 79 mm usable slot length. (Fanatec Hard-Mount Planner)
Asetek — four M6 T-nuts, pattern width 87 mm, pattern length variable: 30–160 mm (La Prima, Forte) or 30–190 mm (Invicta). (Asetek wheelbase quick start guide)
Simucube 2 Sport / Pro — four M8 threaded holes on a 145 mm pitch-circle diameter, with a 110 mm flange centring hole. Ships with four M8×30 bolts. (Simucube)
MOZA R12 / R16 — bottom: four M6, 78.4 mm × 66 mm. (MOZA installation diagrams)
Simagic Alpha EVO range — four M6, 78.4 mm × 66 mm. (Simagic dimensions drawing)

🔴 Do not read that MOZA, Simagic and Simucube 3 all publishing "78.4 mm" as meaning their bases are interchangeable. MOZA and Simagic publish a fixed 78.4 × 66 mm four-hole pattern. Simucube 3 publishes 78.4 mm as the width of a T-slot arrangement whose depth is adjustable. Those are not the same thing.

No manufacturer states that its base is interchangeable with another brand's mount, and thread depth, bolt length limits and tightening torque still differ. We are not going to infer compatibility that nobody publishes.

The safest instruction we can give you is Fanatec's own: print the 1:1 Hard-Mount Planner drilling template for your specific base and use it, rather than transcribing numbers from any guide — including this one. Most manufacturers publish an equivalent dimensioned drawing. Use it.

Bolt Size Is Per Face, Not Per Base

This is the mistake most likely to cause real damage, and it is easy to make.

The same wheelbase can require different bolts depending on which face you mount from. Fanatec specifies, for the Podium DD1 and DD2: M6×(10+X) mm for bottom mounting and M8×(15+X) mm for side mounting. Using the bottom spec on the side, or the reverse, is a thread failure waiting to happen.

Several bases also have holes that look like mounting points and are not. Fanatec is blunt about it:

"ATTENTION: Mounting holes at the front of the wheel base are NOT for hard-mounting! Only for peripheral mounting such as static shifter paddles or a dash display."

Its product page repeats the point: those inserts are "Not intended for front-mounting the wheel base to a sim racing chassis/cockpit."

And bolts generally are not supplied, for a reason Fanatec explains: "the required bolt length depends on the thickness of the surface the wheel base is being mounted to."

The Number That Actually Breaks Things

If you take one technical point from this guide, take this one. Bolt length is not a detail — it is the failure mode. Too short and you have insufficient thread engagement. Too long and it bottoms out in the housing, so the base feels tight while actually being clamped by nothing.

Manufacturers publish this as either a thread depth or a protrusion limit:

Manufacturer	Published figure
Fanatec (CSL DD, ClubSport DD)	Thread length 10 mm, with bolts specified as M6×(10+X) mm — X being your mounting plate thickness
Simucube 3, front	Screws "may not poke out more than 21mm" from the mounting surface
Simucube 3, bottom	Screws "may not poke out more than 9mm"
MOZA	"We recommend that the bolts extend 5-8 mm beyond the mounting plate's thickness"

Simucube states the principle directly: "It is important to choose the correct length screws to avoid breaking the threads." It also supplies two lengths for different plate thicknesses — M8×35 for 13–18 mm plates, M8×30 for 7–12 mm — and instructs users to "Always use the supplied washers when mounting the wheelbase."

Tightening torque

Only one manufacturer in our review publishes actual tightening figures for this application. Simucube specifies approximately 20 Nm for front-flange screws and approximately 10 Nm for bottom mounting.

🔴 Those are Simucube's figures for Simucube hardware. We are not going to generalise them to another brand's bolts, and neither should you — if your manufacturer publishes a figure, use theirs; if it does not, ask.

And use every mounting point. Simucube: "it is important to use all four (4) available mounting points to ensure a rigid attachment. Note that the thickness of the mounting plate has an effect on the required mounting hardware." Three bolts in a four-bolt pattern is not a shortcut, it is a cantilever.

One Simucube-specific warning worth repeating because it is counterintuitive: "Do not remove the hex caps of the wheelbase front flange. The mounting screws will pass through the hexagonal holes."

What Manufacturers Say About Rigidity

Here the picture is uneven, and it is worth knowing where the warnings actually come from.

Simucube is unambiguous: "Simucube 2 wheelbase must always be mounted rigidly on to the simulator rig for user safety."

Asetek gives the most complete statement we found anywhere, and it puts the responsibility where it belongs:

"Mount the wheelbase motor unit securely to a rigid stable platform (a racing rig with compatible screws is recommended) before operating. User must confirm that the racing rig, table, or other stable surface being used for mounting can handle the weight load (approximately 12kgs / 26 lbs.) and the forceful torque and high velocity rotational motion of the wheel."

Asetek's safety instructions add: "Never operate the product without mounting it first."

🔴 An honest gap worth knowing about. We read MOZA's R16/R21 and R21 Ultra manual warning sections in full. They cover damp environments, sunlight, temperature, session length, children, disassembly, power supply and heat sources — and say nothing about mounting rigidity, cockpit strength or desk mounting.

So the statement "manufacturers warn you to mount rigidly" is true of Simucube and Asetek and not of every brand. Absence of a warning is not permission to mount a high-torque base to something flimsy — it just means you will not find the caution printed in the box.

Desk Clamps: What Is and Is Not Published

The obvious question is at what torque a desk clamp stops being sensible. We went looking for a published answer.

🔴 No manufacturer we reviewed publishes a maximum torque figure for a desk or table clamp. Not Fanatec, Simucube, MOZA, Simagic or Asetek. There is no Nm ceiling to quote, and we are not going to invent one.

The only manufacturer-published limit we found is a product-level exclusion: Fanatec states that its ClubSport DD Table Clamp "is compatible with most Fanatec wheel bases, with the exception of the Podium Wheel Base DD2 QR2."

Fanatec also markets that clamp as delivering "stability comparable to hard-mounted setups." That is a marketing claim with no published figure behind it, and we report it as the manufacturer's claim rather than as a finding.

What we would actually tell you: the relevant question is not the clamp, it is the desk. Asetek's instruction — confirm the surface can handle the weight and the torque — applies to a table far more than to a purpose-built rig. A clamp cannot make a flexing desk rigid.

The Cockpit Side of the Interface

Here is a structural fact about this whole category: compatibility is published in one direction only.

No wheelbase manufacturer we reviewed publishes compatibility with another brand's cockpit. They publish their own dimensions and their own brackets. It is the rig makers who publish wheelbase compatibility — which means the rig vendor's current list, for your exact rig and adapter, is the authority.

Two examples of what that looks like in practice:

A named compatibility list with conditions. Next Level Racing publishes a list of supported direct-drive wheelbases for its F-GT Elite side and front mount adapter — including Fanatec Podium and CSL DD, Simucube 2 and 3, Simagic and others. Note that it lists Simagic Alpha EVO as requiring Simagic's own MB-F bracket. "It's a direct-drive base" is not sufficient for fitment.
A tested torque rating. Trak Racer publishes, for its TR5 simulator, a "Max supported wheel torque — 25 Nm (direct drive compatible)" alongside a "Structural fatigue test — 150 kg static load · 16,000 cycles." That is the only tested, numbered structural claim we found from either side of this interface.

The rule this produces. Check the cockpit maker's current compatibility list for your exact rig and adapter, and the wheelbase maker's mount planner for bolt size and thread depth. Those are two different documents from two different companies, and you need both. Never infer fitment from a shared number.

Before You Drill Anything

Get the wheelbase manufacturer's dimensioned drawing or mount planner. Print it at 1:1 if one is provided.
Identify which face you are mounting from — bottom, side or front — and read the bolt spec for that face.
Confirm the front holes are load-bearing. On some bases they are explicitly not.
Measure your mounting plate thickness and compute bolt length from the manufacturer's formula or protrusion limit.
Check the cockpit maker's compatibility list for your exact rig, and whether an adapter or a manufacturer-specific bracket is required.
Use every mounting point provided, with the supplied washers.
Tighten to the manufacturer's figure if one is published. If not, ask rather than guess.
Re-check the fasteners after your first few sessions. Torque and vibration find anything left loose.

Cockpits at ProSimHQ

🔴 To be clear about what we sell. ProSimHQ stocks two MOZA direct-drive bundles — the MOZA R5 Direct Drive + SR-P Lite Pedals Bundle (R5 wheelbase, 5.5 Nm peak torque) and the MOZA GS Direct Drive + SR-P Lite Pedals Bundle (R9 V2 wheelbase, 9 Nm peak torque) — alongside the cockpits a wheelbase mounts to, which is the side of this interface that has to withstand the torque. We do not carry every wheelbase brand discussed in this guide, so check the mounting pattern published by your own wheelbase manufacturer rather than assuming it from anything here.

Trak Racer Alpine Racing TRX — Frame Only — an aluminium-profile convertible formula/GT frame.
Next Level Racing F-GT Elite Lite — Wheel Plate Edition — a wheel-plate cockpit intended for wheelbase mounting.
Next Level Racing F-GT Formula and GT Simulator Cockpit — dual-position formula and GT.
Next Level Racing Victory Simulator Cockpit — a steel frame and seat package.

The full range is in racing simulator cockpits, with mounting hardware in racing simulator accessories. Budget context is in our sim racing cost guide, the build order in the racing and flight simulator buyers guide, and the display side in triple monitors versus VR.

Send us your wheelbase model and the rig you are considering and we will check the manufacturer's published compatibility before you order — including telling you when an adapter or a brand-specific bracket is required.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a standard bolt pattern for direct-drive wheelbases?

No, and there are three different mounting approaches in use. Fanatec, Asetek and Simucube 3's bottom mount use T-slot rails where fore-and-aft position is continuously adjustable, so there is no fixed hole rectangle. MOZA and Simagic publish a fixed four-hole pattern. Simucube 2 uses bolts on a circular pitch-circle diameter through a front flange. Always use your manufacturer's dimensioned drawing or mount planner.

What bolts do I need to mount my wheelbase?

It depends on the base and on which face you mount from — they are not always the same. Fanatec specifies M6×(10+X) mm for bottom mounting and M8×(15+X) mm for side mounting on its Podium DD1 and DD2, where X is your mounting plate thickness. Bolts are typically not supplied precisely because the required length depends on that thickness. Check the specification for your base and your chosen face.

How long should the bolts be?

Long enough for full thread engagement and no longer. Manufacturers publish this as a thread depth or a protrusion limit: Fanatec states a 10 mm thread length, Simucube states screws may not protrude more than 21 mm at the front flange or 9 mm at the bottom, and MOZA recommends bolts extend 5 to 8 mm beyond the mounting plate thickness. Too long and the bolt bottoms out, so the base feels tight while being clamped by nothing.

Can I mount a direct-drive wheelbase to a desk?

No manufacturer we reviewed publishes a maximum torque figure for a desk or table clamp, so there is no threshold we can give you. The only manufacturer-published limit we found is that Fanatec excludes the Podium DD2 from its own table clamp. The more useful question is the desk itself: Asetek instructs users to confirm the surface can handle the weight and the torque, and a clamp cannot make a flexing desk rigid.

Will a wheelbase from one brand fit a cockpit from another?

Check the cockpit maker's list, because compatibility is published in one direction only. Wheelbase manufacturers publish their own dimensions and brackets and do not publish third-party cockpit compatibility. Rig makers do publish supported wheelbases — Next Level Racing names a list for its F-GT Elite adapter, and notes that Simagic Alpha EVO requires Simagic's own MB-F bracket. Never infer fitment from two products sharing a published number.

How tight should the mounting bolts be?

Use your manufacturer's figure. Simucube is the only manufacturer in our review publishing tightening torques for this application, specifying approximately 20 Nm for front-flange screws and approximately 10 Nm for bottom mounting — figures that apply to Simucube hardware and should not be generalised to other brands. Use all mounting points with the supplied washers, and re-check fasteners after your first few sessions.

Check It Before You Bolt It

Tell us your wheelbase model and the cockpit you are considering. We will check the published compatibility, the adapter requirement and the mounting face before you order — not after you have drilled.

Racing Simulator Cockpits Simulator Accessories

Sources and Further Reading

Simucube — Simucube 2 mounting documentation — the rigid-mounting requirement, bolt pattern, screw lengths, washers and tightening torques.
Asetek SimSports — wheelbase quick start guide — T-nut pattern dimensions, and the instruction to confirm the mounting surface can handle the weight and torque.
Fanatec — ClubSport DD Hard-Mount Planner — T-slot spacing and slot lengths, bolt specification and thread length.
MOZA Racing — product dimensions and installation diagrams — published four-hole patterns and the bolt-protrusion recommendation.
Trak Racer TR5 — the published maximum supported wheel torque and structural fatigue test figures.

ProSimHQ Editorial Note

ProSimHQ is an independent retailer of simulation equipment from multiple manufacturers. Every dimension, bolt specification and torque figure in this guide is the manufacturer's own published figure, attributed to that manufacturer, and none is inferred or carried across brands. Manufacturers revise specifications — wheelbase torque ratings have been changed by firmware, and at the time of writing one manufacturer's own pages disagree about a model's rating — so verify against current documentation for your exact model before mounting. Fitment must be confirmed for each specific wheelbase, adapter and cockpit combination and is never inferred from a shared measurement. Where a figure is not published, this guide says so rather than supplying one.

What Your Rig Has to Withstand: Mounting a Direct-Drive Wheelbase Safely