Driving Initial D3 in an 18 Wheeler Naomi Upright cabinet, has anyone tried and documented a control panel swap?

[Finisterre]

I just picked up an 18 wheeler cab, and have been reading about the nuances of running Initial D and other racing games. The issues are caused by wheel differences, specifically the size, and degrees of sensitivity.

Has anyone successfully swapped internal parts, or will I need a full control assembly? I noticed the 18 wheeler / Route 66 type is offset in the housing, and uses an additional belt. I'm going to guess the insides were not universal with their mounting brackets.

Note the difference here?

Has anyone played with ORT-20002UK, CTH-2000UK, PRT-20002UK, JBA-20001, RTS-2002UK panel mixing and matching? In particular between the Big rigs and racing styles?

I've linked the manuals for each below and screen shots of the steering mechanisms in case anyone is interested in discussing further.
http://www.digitalmunition.com/JamboSafariUpright.pdf
http://www.digitalmunition.com/KingOfRoute66Upright.pdf
http://www.digitalmunition.com/18WheelerUpright.pdf
http://www.digitalmunition.com/OutRun2Upright.pdf
http://www.digitalmunition.com/CrazyTaxiHighRollerUpright.pdf

Racing games like Initial D are of course seem "playable" in existing form as you can see here, I'd just like to be able to do *better* if it is possible.

Some of the other things to be aware of are documented here:
https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=236271
"from memory :
CT obviously all good
Jambo Safari - the lasso was backwards, not a major pain unless player tries to follow onscreen instructions (I did make an adapter that reversed the shifter, was an inline plug in and unplug when you wanted to play)
18 Wheeler (lacking reverse and radio, I think view change was HI/LO) was playable but tough
Club Kart - from memory was fine, wasnt a great game
ID1/2/3 - had to play in AUTOmatic, some other features lacking, but was playable I recall
King of Route 66 - could play but no mic, and issues similar to 18Wheeler, again also CT wheel is 270degree only, and 18Wheeler and KoR66 is 360degree so again causes slight play issues"

I'd be interested to hear any stories of other folks playing around with this idea.

 

[lukemorse1]

You could always restrict the amount of travel the steering wheel gets by drilling and putting in a couple of bolts to restrict the travel of the steering wheel.

Not sure exactly the way the steering mech looks on 18 wheeler but Im sure you could adapt something like a couple of easy release pins that you could insert for the other driving games and remove for 18 wheeler

 

[Finisterre]

I believe there is a belt drive system to help with the extra rotations / size of the wheel. I'll know for sure on Wednesday when my cab shows up. Here is one of the belts on eBay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sega-18-Wheeler-Naomi-Arcade-Standup-Steering-Belt-NEW/142866587501

You can see it in "Untitled 4" above, vs the other mechs. The belt should jump out at ya.

 

[Finisterre]

So I finally got the 18 Wheeler cab cracked open, and I can see that this most certainly would be doable, but at the very least taking an 18 wheeler down to a smaller wheel will require some holes to be drilled for mounting. Beyond that. At a glance, it looks like it should work. The belt drive is most certainly a different animal than the more basic design the other cabs use.

I was able to hold the two mechs up side by side in the cab and do the comparison. I'll probably try to find a new panel piece for the time being. I don't want to drill a hole in this bad boy!

 

[Finisterre]

The whole control panel came off pretty easily... if you can find one from any other driving cab it would be trivial to just swap the whole thing.

 

[Finisterre]

For what it is worth, this post goes in depth on the problems with various buttons, and inverted settings, etc across the various games. This starts with a Crazy Taxi base.
https://www.gamoover.net/Forums/index.php?topic=38546.0

 

[Coyo5050]

I have the same cab. I believe i replaced the big wheel with one from a crazy taxi and although it doesnt fit perfect a tight bolt does the trick keeping it on. I could play crazy taxi but had to do something to make controls workable but forget. Figuring out ways to adapt things was a project that fell down the list of too many projects. I even bought a full control panel for a fighting setup which i decided against. Still need to make an adaptor to use a joystick externally instead.

 

[BNGamesReviews]

I never swapped the control panel, but I did convert a slave cab to run on its own (Albeit with some caveats)

I documented it here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWGCL9MQTnZXStPp2cbtToAyUQS4Pl0Wb

 

[Finisterre]

Everything worked as expected.... @fsckewe brought his Jambo Control Panel over, and we tested it with a bit of Outrun.