If you want the short answer at 1 a.m.: buy the Thrustmaster T248 in its Xbox version. Not the Logitech. Not the cheap one. The T248 costs about the same as a Logitech G923 on a normal week, it has more than twice the buttons, and the buttons are the thing that matters in Farming Simulator, where you spend more time raising implements and tabbing between vehicles than you do steering at speed. Its force feedback is stronger than the Logitech’s too, which sounds like it shouldn’t matter in a tractor game. It matters. More on that below.

If your budget stops at around $200, the Thrustmaster T128 (Xbox version) is the one to get, and you should not feel bad about it. The G923 is a fine wheel for Forza. For farming it is the awkward middle option: pricier than the T128, fewer buttons than the T248, and its big selling point, TrueForce, does nothing in this game.

That’s the verdict. Now the part where I earn it, including the products that will not work on your Xbox at all, because that list is longer than the list that will.

First, the stuff that does NOT work on Xbox

This section exists because I have watched too many people buy the wrong thing off a Reddit thread that was written by a PC player.

The Logitech G Saitek Heavy Equipment bundle (the one with the side panel covered in farming-specific buttons and the little loader stick) is PC only. It shows up in every “best Farming Simulator wheel” list ever written, and it will not do anything when you plug it into an Xbox. It’s a great product. It’s a great product for a computer you don’t own.

Anything from Moza. Moza has no Xbox licensing at all. Their wheels are excellent and irrelevant here.

The Logitech G29 and the Thrustmaster T300, T150, T248P and T128P. Those are PlayStation and PC. Xbox wheels need Microsoft’s security chip, and the manufacturers sell separate hardware for each console. Thrustmaster’s naming is the trap: the T248 comes in a “P” flavor (PlayStation) and an “X” flavor (Xbox), and the box art looks almost identical. Same with the T128. Check the letter before you click buy.

PXN, Hori’s cheaper “Apex” model, and every unbranded wheel on Amazon with 4,000 suspiciously enthusiastic reviews. Not licensed, not recognized.

Fanatec’s CSL DD is Xbox compatible if you buy it with an Xbox-ready rim, and it will absolutely run Farming Simulator. It is also $500 to $700 by the time you have pedals, for a game where direct drive brings nothing to the table. If you also race in Forza or ACC on that Xbox, fine, buy the Fanatec and skip the rest of this article. If you just want to bale hay, that money is better spent on a second monitor.

What you’re left with on Xbox is basically three force feedback wheels (G923, T248, T128), the older G920, TMX and TX if you find one used, and the Hori Overdrive as a no-force-feedback fallback. Small field. Makes the decision easier.

Why buttons matter more than torque in this game

Every wheel review on the internet is written by a racing brain, so it’s all about torque in Nm, belt versus gear, and how the wheel behaves when you catch a slide at Spa. None of that is what Farming Simulator asks of a wheel.

Think about what you actually do in a session. Turn on the engine. Lower the cultivator. Activate it. Engage cruise control at 12 km/h. Reach the headland, raise, turn around, lower, activate again. Tab to the next vehicle. Attach a trailer. Toggle the lights because it got dark. Unfold the sprayer. Change the camera. Open the map. That is a dozen distinct inputs before you have driven fifty meters.

On console, the wheel button mapping for Farming Simulator is mostly fixed, not fully rebindable the way it is on PC. So the number of physical buttons directly determines how often you have to put the controller down on the wheel rim and go hunting for the pad. I did the count on my own setups over a few weeks of FS22 and then FS25:

Those torque figures are approximate and manufacturers are cagey about them, but the ordering is right. The T248 is noticeably stronger than the G923 in the hand, and the G923 and T128 feel close to each other.

The T248 with its 25 buttons covers nearly everything you touch regularly. With the G923 I was reaching for the controller constantly. Not occasionally. Constantly.

Thrustmaster T248 (Xbox): the one I’d actually buy

Out of the box the T248 feels a little plasticky, and the rim is smaller than it looks in photos, about 28 cm across. Don’t let that put you off. Give it a week.

The base clamps to a desk with a screw clamp that is fine on a thick desk and marginal on an Ikea Linnmon. It’s a heavier base than the T128 and if your desk is flimsy you’ll feel it shuffle when you crank full lock in a big Fendt. I ended up on a Wheel Stand Pro clone, which is what most people do eventually anyway.

The pedals are the T3PM set: three pedals, magnetic sensors instead of potentiometers, which means they don’t develop the dead-spot jitter that plagued older Thrustmaster pedals. They are light plastic and they will slide on carpet. Everyone ends up with a heavy book behind them or a strip of gaffer tape. For farming you use the throttle and the brake and nothing else, so the clutch is dead weight, but the spring in the brake is at least progressive enough that holding a tractor on a hill isn’t a chore.

The bit that surprised me is how much the extra torque helps. Farming Simulator’s force feedback is basic. You get self-centering, a bit of weight that scales with speed, and some rumble when you hit ruts or drive across a ploughed field. That is it. But with a bigger, heavier tractor the game applies more resistance, and on the T248 in the Boost 2 setting you feel a Case Magnum steer like a Case Magnum and a Fendt 200 Vario steer like a lawnmower. On the G923 they blur together. It’s a subtle thing that makes long sessions less samey.

The on-wheel screen is useful on console specifically because it lets you swap force feedback presets (Boost 1, 2, 3, plus a couple of others) without going into a game menu. In FS25 I run the wheel on Boost 2, in-game force feedback around 70%, steering sensitivity dead center, and no deadzone. Boost 3 is mostly noise. It makes the ruts feel like potholes and the base gets warm after a couple of hours.

Quirks after a month: the rim has a slight play at center, maybe a degree, which comes from the hybrid drive and is normal. The rotary encoders on the front are stiff and clicky in a way I like but some people on the Thrustmaster Discord hate. The paddles are magnetic and satisfying and you will use them for absolutely nothing in a tractor.

You can add the Thrustmaster TH8A shifter to the T248 on Xbox. In FS25 with the manual transmission option turned on, it works, but the game’s gearing is simplified enough that most people go back to automatic after a novelty week. Don’t budget for it up front.

Thrustmaster T128 (Xbox): the sensible budget pick

The T128 is the T248 with the fat trimmed off. Same hybrid drive idea, weaker motor, fewer buttons, two pedals instead of three (the T2PM set, also magnetic), and a rim that’s a little small and a little rubbery. Around $180 most of the year, and it dips under $150 on sale often enough that it’s worth waiting a week if you’re not in a hurry.

Thirteen buttons is enough. Not comfortable, but enough. You’ll be picking up the controller for things like the map, shop, and some implement toggles, but the core loop of lower, activate, cruise, raise, tab is all on the wheel.

Force feedback is weaker and on the G923’s level, which is fine for this game. The centering spring feel at low speed is a touch artificial, and in a heavy combine I found myself wishing for the T248’s extra weight. Clamp is lighter and actually easier on a thin desk than the T248’s, since there is less mass fighting you.

The known gripe: the T128 has no shifter port and no expansion. What you buy is what you get forever. For a first wheel on a budget, that’s an acceptable trade. The other gripe, which comes up on r/simracing every couple of weeks, is that the plastic pedal base flexes if you stomp it. In farming, nobody stomps. Non-issue here.

If you’re buying for a kid, or you’re not sure you’ll stick with wheel play, this is the one. If you know you’ll do 200 hours, spend the extra on the T248 now rather than upgrading later.

Logitech G923 (Xbox): good wheel, wrong game

I want to be fair to the G923 because I’ve owned three Logitech wheels over the years and they’ve all been reliable to the point of boredom. The G923 is well built, the rim is leather-wrapped and pleasant, the clamp is the best of the three, and the whole thing feels more expensive than it is. Which is a problem, because it isn’t cheap.

The two things that make it a poor fit for Farming Simulator:

Button count. Ten buttons and a D-pad, laid out for racing. The dial is nice in Forza for brake bias. In FS it’s mapped to something you’ll forget within an hour. You will live with the controller in your lap.

Gear drive noise and TrueForce. The G923 is gear-driven, and gear drive means the famous Logitech rattle when the force feedback fires. In a racing game that rattle is masked by the intensity of the effects. In FS, where the effects are mostly slow resistance and gentle rumble, the rattle is the loudest thing in the room. Cranking in-game force feedback above about 60% makes it worse, so you end up with weaker feel than the Thrustmasters just to keep it quiet. TrueForce, Logitech’s audio-driven feedback trick, needs the game to support it. Farming Simulator doesn’t.

The pedals are the strongest part of the package. Metal faces, a proper feel, and that rubber block under the brake that gives a fake load-cell progression. Racing people rip the rubber out. For farming leave it in; it makes holding position on a slope easy.

If someone gives you a G923 for Xbox, use it happily. If you’re spending your own money for farming, it is the worst value of the three.

What about a wheel with no force feedback?

The Hori Racing Wheel Overdrive is Xbox licensed, has a spring-centered wheel with no motor, and sells for around $120. It’s on Giants’ supported list. I’ve spent an afternoon with one and it is… fine. Steering a tractor with a spring wheel feels like driving with a broken power steering pump, but it works and the pedals are usable.

Force feedback earns its cost in this game less through immersion and more through the speed-weighted resistance. At 40 km/h on the road, an FFB wheel firms up and stops you from twitching into a ditch. The Hori doesn’t. If the T128 is truly out of reach, the Hori is defensible. Otherwise stretch.

Settings that actually help

Farming Simulator on console gives you fewer wheel options than PC, but the ones that exist are worth touching.

• Steering sensitivity lives in the settings under controls. Leave it at default first. If tight headland turns feel like the wheel hits a wall, drop it a notch rather than raising it.
• Force feedback in game: 60 to 70% on the G923 (any higher, the rattle), 70 to 80% on the T128, 70% on the T248 with Boost 2 on the wheel.
• Deadzone: zero on all three. These wheels are precise enough.
• Rotation: the game uses the full 900°, and you want it. Real tractors need three or four turns lock to lock, and Farming Simulator’s tractors are already faster-steering than reality. Cutting rotation down to 540° makes a T7 handle like a go-kart and you lose fine control on seeding passes.
• Camera: get comfortable putting the free-look camera on the D-pad. It is the single most-used control on the wheel once you’re on a mower with a wide deck.

Wheel play in FS also exposes something pad players never notice: the road AI traffic is glacial, and you’ll spend a lot of time behind it at 30 km/h with nowhere to overtake. That’s not the wheel’s fault. That’s Giants.

FAQ

Does the Farming Simulator side panel work on Xbox? No. The Logitech G Saitek Farm Sim side panel and vehicle control panel are PC only. They do not have Xbox licensing and will not be recognized, no matter what USB port you try. On Xbox your button count comes entirely from the wheel itself, which is why the T248’s 25 buttons is such a big deal here.

Will an Xbox One wheel work on Xbox Series X or Series S? Yes. Every Xbox-licensed wheel that worked on Xbox One works on Series X|S, and the G923, T248X and T128X all work across the whole family. The console generation doesn’t matter for wheel choice. The letter on the Thrustmaster box does.

Do you need force feedback for Farming Simulator? Need, no. Want, yes. The game’s feedback is simple, but the speed-based resistance is what stops you from oversteering on the road and lets you feel how heavy the vehicle is. A no-FFB wheel like the Hori Overdrive is usable. A cheap FFB wheel like the T128 is a clear step up and only costs about $50 more.

Before you order

Buy the Thrustmaster T248 if you’re spending in the $250 to $350 range. Buy the Thrustmaster T128 if you’re under $200 or not sure you’ll stick with it. Buy the Logitech G923 only if you also play Forza seriously and want a single wheel for both, or if you find one well under $250.

Whichever you pick, check three things before the card comes out. One: the listing says Xbox, and for Thrustmaster the model has an X on the end, not a P. Two: you have a desk edge at least 3 cm thick with nothing underneath for the clamp to hit, or a stand. Three: pull up Giants’ official supported hardware page for Farming Simulator 25 on your console and confirm the wheel is on it. It changes with patches, and a wheel that “should” work is not a wheel that works.