Trucking Digest

In the last Digest I said I’d be writing about the New SCS Volvo VNL in this post, so without more ado that’s what I’m going to do 😉 That the Volvo VNL has been a long wanted addition to American Truck Sim was clearly evidenced by the plethora of tweeted shots within hours of SCS announcing the truck’s presence in the release. There has long been a mod of the 670 variant of this truck by Aradeth – one that I have tried and did a video of me diving some time back. But not every player wants to download mods, especially when they are from 3rd party sites, because of the risks involved. So an officially licensed version was greeted as a blessing from heaven – especially as SCS added it for free to everyone who owns the base game! As an aside, if any of you are thinking of giving American Truck Sim a go on your PC, now is a good time because the game is available in the Steam autumn sale for £3-74p or just under $5, as is Euro Truck Sim 2 should you prefer that option.

SCS have clearly had this truck waiting in the wings until they got License from Volvo North America and it’s probably best seen as a place marker for the future release of the 2018 model of the truck. They’ve stayed away from duplicating Aradeth’s version and released the 300 (day-cab), 730 and 780 (Sleeper) versions of the truck. The first immediate difference that owners of the Aradeth version will note is the lack of animation of the steering wheel and Satnav when starting the truck – if you’ve never owned that version then it’s an irrelevance. The texturing of the truck interior is relatively coarse compared with some private mods out there which means that if you get in really close to some of the cab fittings there is a degree of jaggedness but in normal driving you won’t notice and the good news is that lower textures help with frame-rates 🙂

I normally do a shakedown run in any new truck in case I’ve missed something when going through the purchase process – a short job with a moderate load. On this occasion though one of the new Special Transport jobs was there to take and I decided to give that a go. At least the run around San Francisco Bay to get to the collection point gave me a chance to get a basic feel of the truck. So here she is on that Special Transport run complete with the Police escort keeping the following traffic back…

The mod comes with a number of official paint colors and some of the special paint job options such as the Halloween or Operation Big Sur ones. I liked the Thunderbird scheme based on Native American art which I think works well on this truck……Though in the long term she will be painted in one of the stock Volvo colors because there doesn’t seem to be the same tradition of special paint jobs on US Volvos that there is on Peterbilt’s or Kenworth’s.

There were / are a couple of little niggles with this truck which SCS will no doubt rectify over the next couple of game releases. The first was a glare issue with the wind screen – something which was there in the Peterbilt 579 and Kenworth 680 trucks when the game first released in 2016. Perhaps that is an indication that this Volvo was originally intended to be available from the first if Licensing had not been an issue. SCS have already fixed that bug and the glare is gone. The other issue that I’m aware of is with the in-cab indication that the bears want you to pop-in and see them at the next weigh-station. This has red and green led lights that are usually off but light up to tell you to either come in or pass as you approach. Currently these are permanently on. Some people are finding the engine sounds and the way the automatic gearbox works a bit odd. To me, driving a European Volvo from time to time, the automatic gearbox seems to be behaving much as I would expect. The engine does seem a little loud compared with its European counterparts but I believe noise legislation differences may be a part of that – I do know that a number of people are waiting for prolific sounds modder Kreichbaum to produce a pack of engine sounds for this truck.

All in all I think this is a great addition to stock for the game. The truck drives well and the cab instruments are well presented making them very easy to read…

I’ll leave you with a shot of her climbing the grades south of Pendleton in Oregon with a load of Wood Shavings bound for Jackpot, Nevada……and one of her driving through hometown Bakersfield in the early morning, after she was repainted in metallic ‘Carolina Green’, with a mobile barrier…

I’m now going to pass her on to one of my fellow ‘Republik Trucking’ drivers and dig out the Peterbilt 389 ‘Night Train’ that I mentioned in a previous post before the major v1.32 game update. You’ve never met her so I’ll share some shots next time and also some more from Europe. Happy Trucking everyone 🙂