June 2019

Here we are with another week of purely American Truck Simulator driving. Currently, my ATS hours trail those of Euro Truck by around 100, so the catch-up is well underway. Next week I intend to blend in some driving from both games to share with you.

This week saw my money and experience in the new post v1.35 profile cross the point where I could upgrade the garage in Bakersfield, buy a second truck and hire a driver. This would have happened sooner but, as you will have seen from the last couple of posts, I have been experimenting with a couple of owned trailer types and trailers don’t come cheap! It does set Republik Trucking up well for the company to grow – two general purpose trailers for drivers to use.

The big question for me was what truck I should buy. The choice seemed to be the between the Peterbilt 389 or the Kenworth W900L. Both very fine beasts. I looked long and hard at both of these and a variety of paint jobs. Rolled Gold – my old W900L – came close to being ressurected and she probably still will be. I also had a couple of ideas for a 389 but for some reason I couldn’t settle on which to buy. The good news is that the post v1.35 dust has now settled on the mod’s in the workshop and all of them are now compliant with the new game version. So I took a look there. First, let me note that Harven has added a new truck to the collection – the Kenworth W990. I will certainly take a look at that one soon. Back on line are the Freightliner FLB and the Mack R600 too – both favourites of mine. GTM have also updated their Kenworth T800, T610 and W900B along with the Peterbilt 567. So, a plethora of trucks to choose from.

As I have been driving the current Peterbilt 579, I decided that an older truck would be nice and I’ve gone with that old fave, the Freightliner FLB. I’ve fitted her with a Cummins N14 460E engine and the 13sp Eaton-Fuller box. It’s quite interesting comparing this older engine with the current MX13 455HP engine fitted to the Pete 579. With a heavy load I find that I need to use the splitter more when changing up than on the more modern MX13 – it just seems that the engine is less flexible than the current type. However, I have found that being proactive in keeping the revs in the sweet spot results in good fuel economy (even if it does mean not enjoying the sounds from the engine at higher revs!).

The FLB is finished in an old-school brown and white paint scheme. I took the decision to run without my own trailers for a while to carry a wider variety of loads. The 579 has been passed to a new driver with 12834 miles on the clock. We can swap back in the future should I wish as my logging of truck distance is based around each truck’s odometer and I should be able to maintain a record of how many mile I’ve personally driven in each truck. Anyway, here are some shots of our FLB…

Arriving at home base after a shakedown run – time to pop over the road for coffee and donuts with the local bears 😉