Decisions.. Decisions…

In a flurry of last minute driving in American truck Sim v1.35 Beta I made it to level 13 and had more than enough money to buy the truck I wanted. In fact i had so much money that I could immediately add some glitz to the truck. The vehicle I’ve chosen as my first in this new profile is the Peterbilt 579 with the stand-up sleeper cab. I’ve specified the PACCAR MX-13 455HP engine and the Eaton-Fuller 13sp gearbox with retarder. The chassis is 6×4. This will be a good truck for general haulage work with loads up to around 45000lbs.

The biggest dilema with a new truck, for me anyhow, is the paint scheme. There are factory standard colors, factory special metallics and some custom paint jobs. I sometimes go with the latter option but a truck like the 579 actually looks very good in a simple color or metallic finish. I think custom paint is more suited to classic trucks like the Peterbilt 389 or the Kenworth W900.

I looked at the standard and metallic options and I think my favorites amongst these colors were the Deep Black and the Dark Red Metallic. Both of these look really good with the chrome mirrors and sun visor. In the end I decided to have a go at making my own metallic mix. Remembering a Gold scheme I had on a Kenworth W900 in the past, I tried that idea first. It didn’t really work for the 579 – Rolled Gold will have to wait for that Kenny or perhaps for a 389! Then I tried creating a metallic black – this was much better with the chrome and gave a more glossy appearance than the Deep Black standard paint.

We set our on our first job into the night with a load of Cement from Bakersfield to San Francisco…
Overall I was quite pleased and on a later run the truck looked wonderful cruising through Sacramento with a petrol tanker – if only every company trailer livery was so suited to black!..
I was still pondering the red option though. One nice anomaly in the game is that once you have chosen a paint scheme where you choose the colors yourself, you can alter them at no additional cost. So back at Bakersfield i decided to try creating my own Red metallic. I was very pleased with the result and decided to keep the truck red for a while.

Remember the loadsamoney situation I mentioned at the start? I decided that I would buy myself a trailer. I went with a 53ft Dry Van and painted it in one of the special schemes where you can choose the colors. I think I’ve got the red or black versions of my truck covered with this one!..
Here we are passing through Weed, CA…
Inside the cab I have fitted an SCI wheel which picks up the truck color and looks nice in red or black…
Here we are grinding up a grade on Highway 20 in Oregon with the sun behind us – notice how it picks out the highlights of the metallic paint…