Share Your Desktop – November 2022

It’s all trucks this month for Clare’s Share Your Desktop Challenge!

The last week of October saw SCS software running an event for Halloween in their Truck Simulator games. You can read about the Happy Hauloween event on SCS’s blog. I decided to do all 13 required deliveries in American Truck Simulator. I used my ‘non-company’ profile and fired up The Undertaker to do the work. Here we are late at night with a worried looking security man…

The Undertaker is a Peterbilt 389 and usually sports a deep gloss black paint job – but she’s wearing a pumpkin themed special for the event. While this shot is not on my desktop, I’ve included it for completeness…

…The view from behind the wheel. While having some Halloween fun, we were also supporting Breast Cancer Awareness – hence the pink ribbon boxing gloves😎

On the photo pc, we have a shot of a DAF XF105 6×4 510HP truck parked on my road…

…That sky makes a wonderful contrast with the yellow of the NMT livery 😎Getting the mobile crane it delivered into the factory must have been fun with the telephone pole and cables in close proximity to the entrance!

Trucking Digest

Changing the Guard – Azyet has reached the point when she goes on R & R. I parked her up for the last time on October 29th and climbed into the new truck. It seems a bit sad when this time comes although I know that we’ll be travelling together again in future. Here she is in all her glory…

…with the Polizei. We had a laugh about that when I was asked if we were pulled over – I said, “We would have been if he’d seen my hand-signal.”🤣

The view from the driver’s seat in Azyet is very good and I like the mirror placement…

…That’s a shot as we were running into Lyon on one occasion. The info on the dash is good too, though you’re guessing a little regards the speed for setting cruise as the needle is affected by your eye angle. I’m going to miss the reassuring rumble of the Paccar 460HP engine and the gearbox that is well attuned to my preferred driving style.

Azyet did have one last duty to do just prior to going on leave – carrying the special paint job celebrating 10 years of Euro Truck Simulator 2…

Enter the new lady in my life – meet Aleixa…

…She’s a Renault – I guess, as a French company we should have Renaults 😅 In more depth, she’s a Range T High with a 480HP engine and Optidrive gearbox. Drive-wise it’s an interesting comparison. The engine sounds mushy compared with the DAF but it certainly has a lot of grunt. Those extra 20HP are working well. So far, the fuel consumption is looking good and I’d expect that we will achieve similar lphk between the trucks despite having more horses because of the improved technology of Aleixa’s Euro 6 engine compared with Azyet’s Euro 5.

Aleixa’s forward view is pretty good…

…Passing another truck in northern Spain. The digital speed indication removes any doubts about what speed you’re actually doing. Lots of other important info clearly shown too! The mirrors are pretty well placed – though I prefer the DAF arrangement. I guess I’ll get used to it😅

Aleixa is based at our Barcelona depot and, in case you were wondering, her name is Catalan in origin 😎👍

See you on the road soon!

The DAF thang…

I love driving in Euro Truck Simulator and I drive a DAF most of the time. But, when I go out to photo trucks in the real world, I don’t choose to shoot only DAF vehicles. That said, many of my recent shots just happen to be of DAF trucks – purely a chance occurrence. But it does give an opportunity to look at some of the range in real world use.

Here’s a DAF XF operating for Fowler Welch with a reefer running into Bognor Regis…

…presumably delivering foodstuffs to a local supermarket. Note that it is a 6×2 arrangement (the extra axle on the tractor unit) – allowing maximum 44t loads to be carried in the UK. Apologies for the smudges on the windscreen of our coach – taken on the way home from a football match 😉

That is a type of work that Martin Transport et Logistique does. Here’s another job that Azyet has done – delivering flowers. This nicely turned-out Van der Burg DAF XF 4×2 specialises in floral deliveries, so it’s never going to breach the weight limit that would require the extra axle…

…It’s a lovely looking truck and I get to see it most Wednesday’s delivering to florists in my hometown.

Here’s something a bit smaller – a DAF LF. Much more a ‘local distribution’ truck than the articulated beasts that we drive in Euro Truck Simulator. This one is operating on behalf of German logistics company Dachser…

…Brand new and advertising a partnership with Thames Group, I guess Dachser are expanding!

Here’s another job that Azyet does – delivering Airfreight…

…This H.E.T. DAF is a 4×2 because, once again, airfreight is light, so the extra axle won’t be needed to meet UK axle weight laws.

Finally, here’s a very specialised DAF, another LF…

…Temperature control and custom-built body, this truck is probably carrying a very high value car (Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc…) That’s a job for a specialist and way beyond Azyet’s pay-grade 😉

I hope that was an interesting set of DAF vehicles – all the articulated vehicles are examples of the more recent XF (106). The previous DAF XF 105 series trucks like Azyet are still earning a crust – here’s a Waberer’s example in Willesden…

…I have yet to catch one of the XF next generation trucks on the highway – I’ll let you know when I do 😉