supersobes' ATS Screenshots

[supersobes]

Thanks a lot, @J. Ritter and @Larry71490!

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After waking up at the truck stop off of Kartchner Street in Pasco, Washington, dispatch sent me a message that they found a load for me going out of the Wallbert Supercenter store down in Kennewick. I clocked in, did my pre-trip, and moseyed on down though town to the shipper.

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Loading was pretty quick. They had 42,000 pounds of discarded shipping pallets going to a sawmill just outside of Bend, Oregon.

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Shortly after crossing the Columbia River, I stopped at the Loves in Biggs Junction to top up on diesel and DEF and use the facilities. Then I was Southbound on US-97.

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It was a good day for driving. The weather was nice, the truck was running well, and I had some good tunes going on the radio.

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Just before dusk, I found myself turning into the receiver's driveway. Crossroads like this on these two lane back highways can be dangerous. Rear-end collisions between turning traffic and traffic continuing on the highway account for 29% of the accidents at crossroads on such highways, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Signaling early, slowing down gradually, and checking the traffic behind in your mirrors are imperative to avoiding these types of accidents.

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[Wolfi]

That was a good story and I like the balance of text and screenshots :3

[Phantom19]

I like the design of that Cadillac Escalade,is that SCS or a modded ai?Looks good enough to be roaming with supersobes and learns where he is going to take his trailer.

[BK Vissers]

Nice little tale of signalling and havoc on the highway.

[supersobes]

@Wolfi Thanks! I'm glad you like it. I appreciate the helpful feedback on the text to screenshot ratio too.

@ArTrailfanRaf214 The Cadillac Escalade is an SCS AI model. All of my screenshots show here are taken in pure vanilla, so everything you see here can be found in the base game and official SCS DLCs. I don't think this driver is following me though. I think they just happen to be another road user. I saw them merge on behind me at Empire Boulevard back in downtown Bend, and I've never seen that car again since.

@BK Vissers Thank you! Highway safety is one of the most prolific parts of trucking, yet it is rarely brought up. I often find myself thinking about how I can drive safer and more efficiently when I'm driving in ATS, so I decided to include some of these thoughts into the stories of my travels. After playing this game for so long, I find that paying attention to the fine details of driving adds a new level of challenge and immersion to the game. As a side effect, it makes me a better and more aware driver in real-life too.

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After waiting all night at the Seattle port for a load, dispatch decided that they were going to have me do a short deadhead down to the Tacoma port to pickup my next load which would take me back to Kennewick.

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Loading was pretty smooth. I set out Southbound on I-5, making it through the major cities in that perfect time right between rush hour and lunchtime.

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I hopped on US-12 Eastbound and drove though some pretty nice scenery. I was taking it slow through the steep grades and sharp curves though, and I was holding up a line of four wheelers behind me. There were no passing zones or slow vehicle turnouts, but luckily none of the car drivers were too impatient to try something dangerous.

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After going though Yakima, I jumped back on the Interstate System at the junction of US-12 and I-82. Fuel economy was much better once I was back on the expressway compared to the two lane back highway. As the afternoon rush hour set in, traffic picked up though. I couldn't keep my cruise control set for very long because there was just too much traffic on this road today.

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I pulled into the yard in Kennewick at the tail end of rush hour. Even though I had a 6:30 unloading appointment, they never actually got to me until closer to ten o'clock. I didn't get out of there until 11:30. Unsurprisingly, finding parking this late at night was not easy. I circled the lot of a few truck stops, but all of them were full, and there were even trucks parked in the driveways and on the grass at some of them. Finally, I pulled into the Wallbert parking lot and set the brakes just a few minutes before my 14 hour clock was up.

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While available truck parking is getting harder to find these days, there's a surplus of parking for four wheelers. It's estimated that there are eight parking spots for every one car in the United States, and if you were to compile all of the available parking into one giant parking lot, it would be about the same size as the entire state of West Virginia!

[SmokeyWolf]

Interesting facts!

[cwat89]

What are the specs on these 2 new fine rigs?

[BK Vissers]

@BK Vissers I often find myself thinking about how I can drive safer and more efficiently when I'm driving in ATS, so I decided to include some of these thoughts into the stories of my travels. After playing this game for so long, I find that paying attention to the fine details of driving adds a new level of challenge and immersion to the game. As a side effect, it makes me a better and more aware driver in real-life too.

Those are some interesting observations. I agree. While I rarely drive crazily in the game (usually because I am trying to test something unrelated to the actual driving characteristics) when I started I was less concerned about fuel economy, and other more mundane concerns that truckers and trucking companies face. Once you’ve played the games for quite a few hours the newness wears off and one is less getting used to truck dimensions, or the challenges of shifting manually, and I developed an interest in making it a real challenge. To do so I lowered the income to 0.04, which was what Max said was realistic. The results of that decision was that watching that I avoid even minor scrape against signs, fences etc became more important. Not bouncing the curb mattered. Being quite careful to not cross the stop line at a traffic light and getting a ticket matttered. And of course, using the fuel economically mattered. Suddenly I was careful selecting loads that would make economic sense. It was transformative.

Nice pics by the way.

[supersobes]

Thank you, @Larry71490 and @BK Vissers!

@cwat89 The International LoneStar has a Cummins ISX15 that outputs 550 horsepower and 1,850 pound foot of torque at 1,200 RPM. It's connected the the wheels with an Eaton 18 speed. The Mack Anthem has the Mack MP8 under the hood which is putting out 445 horsepower and 1,860 pound foot of torque at 1,150 RPM. Behind that is a Mack mDrive 12 speed automated manual transmission with a 3.25 differential. I don't get the golden bulldog on the hood though because my truck has a steer axle from a third party supplier, so it's not 100% Mack parts.

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It was early in the morning, and I was already loaded and on my way with a load of produce from a rural part of Washington to a supermarket in Portland. While I was at the shipper getting loaded, the boss called. After I deliver this load, I am to return to the terminal because they need to see me in the office. I wonder what this could be about.

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As I headed West on I-84, my anxiety was growing as I was counting down the miles until I got to Portland. I was worrying about this meeting I had with the company. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Did I do something wrong?

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I nervously pulled into the terminal and parked the truck. To my surprise, nothing was wrong when I talked to the people in the office. In fact, it was the opposite; they were offering me a promotion! The company was finalizing some new contracts with some customers in Idaho, and they bought a new truck to serve the new demand. They had a new position hauling agricultural products in the bulk freight division, and I was the most qualified driver in the fleet for the new position. They explained to me that with the current freight market, I would be getting more miles doing that than I am currently hauling reefer OTR.

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I couldn't turn down this opportunity. I eagerly accepted position, and they told me I can start right away. I headed out to the yard to switch trucks. I got my things together and moved them to my new truck. I then started to wash the outside of my old truck and clean the interior for the next driver. The office was excited to inform me that they had hired a folf to take the position of hauling reefer freight in my old truck. I had no clue what that was even supposed to mean, but I was too focused on getting situated with my new truck to worry about that.

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My new truck, another Mack, wasn't much different. In fact, it was the exact same truck with only a few minor differences. This one was a mid roof sleeper set on top of a chassis with a shorter wheelbase. It also had the upgraded engine that had an output of 505 horsepower. The torque figure was still the same as my previous truck though.

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Once I was set in my new truck, I checked in with dispatch who already had a load waiting for me going out of The Dalles, Oregon. I hooked up to a new type of trailer that I've never hauled before: a food grade tanker. I got back on I-84 and started my trip in my new truck.

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Loading this trailer was pretty easy. It was as simple as just hooking up the hoses in the right place and letting the pumps do the work. It was time to head out. The load, which was 53,000 pounds of fruit juice, was pretty heavy. It was a little concerning at first becasue this trailer is only 43 feet long and only has two axles, so the heavy weight of this load was very concentrated.

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As this was new for me and I was unfamiliar with this truck, I decided to stop in Biggs Junction to use the CAT Scale and make sure everything was legal. To my relief, it was.

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Despite being so similar to the truck I had just gotten out of, the driving experience in this truck was different. The more powerful engine and the shorter wheelbase made for a different feel when driving the truck. Hauling tanker brought a new challenge too. I had to be careful on curves and when accelerating and braking in order to not cause the load the slosh around and upset the truck too much.

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As sunset came and went, I was nearing my delivery at the rail yard in Spokane. When I finally got to the receiver, I had a realization. I needed to sign the bills, but I had forgotten my pen in my old truck. Embarrassed that I showed up unprepared for the job, I shamefully asked the customer if I could borrow a pen.

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Once I got unloaded, I headed down the street to the Flying J where I got some rest and woke up ready for another day on the road.

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[SmokeyWolf]

@supersobes you can run the gold bulldog. Gold bulldog was for all Mack powertrain such as engine, transmission, and rear ends. If the transmission or rear ends is anything but Mack it gets the chrome bulldog.

Far as the otr market is concerned majority is chrome dogs while the vocational market is 90% gold dogs.