Gavril T75

For anyone who can't picture what that tiny frame is most likely for:

GMC Astro and Ford CTL day cabs in a 2x4 config... Both are contemporary class 8 trucks by members of the big 3 which had conventional cab counterparts and were offered in 2x4 and 4x6 drivetrain options. Visually the existing T-Series resembles the Chevy Bison a lot as well, and has almost identical model years.

Fun fact, there are GMC Astros out there with the Detroit Diesel 12V71. I know the team probably isn't going to attempt to get one of those in game due to the difficulty of properly doing the audio for one, but that hasn't stopped me from dreaming about it...

 

I hope we get front bumper mudflaps for the T-Series (though not necessarily with the ‘Gavril’ logo). It would add so much to the truck’s appearance, and it was also a common period accessory.

 

I've been meaning to do one forever too, but I'm just going to go for it. Better late than never right?

Chassis-
Suspension
One of my original wish list items was more rear suspension options, it looks like we'll get that based on the most recent teaser. I'd also like to see some improvements to the current air ride. Mainly make if function like real air ride. It would be nice if it had a virtual ride height valve to adjust suspension pressures as loading conditions changed. A few different spring pack options for the front axle would be cool too, most IRL class 8 trucks have somewhere between a 12,000lb to 22,000lb rated front axle. Having a 12,000lb, 16,000 and 20,000 front axle option in game would be probably just the right amount of variety, just like the D-series has 3 different rear spring options. Now that I'm thinking about it I'm not sure how common the super heavy front axles were on older trucks, but if the T-series gets an interior update to bring it into the 90s a 20,000 axle would definitely be feasible. I can take some pictures of the 16,000 and 20,000 springs under some of the trucks I drive if the devs want reference photos for modeling.
Tires/Wheels
It also looks like we'll be getting dayton style wheels, awesome! If we get heavier front axles it would make sense to have some wide base front tires, 315, 385 and 425 are the most common widths. I don't know how detailed the devs want to get, but technically the older trucks (pre 70s-ish) should have 20 and 22 inch rims that are split ring not split rim, there is a difference. Anything newer would have regular rims in 22.5 and 24.5 sizes. There would also be a split sometime in the 90s between stud vs hub piloted wheels, but that makes basically no difference in the looks. Speaking of cosmetics, I'd love to see some options for lug nut and hub covers. It's one of the easiest and most common ways a driver can change the look of a truck, so it would be cool to see some basic options and some more goofy stuff like the big spike and cylinder lug nut covers.
Chassis add-ons
There are already plenty of suggestions for upfits so I'll focus more on the basic stuff. Other than drop axles, I want those bad enough that I'll repeat it again. If we do get drop axles it would also make sense to have a sliding 5th wheel. Adjustable 5th wheels are already common on single and tandem axle trucks but they're a necessity to transfer weight forward on a truck with more axles. A small note on the current 5th wheel model too, it looks like it's bolted through the top of the frame rail. If you look at real trucks you'll notice that they almost never drill through or weld to the top or bottom flange of the frame. Usually 5th wheels and other upfits are mounted with angle iron or some other bracketry so the bolts go through the webbing in the middle of the frame rails. The cab steps also aren't very realistic currently, seeing as they're just hollow shells. Usually the driver's side houses the batteries (at least 2, up to 4 is the most I've seen) and the passenger side is a tool box. A lot of trucks might only have one step for the batteries and a fuel tank with steps on the opposite side. Some trucks have tanks with steps under both sides of the cab and a smaller battery box somewhere else on the frame. The possible combinations are nearly endless because these trucks are so modular, but if the T-series got a least a few more options for step/battery box/fuel tank placement that would really add some variety and realism. Air tanks too, something the current T-series doesn't have at all. Sometimes hidden under the steps, sometimes just hanging off the frame, sometimes hidden under the passenger seat. Wherever they are it would be nice to see a couple air tanks on the truck somewhere. I almost forgot rear fenders. Even if we just got basic quarter fenders in the vanilla game, at least the slot will be there so adding more custom options will be easier.

Drivetrain-
Transmission
I know this has been on the wishlist of many for a while, but we really need a way to shift through all the gears with a standard 6+R shifter. A transmission with more gears would also be great for heavy hauling. I could see a standard 12 speed that uses just a range selector and an 18 speed that uses 2 buttons for a range selector and a splitter on the top half of the gears. That's not the same as the real 13 and 18 speeds but it would be close enough to make me happy while still being easier to grasp for someone who hasn't driven a truck.
Engine
More engine options would be nice, to reflect to real world options of Cat, Cummins, Detroit and occasionally a manufacturer specific option, but that's more of a nice to have. What I really want is a compression (jake) brake. IMO it's hard to call the T-series a real truck until it can slow down by releasing the compression stroke out the exhaust and waking up an entire neighborhood (if it has straight pipes).
Axles
Trucks often have many options for manufacturer and weight ratings of the rear axles, but I'm not sure if that would add much to the game as most of them look pretty much the same from the outside, unless the lighter options were coded (j-beamed, whatever I'm not a dev) so they would actually fail when you overloaded them. (Enough about tire thermals what we really need is wheel bearing thermals.) However I would like to see some more lower (numerically higher) axle ratios. The 2 available just don't cut it for hauling heavy.

Everything Else-
Hood
Round headlights, maybe even separated from the fenders, would be neat. Could be on an older model truck or just as an aftermarket option. Cosmetically I think the grille bars should be horizontal. The truck currently looks too close to an International IMO, and horizontal bars seem to be the preferred design language of all the other Gavril vehicles. Vertical bars and some other options could still be available as aftermarket since custom grilles are a pretty common modification in the trucking world. A set back front axle would be a neat option to see. It's mostly for looks in game because we don't have to worry about weight placement and scales, but it does help with the wheelbase and turning radius a little. SBA trucks weren't as common in the 70s and 80s from what I can tell, but they definitely started catching on by the 90s. More common to see them on vocational trucks, here are some pics if anyone is unfamiliar.

Similar to the last truck, it would be neat to have a sloped hood too, sometimes that's done for aero, sometimes it's just because the cab is mounted higher, which brings me to the...
Cab
Most vocational/off road oriented trucks have the cab mounted higher off the frame so they can run the exhaust under the cab. Exhaust under the frame doesn't last as long off road and can catch dry grass on fire. In general most of the different truck models from one manufacturer are all the same cab but mounted differently with a different hood. I'll use KW as an example because I know them best.

All of those trucks share the same basic cab design (the C500 does too, but that's a different league of truck), so it would be cool to see the devs get some more mileage out of the T-series cab. The W900 (last truck) also has external air filters, pretty common feature on older trucks that I think the T-series is missing.

A lot of older and/or more basic trucks had one air filter on the passenger side and either nothing or an oil reservoir on the drivers side. Sometimes that reservoir was for the power steering, but some were for an extra filter and added capacity for the engine oil, usually called by the brand name Luberfiner. Some trucks even had both.

The Luberfiner filter became less popular into the 90s, but more of the trucks that had an external air cleaner started coming with 2 cans, passenger and driver. If the devs want to add both a set back axle and external air cleaners, they'll probably have to make a split fender hood so the backs of the fenders clear the air can, pretty common on the real thing. Moving back on the cab, I'd like to see an optional peeper window in the bottom of the passenger door, another common feature on the real thing to help with blind spots. Inside the cab we definitely need an updated interior. To my knowledge Kenworth with the W900A was the last to have a flat metal dash like the T-series, and they stopped A model production on 1982, so having such a plain dash in a supposed 1986 truck is a bit of a stretch. If the devs want any high quality reference photos of 90s Kenworth or Peterbilt interiors I can provide, any other makes I don't have immediate access to. The cab also needs a real cutout to get to the sleeper, but I'm guessing that will be part of the remaster. As for sleepers, more would be great, and some aero add-ons. Also the tiny window on the current sleeper should be a pop out vent. Obviously windows in the sleeper are a thing, but they were never that small. Oh and a stainless sunvisor option should be in the vanilla game. Big drop visors are another common truck customization, but we should at least have the choice between painted fiberglass and polished stainless steel.
Lighting
I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to lighting, and it will be obvious with how pedantic I am about to be. But if the Covet has North American market taillights with red reflectors I feel like the devs must pay attention to the details. The Low beam should be on top and the high beam below with the current headlight arrangement. The low beam should always be higher and farther out than the low beam according to the US government. Why? I dont' know but thems the rules. The front turn signals should probably raised up somehow, it doesn't do much good to have a double sided turn signal that is blocked by the fender on the backside. An optional set of turn signals on the mirror brackets would also be cool. The cab lights, in addition to being glued to the cab and glitchy in a crash, look kinda goofy IMO. Pretty much every truck on the road (before lights molded into the cab or visor) has Grakon 1000 or 5000 cab lights.
1000 5000
The tail lights having separate amber turns is not against any rules but is kind of weird for a North American truck, but the fact that the amber lights light up with the parking lights is against the rules. Anything facing rearward that lights up with the parking/running/marker/clearance lights should be red. It's much more common for the back of bobtail tractors and straight trucks to have combined tail/brake/turn like the Bruckell Bastion. The trailers however have separate brake and turn lights 99% of the time (semi trailers, pickup trailers always have combined brake turn, in N.A.) Most of the time they're still red turn signals, but they are separate. They also use either a 4 inch round or 6 inch oval light mounted in a rubber grommet 99% of the time, this makes it easy to change them when they fail (or change to amber turn signals, which I've done on most of our trailers to hopefully grab drivers' attention better). Everything other than a bobtail tractor should also have the 3 center marker lights on the back, mounted as high as possible, and side facing lights, amber in the front and red in the back. It's not technically lighting but all of the trucks and trailers that are taller should have white reflective strips facing backwards marking the upper corners as well as red and amber reflectors on the corners. Although enforcement for the reflectors and reflective tape is much more lax than the lights themselves so there seems to be a bit of variance between upfit manufacturers on how much they actually put on.

I maintain all of the lighting on our company's truck and trailer fleet so I know most of these rules better than the average bear. If anything needs further clarification let me know. Also most of the trailers have marker lights that double as brake or turn lights. While that is a little more common now with LED lights, it's still not something seen very often and the trailers in game look like they use incandescent lights which are rarely dual intensity other than the larger brake and turn lights.
The End (mostly)
Sorry for the giant wall of text, but I really like trucks. Props to anyone that can point out all the movie and TV famous trucks that I used for reference photos. One last thing, I'm not a fan of the current naming scheme for the T-series. Other than Ford adding a T for tandem in their truck names, no manufacturer that I know of has ever named their trucks based on the number of axles. I get that it might be similar to how pickups are named but class 8 trucks are generally just named based on the cab/hood configuration and you can spec them out with 1, 2 or even 3 drive axles, whatever length frame you want and add however many drop axles you want (although those are aftermarket a lot of the time). Thanks for your time. If anyone has any questions let me know, especially the devs.

 

Can you guys make a modern truck, almost like a Freightliner Cascadia from 2022 or 2023?

 

I think it would make sense to have higher numbers for the new frames, following the same pattern as the current frames like the T65 and T75. I would like to see an ingame T85, T95 or a T115, T125 and T135 considering the amount of frames as shown in the teaser. (48 frames is immaculate)

 

Seeing as you're very new to the forums and have a Bugatti profile picture, I'm assuming you're young.
Do not ask anybody to make a vehicle just because you want it.
If you find the right people, you could possibly commission it from them, but if you want a quality mod, you could be waiting for over a year.

 

That's not very realistic if you compare it to real world naming schemes. And currently the numbers are based off axles not frame length, which is better but still seems weird IMO.

 

I'm pretty sure that the naming scheme is a combination of frame length, frame weight ratings, axle count, and suspension on the rear axles. Just what I think though

 

One last thing (technically two actually), the side reflector strips seem to be oriented the wrong way. I’m not sure if this is a hard rule but basically every trailer and upfit body I’ve seen in my own driving career has the white part of the strips pointing to the front, and the red part points to the back. Some have longer strips with alternating white and red, like in the second picture, but seems to always begin with the white section towards the front and end with the red section towards the back.


The second thing is trailer side skirts like in the first image, to help modernize the trailer. The metal under ride guards like in the second picture are also an option, but those are not as common as the type in the first picture. Technically, side under ride guards aren’t required by US regulations so the trailer could still have options without them, but it would be nice to see.

A third thing:
I don’t think the trailers have their own thread so I’ll also mention this here, I think different lengths and sizes of the trailers like in AR162’s old mod would be nice

On that same topic, a true 53’ trailer would be great (the current one in game is only 48’) as would an old style 40 footer, a reefer unit and different axle configurations, for every trailer type.

 

We currently have three frames T65, T65 short and T75, I'm not sure where you got all those other variables. Obviously there will have to be some way to identify the different chassis configs, but changing the model name (number in this case) is odd and not realistic when compared to real life trucks, at least in North America. There is no different model number for a Pete 379 with a single rear axle. A Freightliner Cascadia is still called that even if you get a different suspension. A Mack R model is still an R model if you get a 220 inch wheelbase or 260. Truck model names/numbers almost always describe the cab and hood configuration.

It kinda depends who you ask on whether or not that's a rule, but you're right generally red is toward the back. IIRC it doesn't actually say in the regulations in the written portion, but the illustrations show the red towards the back. I put the red towards the back whenever I repaint a trailer, it just makes more sense.

 

A tiny truck like that looks fun to drive

 

It makes sense because usually we think red=taillights on the back and white=headlights on the front, so the reflectors should match

 

It would probably be terrible to drive on rough roads, but it would feel like a go cart on smooth pavement.

 

Hey, I dont mean it like that, I just wanted to put it out there for a mod or addon!

 

The remastered T-Series looks great! I can't wait to squish cars with it once my update finishes downloading. I liked the little Terminator 2 reference in the devblog video.

 

I can't play the game for a few hours, so... how does it crash?! /joke

The sleeper cab looks so good. I can't wait to recreate an old model semi I have.

(This one isn't mine, mine's in better shape.)

 

Hey! Complete truck newbie here but a keen learner.

My first question is whether it ts is possible to tilt cab in cabover variant in order to reveal the engine? If so how do I do that?

Secondly what is a purpose of using compression brake? I observed that the truck coasts the best with it set to 0%. Is it supposed to aid braking somehow?

Thirdly I’ve noticed that it has high and low range. Is the low range suited specifically to towing trailers?

 

jakebreak is cool

 

1) It should theoretically be possible - the dev team showed it in that position in one of the changelog images. Try poking around inside and outside (especially behind) the cab for UI triggers.

2) A Compression Brake / Engine Brake /Jake Brake (the latter referring to Jacobs Vehicle Systems, a manufacturer of this part) is exactly what it says on the tin: A braking system that acts directly on a diesel engine by opening the engine exhaust valves, reducing internal compression and reducing the amount of fuel/air mixture that can ignite. It essentially forces the truck to decelerate by cancelling out engine power.

3) Yes, but not exactly. As with smaller vehicles, low range is well-suited for starting off, operating under heavy load, and ascending/descending steep grades.

 

1. Yes you can tilt the cabover. You click on the handles below the wipers on the front of the truck

2. To assist when going down long and or steep slopes to reduce wear and heat generation on your brakes. Some drivers use it to make it easier to shift but that was never apart of my manual training as DOT's hate it and towns don't like how loud they can be. To use the engine brake correctly you need to be in a gear (the lower the better) and keep some fuel in since the way the game works will automatically clutch out.

3. How to explain. They way it's meant to work is this. Low 1-5 are divided. 1-3 are crawl - starting gears. 4-5 are flat starting gears. Then 6-10 (high) are highway gears. Ingame it's best to think of low as low speed areas or crawling gears. Steep slopes, rough terrain very heavy loads are best in 1-3 till you get going. Then it might be better to go to 2 high or just go through all the gears. If you a keyboard player hold shift to adjust the gears better.