Gavril T75

One week ago on the Internet I came across this Amoured US Semi this could be may an Idea for a Configuration made by Gavril Defence

 

All right, now that I've had a few days to play with this I figured I'd write down my thoughts.

For reference, here's a post I made 2.5 years ago about what I was hoping to see for the T-Series remaster

First off, I want to just say that the team really went above and beyond with this remake. It really is incredible how detailed they went here, to the point where the T-Series completely outclasses anything in even dedicated truck sims. The attention to detail as far as functionality goes is really just shocking and made me appreciate this truck and the corresponding gameplay in an entirely different way. This remaster took the delivery missions from "what's the point of including these" to my favorite career mode branch. It really is incredible how far the team went with this one. The addition of a COE was an awesome surprise and I love how they handled the frame options and hope to see more modular BoF frames in the future just because it's really neat.

That being said, there's a few things I find questionable and me being me I'm always looking for more content:

• First off, we need to talk about the engine option situation here as I do feel that is a proper omission here. Before the remake that was a big gripe a lot of people had, and that hasn't changed. Yes we have 6 turbos and an NA option (I think this is our first diesel that can be configured NA, though all the configs use a turbo) but that's really it for powerplant options. I love that we now have Belasco diesel, but we really need more options than the one here. A lot of the community, myself included, wanted to see a 2 stroke diesel V block in this truck. Even if the team can't get their hands on sound files for a V8 or V12 that's appropriate, a second i6 would've been good to see.
  
• There was a lot of people hoping for more drive layouts than 4x2 and 6x4, including me in the above post, but I also feel it's fair to limit the T-Series here. We are talking about a class 8 truck from the big 3, not from a dedicated heavy truck manufacturer. Realistically, the 2 driveline options we have are representative of this class of truck from this type of manufacturer and era, bar the Ford L-Series which can be found with a wide variety of layouts. There is some argument for additional drivelines as some trucks from the big 3 did come in other layouts (the aforementioned L-Series, the crackerbox, and a few oddballs), but overall I feel it's the right move to keep the drivelines here simple and save other options for a more appropriate platform down the road. The astrisk here is the dump body, see below where I talk about that upfit.
  • A lot of people wanted an off highway T-Series. This has the same problem of off highway trucks generally being more of a thing from dedicated manufacturers than the big 3. Personally I'd say put some aggressive tires on and maybe a few inches suspension lift and let it be. Realistically that's probably more than it would get IRL and it would be fine for what this truck would be expected to come across.
• I do have to talk about that dump body... I'm really bummed that they completely removed the mid sized dump body from the pre-remake T-Series and only left us with the massive new one. In real life there's a pretty wide variety of options for size and style of dump body, and we certainly could have had both the medium and large co-existing. I really hope they add back the medium sized one. Honestly they could give us a small one too. Small dump bodies are common in DOT fleets in the USA and while they usually are put on medium duty trucks, I have seen them on trucks like the T-Series. Not sure if they were produced in the 1970's/1980's though. As for the asterisk I mentioned with the drivelines and the dump body... I'm no teamster, but I'm not sure how useful the new large dump body would ever be on a 4x6, that's a lot of weight to not have a tri-axle or drop axle platform, and it's going to be the same situation when we get the cement mixer back. I can't imagine this would be road legal with that much weight and only a 6x4 platform.
• Other upfits:
  • I'm still hoping to see wreckers/cranes/knucklebooms after we get ropables and the like.
  • A roll off would offer some new cool cargo hauling options and I imagine would be able to use mostly the same systems as the roll back.
    
  • A utility upfit would be nice to see and a really simple addition
    
  • Once upon a time it felt like everyone was asking for a car hauler T-Series; I'm surprised I haven't seen any comments about this lately... Would definitely be great to see and have some cool gameplay associated with it
• Again, not a teamster, but shouldn't the back of the cab have some gribblies? Like, some air hoses at least? The lack of air hoses is really bothering me...
• The lack of any kind of text on the trucks (DOT registration, carrier logos, etc...) is another thing really bothering me, like irrationally so. Perhaps the new paint/decal additions from 0.32 could be used so that these can be added without being tied to the skins?
  
• I have to say, the new skins really are beautiful. They all feel very appropriate and honestly I just love looking at them. But I do miss the old skins that were removed. The pinstripes weren't completely out of place and felt better than the new skins on the ram plow configs, and the Gavril Special skin would've made a great dealership advertisement truck.
  
• I like the cab sizes the team went with, but I have to mention I didn't realize just how many cab sizes some of these trucks had in real life. I wish I could find it now, but there was a brochure I stumbled upon a few weeks ago that showed a completely comical number of day cab size options alone for a contemporary COE. Cramped day cab, slightly less cramped day cab, extended day cab, etc... This has nothing to do with my thoughts on the T-Series remake; I just thought it was an interesting thing I wanted to share.
  
• Car culture/aftermarket parts:
  • As someone who grew up with games like NFS Underground and wants BeamNG to be a car culture showcase; I'm always going to want more customization content. The T-Series isn't in a bad place compared to a lot of vehicles in game, but we didn't really see much in these 2 departments from the remake. I listed a lot of options in my original post 2 years ago and a Great American Truck Race T-Series is still top of my wish list, and I still cannot explain my desire for rear fenders.
• Trailers: We saw some really great additions to the roster here; I love playing with the new trailers and still want to spend an unreasonable amount of time just looking at them. There really is some great stuff here, but also some odd choices and as always stuff I want to see
  • First off, using triggers on the trailers is a bit frustrating in some circumstances. The ability to use them while being in the truck is great, but it's a bit difficult not having the pop-up messages that you have when you activate a trigger normally. I have no idea if I'm toggling on or off the container trailer lock triggers sometimes
  • As mentioned in the update speculation thread by other users, these trailers have ABS options but we don't have a truck that's appropriate for it, and these trailers aren't really appropriate for the speculated modern Euro/Asian truck either. This isn't a bad thing, just an odd choice. Future proofing? Added because "why not"? Similarly and a bit more importantly IMO is that we don't have the parts to backdate the trailers for use with the pre-facelift T-Series. For example, none of them have options for dayton wheels. As always, I'd love to see more optional parts for the trailers we do have, specifically the dry van trailer. A refer unit and some aero panels would be great to see.
  • I fully admit this one is completely idiotic, but I'd love to see the trailer dolly get a ball hitch option so we can use it on entirely inappropriate vehicles after removing the air brakes in the parts selector. Note that users on the BeamNG subreddit are doing this with the node grabber, may as well make a "proper" way to do it without mods.
    
  • Maybe I'm looking into things too much, but is it just me or did the tanker trailer not get any updates beyond the pintle hitch addition? That seems strange to me... Am I looking too much into this, or could the team have plans for more tanker trailer types? A shortie would be more appropriate in many use cases, and some additional versions for different types of liquids would be awesome (compressed gas trailer, corrosive cargo tanker, etc...)
  • I certainly hope there are more trailers and cargo types to come. Oversized loads are a natural addition for delivery gameplay, and a wide variety of loads in general will help to keep things fresh while progressing through that branch. I personally would love to see logging trailers, and the team can get really creative with oversized loads.

Well that was a longer post than I anticipated, but I've been having loads of fun playing with the T-Series and spending so much time with it has lead to me thinking about it a lot. I honestly can't remember the last update I played for so much in the immediate time after; it was probably 0.17 to be honest. I'm not even into games like ETS/ATS but the heavy truck gameplay in Beam really is great even after just one update worth of improvements and additions. I'm really looking forward to what the future tradesman gameplay and content updates will bring!

 

The above post really hits the mark for me as well for additional content that would really be welcomed on the truck from a realism standpoint. In addition to that, I was more than a little disappointed to not see the addition of a tag axle (air actuated axle in front of the “front-rear” axle that is used when the truck is running loaded) for the dump truck configurations.

 

I just want to reply to a few of these. Please note I am NOT against anything your saying just pointing out things that have some logical reasons.

I assume the main reason as to why we don't have any hoses is due to mesh explosions and the difficulty in making them work. In the update logs it does say simplified trailer hookups so I'd assume that eventually it will come. Perhaps it's due to air simulation being difficult. idk.

Regarding the axle count and other configurations and parts. Perhaps they ran out of time to implement it correctly and there might be a part 2 to the T-series remaster like the Grand Marshall but we just don't know when or if that happens. The T-series remaster does have some clearly rushed aspects.

Regarding the car hauler. I do think it would be interesting but I want to ask you a question. How do you think the average persons PC and the game would handle 7 or more parked cars, a complex trailer design and the T-series all at once hitting a tree? I'm not saying I'm against getting one I'm just trying to point out issues with having a proper car hauler atm.

As for the DOT numbers there might be a legal issue with this, but with the license plates I don't see a reason as to why this can't be added, even if it was a fake number that can never be given out.

As for the ABS trailer thing. Most distribution hubs will NOT accept a TRAILER that is over 10 years old for safety reasons. Trailers have not changed much since the 1960's. Lights and parts have remained mostly the same with the ABS module being the only real thing to have been added (though I do agree on the wheels). The only thing that did die right around when the T-series introduction date was is the curved front of the trailers that reduced cargo capacity.


As for the lack of international trailer options I'd assume they were not added due to the lack of a proper international spec semi truck.

 

I hope they do come soon, even if it is a simplified animation without physical properties. Then again I guess I shouldn't be talking since after 0.29 I was complaining how awful the fake chains on the Gambler GM look lol

Yes and no. Most computers certainly couldn't handle that at playable FPS, but I don't think it really needs to either. People have been voicing this concern with this suggestion since the T-Series came out, and after 10 years of game optimization we're at a point where even an older mid spec gaming computer can handle a fair number of simplified traffic vehicles. Combine that with the fact that a lot of scenarios/missions don't actually have much if any traffic or parked cars in the open world and I think we could get away with a mostly full car hauler without nuking a computer that meets recommended specs. Also I really want to do some Driver San Francisco style car hauler jumps

Yeah, the majority of people wouldn't be able to decode what any registration numbers actually mean. Just having some gibberish that looks reasonable at a glance would be fine.

 

I'm not 100% sure if this is what you were saying, but the trailer ABS is independent from the truck other than needing 12v power. So it is reasonable to have an old truck with no ABS pulling a trailer with ABS. I agree about parts to backdate the trailers though.

 

Maybe it was said in here, but why is the transmission synchronized? American trucks never got synchronized transmissions

 

So, maybe we'll get them in future updates?

 

Hey truck people, what’s this called? Cause the T-series should have an option for it.

 

Interresting.
What about the missing 13, 15 and 18-speed gearboxes ?

 

How do you even raise the cab if there is a pipe in the way? Does the driver have to dismantle the pipe before opening the cab?) as it happens in real life? Or is it just a miscalculation in our game?

 

Drop axle. Road vehicles have both an overall maximum weight and a per axle maximum weight. Heavier trucks/trailers need more axles to keep the per-axle weight down to a legal level. Drop axles have a few benefits over standard axles, including better maneuverability, fuel efficiency, cheaper tolls (as they generally charge per axle) and wear (and therefore less money spent on consumables).

Note how the below M1000 heavy equipment trailer has a lot of axles to keep the weight per axle lower.


Trucks like dump trucks, roll offs, and cement trucks will often have drop axles so they have the extra capacity while loaded but can raise the axle when the capacity isn't needed.

Trucks don't always get them, like the single rear axle Ford L-Series and tandem axle Chevy Bison below:


It was a bit more rare for trucks from the big 3 to get more axle configurations than the basic ones, but it did happen once in awhile. Like the twin steer Ford L-Series below or the... I think that's a tri-axle Bison with a drop axle? below:


I did some napkin math and it seems like the current T-Series dump truck is pretty close to, if not over, the legal weight maximum if fully loaded with construction debris. A drop axle certainly wouldn't be a bad idea. The cement mixer upfit probably would put it over without a drop axle.

 

What I feel is a bit missing from the remaster are set-back axle models, which have better turning radius and are good for use in urban areas

 

For anyone interested in replicating an unsynchronized rangebox transmission for the new T-series, here is what I'm using at the moment. I've modelled it loosely on the Eaton-Fuller style 10 speed transmission. I'm using a H-pattern shifter with it.

The First gear position acts as a "bonus" gear which I don't use in normal driving as it's not present in the real gearbox. This is a rudimentary way of replicating the dogleg shift pattern seen in the real transmission.
"gearRatios":[-2.78, 0, 3.02, 2.61, 1.89, 1.38, 1.00, 0.73],

The rangebox is configured as underdrive & direct drive:
["rangeBox", "rangebox", "gearbox", 1, {"uiSimpleModeControl":false, "gearRatios":[4.9,1], "uiName":"Rangebox"}],


The synchro settings are uncommented and set as seen below:
"synchronizerSettings": [
["gearIndex", "maxSynchroRate", "maxSynchroRPMDifference", "synchroWearCoef", "maxClutchRPMDifference", "requiredClutchInput"]
[-1, false, 500, 0, false, false ]
[ 1, false, 500, 0, false, false ]
[ 2, false, 500, 0, false, false ]
[ 3, false, 500, 0, false, false ]
[ 4, false, 500, 0, false, false ]
[ 5, false, 500, 0, false, false ]
],


To set off from a stop, select low range and a starting gear with the clutch depressed. After you get the truck moving, float through the gears without the clutch taking care to match the RPM on upshifts and downshifts.
After reaching top gear, change the range selector and start over from the bottom to reach 10th gear.

Let me know if anyone has any improvements to this. It's a unique challenge to drive a loaded truck with this configuration. I've uploaded the jbeam for the curious.

 

Noticed that the Patriot paint design doesn't extend to the Conventional Sleeper Cabs like it did before the update, which is a shame, and it also lost its blue extension to the roof of the Semi, which also doesn't look good. I mean, the Breaker, Duke, Mule, Reynolds, Rhino, Sox and Two Tone designs do extend to the Cabs and they make them look smaller than they are (the Thermidor must be an exclusive to the Cab-overs, since it doesn't apply on the Conventionals).

 

It also doesn’t work on the COE.

 

True that, but I think the reason for this is that many of us picture a Conventional Semi every time we think of American trucks, so it makes sense, I'd say.

 

I’d still like it on the cabover.