Recommendations before Alaska?

[Chalax]

Just came back to the game after two years and I would like to move to alaska as I like cold. I've only played Michigan. Anything to keep in mind before embarking there?

[Rragar]

I'd recommend you unlock chained tires for at least one of your trucks, since those provide a significant reduction of the traction loss you receive when driving on frozen highways, ice, and frozen rocks.

These are unlocked at different levels for different trucks and I really don't know which truck provides the earliest unlock. I'm thinking it'd probably be either the Fleetstar 2070 or the GMC 9500, but I could be wrong.

For the rest of the stuff you'll be doing there, all-terrains will suffice. But you'll want to gravitate towards tire versions with additional mud traction (usually the number 2 ones). Offroad tires with extra mud traction will work pretty well here when you're not driving on highways. You won't really be needing specialized Mud-class tires for most things, except for a couple of spots (like the muddy pit along the route to the service station on the first map).

You'll also want at least one truck with very large wheels for when you need to go into snow or mud that aren't shallow. The Royal BM17 that you get for free in the first map in Alaska can do this once it's been fitted with the largest wheel size (it's inside the swamp on the west).

Also, grab the Highway gearbox from the second map in Alaska as early as you can. It'll be quite useful for a lot of things, most notably the long stretches of paved roads that it will enable you to cross at higher speeds.

[Beast of War]

I am just replaying Alaska and found out (again) this is one of the few maps where ice chains actually benefit you : you will take damage sliding and skidding on iced roads at higher speed without. Some uphill ice roads will be difficult to climb without either.* and there is a side angle grade road in Pedro Bay where you will slide off without. ( you can do without chains there though )

For US trucks that mount Off Road Tires as best tires Ice chained tires are not really a downside when going off road, as they are essentially the same Off Road tire with slightly worse stats. You can diminish that effect further by choosing only the partial chains tire option but this will again affect your steering on ice roads. I went with the all chains option.

* When not using ice chains you can climb uphill ice roads by engaging diff lock and have the wheels of one side of the vehicle drive next to the road in a strip of grass or other surface. Sometimes a guard rail makes this impossible.

Clear all road blocks ( broken pipelines and wooden bridges ) as soon as possible as an intact road network is far easier to move around for the many cargo missions.

There are fuel stations and trailer stores everywhere but Pedro Bay, Pedro Bay has 2 large fuel trailers, so Alaska is pretty easy.

Avoid deep mud pits where you can, you can often drive around them instead of through them.

There is one mission in North Port that forces you to pull a heavy special mission trailer through a mud pit with no alternative. Best use the P16 for that. If the P16 gets stuck use another big wheel Heavy truck to tow it through. It is one of the harder missions, you had best not attempt it with medium trucks as mud pits require large wheels.

[BurakZG]

I'm also redoing Alaska now. It's actually nice and rewarding.
I have deployed only Kodiak with chained tyres and flatbed. With that you can unblock roads and build bridges. Then go and get AWD for it on the second map. With that find ANK o another map. With ANK you can do most missions in Alaska. For moving a super heavy trailer use P16 with saddle high. It's very stable and works perfect in mud. In summary, Alaska can be finished just by deploying 2 trucks.
If you want it even easier, take Fleetstar with chained tyres instead of Kodiak.

[Shellbie]

In some ways Alaska is easier than Michigan, but the only problem you'll face is the deep, endless mud pits.

[Malcom Renyolds]

lol are u serious never swap from mud tires chain tires only for ice roads and 99% of the game is mud and chain tires suck in mud period

[Beast of War]

Originally posted by Malcom Renyolds:

lol are u serious never swap from mud tires chain tires only for ice roads and 99% of the game is mud and chain tires suck in mud period

It is a choice where to be slowed :

- Ice chains enable you to use the vast network of hard surface roads in Alaska at high speeds. This comes at the costs of having to shift to L or L- in mud and snow and with that being reduced to a crawl.

- Mud tires ( few trucks in the base game have them ) must go slow on the hard surface roads that are covered in ice or slide off the road which cost you a time ( and damage ) to recover from each time. They will be less slowed down in mud or snow ( but still not be very fast )

Free choice for the player where to be slowed. Sliding off roads will set you back in damage when you crash into guard rails or poles and such. That is why i said ice chains ( i used to not use them just like you ) are the better choice in Alaska. In the (DLC) maps where roads are often unusable ice chains do not make sense. That is why Alaska is probably the only map where ice chains are actually useful.

Note : IRL life you use chains for snow and certainly not on bare asphalt. And spikes on ice. So yes, the game is not very realistic in that sense.