Trailers

[antic3]

At the moment I am driving as a "Drop and Hook" operator so I can carry all means of cargo, however, I am interested in buying a large cargo trailer. ( I think it is a 53 ft box type trailer )
Just some questions:

How do I acquire a trailer?
Which type of trailer has the most cargo options?
Are there any advantages, disadvantages to moving to trailer transport over drop and hook?

Looking at a lot of You Tube, Nth. American Truckers seem to be driving Flat Beds or the large box type trailers, is this the way most freight is moved.

[TwinShadow]

The vast majority of loads are van trailers (the box ones) or flatbeds (some may have tarps).

For the game itself, as far as owning your own trailer, there is little advantage of it unless you want to get just a little extra money sometimes. There's a Trailer Purchase option in the game if you want to purchase your own, but there's not a big advantage though.

The van trailers basically have the most cargo in the game though, you'll find a load in about every city with one. Reefers are the ones that can take any cargo that requires a van, with insulated taking all except for those that are frozen. The regular box van trailer, I believe, can hold the most in the game for cargo.

[MirkoC407]

I think the largest diversity of freight you can get with a reefer. Also some of the highest paying ones, at least in ETS2 there is medical stuff requiring a reefer. Not sure though if that is available in ATS as well. Flatbed, stepdeck or retractable gooseneck is also a good choice. I personaly like driving STD / RGN most.

The freight market for an own trailer is also bigger. While you find in a certain city let's say 3 screen pages of drop & hook trailers, you can easily find 5 pages for a flatbed and 6 for a reefer.

[Taco]

Originally posted by TwinShadow:

The vast majority of loads are van trailers (the box ones) or flatbeds (some may have tarps).

For the game itself, as far as owning your own trailer, there is little advantage of it unless you want to get just a little extra money sometimes. There's a Trailer Purchase option in the game if you want to purchase your own, but there's not a big advantage though.

The van trailers basically have the most cargo in the game though, you'll find a load in about every city with one. Reefers are the ones that can take any cargo that requires a van, with insulated taking all except for those that are frozen. The regular box van trailer, I believe, can hold the most in the game for cargo.

Yeah, I think that the trailer option is nice, especially if you just want to haul whatever type of cargo you want, whenever you want.

[🦊 Hermit]

In real terms there's no benefit to having your own trailer...the loads pay the same as if you were taking a standard job, and if you use your own you have to pay to maintain it so actually it's slightly more cost, although that difference is extremely marginal. Not to mention driving around when you aren't taking a load, you still have to remember you have a trailer on and make allowances for it, whereas otherwise you can drive your cab much more like a car.

But the biggest benefit of all is unquantifiable - the cool factor of having a trailer and truck in the same livery and colours is totally worth any possible negatives you may encounter.

To get one, look in the main menu where you have options to buy trucks and garages - there's an option to buy a trailer there too. Buy it, then go into the trailer manager and select to use it on your truck. Then you can customise it at the red spanner/wrench garages on the map the same as customising your truck.

[HighPlains Drifter]

Hauling with your own trailer pays more, than the company trailer. You can trick it out however you like.

As to penny pinching, costs, etc. Etc.. its a game. A game where you will make more money than you know what to do with, and it won't take long.

Have fun, buy the trailer... Reefer or lowboy in my opinion.

[redgreen999]

One advantage of having ur own trailer is its easier to get jobs u need to do many achievements. Provided u have the correct type of trailer. You can see what type u need from what the cargo is loaded on in a freight job. A lot of freight jobs don't start or end where u need for an achievement. Using cargo doubles ur chances of getting a certain load/location.

The little more pay u get, roughly 10% just about covers tire wear.

[raygavel]

Having your own trailer can make a big difference in how much money you make. For example biggest payday for a Quick Job out of Albuquerque is $50,157. You save on fuel as the company pays for that, and you're driving their truck, so there's no repair expenses. The biggest payday for a Freight job out of Albuquerque pays $67,506, but you have to foot the bill for fuel & repairs. If you have your own dry van however, the biggest payday out of Albuquerque is $76,431, but again you have to pay your own fuel & cab/trailer repairs.

The type of trailer will dictate the number of loads out of any particular city. Again, using Albuquerque as an example, there are only four loads available if you have a livestock trailer attached. That's it. If instead, you have a dry van attached, you have about 20 PAGES of loads available. I'm at the point in the game where I enjoy purchasing different trailers for the variely of loads

[Cop Unit 12]

I'm not going to get into the debate on whether or not trailers are truly worth it or not but I will get into which is the best trailer. At the current time its a close tie between the Drop deck, flatbed or the Reefer. The reefer will get you the most valuable loads overall but the Drop deck can give you a similar number of loads that are more unique looking. The drop deck can take the more "normal" lowboy loads such as tractors along with most normal flatbed loads. The flatbed though is interesting. It can take everything a normal flatbed takes but also some log trailer loads such as timber and iron pipes.

Now I want to mention dumpers (any type). Dumpers while they don't have many types of loads can be used in many cities from my experience without issue.

[Shadow]

Just FYI if anyone out there also happens to be eyeing some of the more unique trailers like doubles or triples or certain axle layouts. Certain configurations are illegal in certain states, and you'll get a ticket for it when you pull into a weigh station with an illegal trailer configuration.

[antic3]

Awesome responses all, thank you very much

Now I have a good idea as to which way to go, I think I am leaning towards the Reefer option as I believe I can take refrigerated and normal freight as well.

i love the idea of having matching trailer and tractor., looking forward to getting a wicked matching paint job.

Thanks all

[Shadow]

Originally posted by antic3:

Now I have a good idea as to which way to go, I think I am leaning towards the Reefer option as I believe I can take refrigerated and normal freight as well.

Yeah, you can take normal cargo in a reefer just fine. I mean, if you think about it, you just turn off the refrigeration and it's pretty much an ordinary trailer.

Just a couple hours ago I delivered a shipment of carpet in a reefer. Although come to think of it, I was making the delivery to somewhere in New Mexico. Might be a pretty good market for refrigerated carpeting down there.

[TwinShadow]

I don't recall if the game simulates this, it might, but the only, and minor at that, downside to reefers is that for total weight of the vehicles, reefers can't hold as much cargo compared to a dry van. Part of the reason is the insulation of the trailer cuts into the usable space, and there's the weight of the reefer unit fuel to consider as well.

In the grand scheme of themes when it comes to this game, it's inconsequential to how much money you make really in the end.

[Atlantic Antic]

If you're looking to make money, invest in a triple dry van. At level 38, I just had a Burlington, CO to Lakeview, OR run for Dynamite (also the highest paying jobs IMO) that rang up at 200K. Not bad for 1.5 hrs. of IRL game time. There are some good N - S routes for payouts too with a triple, but the dynamite runs seem particularly lucrative. Just make sure you have a garage to store it in when you get bored with the same runs and want to go back to drop & hitch. Big ALSO here - make a trailer "Private" so you can come back to it without delay. Leaving it public at one of your garages allows the hired drivers access to it and it can be a monetary pain getting it back.

My current play-through is geared towards opening garages and "vacationing". Every time I hit 2.1M, I'll go on vacation to a town(s) where I haven't been or go take a drive to explore photo/video ops and open another garage. While I'm vacationing, I'll still do some short haul drop & hitch jobs to maybe get a small payout to go to the closest city I've yet to travel to.

Hope this helped - Have fun - honk honk

[Cop Unit 12]

Originally posted by TwinShadow:

I don't recall if the game simulates this, it might, but the only, and minor at that, downside to reefers is that for total weight of the vehicles, reefers can't hold as much cargo compared to a dry van. Part of the reason is the insulation of the trailer cuts into the usable space, and there's the weight of the reefer unit fuel to consider as well.

In the grand scheme of themes when it comes to this game, it's inconsequential to how much money you make really in the end.

I've read in other places (from unreliable sources) that it does but the difference is negligible. Like on a 50k run you lose 3k if you use a reefer over a dry van.