How to attach a fridge in your bus or on your truck.

How to attach your fridge inside your bus or on the flatbed of your truck.

The original guide can be found at https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2790746080

Preface

The pictures of the fridge and the bus in the (very artsy) preview image are from the awesome The Long Drive wiki at https://the-long-drive.fandom.com/wiki/The_Long_Drive_Wiki

I'd love if the devs would add a welding system or something so we can permanently fix something to something else, like fridges and barrels.
Currently (and also this guide) we *need* to fix stuff because of the wonky physics. In future, this will hopefully not be *necessary* but nice to have.

The Problem

Basically, all your items belong into baskets. And baskets belong attached to your vehicle. That way, they don't fly around when you play with the physics in the game.
But there are objects that don't fit into baskets, like your fridge. And if you decide to carry a fridge around on the flatbed of your truck, or inside your bus, you'll notice that this challenges the physics engine to weird stuff, especially also when you load your save.

But fear not, there is a way to attach a fridge on your car. It's just not obvious, and probably not supported.

How it works

So, how does it work?

Usually, when you attach a thing to another thing, the thing that is already there becomes the "parent thing", or "primary thing". That means, when that primary thing moves, the other thing is moved with it, and no additional physics is calculated.
This happens with attaching (G key) and also with stuff put inside your fridge or inside baskets.

But the game doesn't let you attach a fridge to the floor.
You can attach a basket to the floor, and put the fridge's edge inside to freeze it there, but this looks weird (although hilarious). And the bottom of the basket doesn't freeze.

But luckily there is a solution.

1. You put the fridge to where it should be.
2. You drop a basket on the floor very close to the fridge. It's important that the floor of the fridge and the floor of the basket are at the same height.
3. And now to the tricky part: move the mouse to the edge of the basket close to the fridge. Press F to pick it up, and make sure to keep the mouse steady.
4. Move the mouse very slightly to the fridge, and press G to attach. The basket clips halfway into the fridge, but that should be no problem.
5. And now to the unique part. Usually, with items attaching to other items, the attached item becomes "secondary", and if you pick it, it gets removed. To move the whole thing, you have to move the "primary" object. But the combination fridge-basket is unique. When attaching the basket to the fridge, the fridge does *not* become primary, but secondary object, thus making the basket primary object. That means, you can pick up the basket (including the fridge), AND ATTACH IT AGAIN , this time to the floor. So, press F over the basket, don't move the mouse, and press G again to attach it. Since this has all happened at the same floor height, there is no clipping into the floor. Everything looks like it's supposed to look, except the basket sticking half out of the fridge, but, I can live with that.

Now your fridge is attached to the floor and won't bother you again with physics glitches.

Additional designs

This section will be filled with additional things you can do with this or similar trick.

Storage rack outside of the bus

Utilising the very same trick, you can create storage racks out of fridges attached on the *outside* of your bus, or probably also on the outside of your flatbed or camper.
See screenshot on the right. It will take some fiddling (save the game beforehand!) to make it not too ugly, but it's a powerful solution. You can arrange them upright or even like in regular kitchen storage cupboards lying on the side, opening the doors to the upper side. And you can utilize the baskets as well.
And of course, you can also attach fridges on the roof of your bus (or camper)!

Attaching things which are not fridges

The fridges are special, which makes this thing easy and predictable.
But a very similar approach also works for other items, like barrels. You can, for example, attach one or two barrels on a trailer. To showcase this, observe this very angled trailer which holds two barrels like they are welded on.
This is however very finicky and not easy to set up, so it only is useful for things which are stored at least semi-permanently, like storage barrels which are not frequently emptied (only filled).

[DeftNerd]

this will help out a lot, thanks man!

[Mr sandwich]

i m trying to attach an ebbata to my camper truck but i it wont lock into place

[Joey]

you are a lifesaver @aaron121610

[qcs2017]

@aaron121610 Thanks for your hint. When I wrote that guide, we had no settings to do that :-)
Also, Physlock in the car will not help with fridges on outside wall of the bus/truck.

[Aaron121610]

just turn physics lock on in settings

[Joey]

i think they patched it

[zive]

you can put metal rods on it

[leirry]

Is very gud work, comrade.

[qcs2017]

I've added an additional design showing that you can make storage racks outside on your bus (or flatbed or camper) using the very same method.

[SirunSong]

Excellent job.