Advanced Tips and Tricks(Professional's Guide to Spintires)

A short and easy list of very helpful tips, that just might save hours of your time if you're looking to complete every single map on Hardcore.

Introduction

Greetings. This guide is a short list of things that you might not have known you can do.

Pack Medium Log Cart

As you are probably aware, you can pack the long log cart from the advanced menu, but there is no such option for the medium cart. But you can still pack it, quite easily too, with the help of the most powerful tool in the game - The crane.
Simple use crane to grab the trailer from the shaft, then detach the trailer, and pull it onto the truck. The leave it there, without releasing the crane grab. It should stay onboard the truck. Just remember the truck is a bit top heavy now. And there is another benefit from this as well: You can now attach another trailer onto the truck, because this trailer isn't officially attached at all.

Double Trailers

Quite simple but very useful trick. Just do what we did before, and attach another trailer onto your truck. Works with pretty much all trailers and trucks, with the expection of semi-trailers of course. On Hardcore, fuel is going to be a big problem, so you can use this trick to very efficiently counter it. Do as follows: Pack the medium log cart with the truck that has the crane attachment. Then, attach a utility trailer with it, since it can hold 400 liters of fuel. Refuel it at the nearest fuel station, and make your way to the log station. Refuel at the log station, unpack the cart and attach it, load up, and make your way to the objective with full fuel. Saves you having to have another truck with fuel nearby.

Tip Over Shield

"Raising Shields!" - Hikaru Sulu
How many times have you tipped over your truck just meters away from the objective? It will never happen again, with this trick. Unfortunately, it only works with the Cart with crane attachment, but that is what you'll want to use the most on Hardcore anyway.

The trick is super simple, just use the anchors. Position and extend, but don't push. Now the truck is nearly impossible to tip over, and it can still drive quite well.

Jack-knife turn / Native American turn

More of a maneuver than a trick, this can help you manage to turn around in tight spots with carts, because let's face it, reversing them is a pain in the ass. It's simple really, you just need to turn the front axle of the cart 90 degrees from the truck with the cart being 90 degrees from the front axle. 2x90 degrees equals 180 degrees.
Useful in spots where you can't make a simple U-turn.

Works with semis as well, to some extent. You can't make a 180 degree, but almost:

Mobile Log Station

Title says it all. Just fill up your truck with logs without loading up, and use these logs to load up another truck. You can use any logs, for instance load up long logs onto a Cart with crane, and use these logs on another truck with the correct attachments. I've made a much more in-depth guide about this trick specifically if you're interested. Here's the link: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=716124401

You can also load up multiple loads at once, simply by either loading up a load normally, then adding additional logs onto that load, or simply stacking up more logs than required to make a normal load. For example, here I have short logs load on with 3 long logs, enough to make a long logs load onto another truck:


(Psst.. You can complete an entire objective, on a single run, with short logs. Carriage with crane attachment.) Here's a video of me using it in practice:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=906272406

Super Light Logs

Same as above. Just don't use the logs to load up, and they basically weigh nothing. Just don't let them fall off. Crane grab will hold them in place.

Solo Convoy

Most you are probably aware of this, you can pull your own trucks with the winch, basically driving two trucks at once. Combine this with the Double Trailers trick and you've got yourself a convoy.
For instance, I could unlock a garage and complete the objective with one run alone with these.

Differential Lock and All-Wheel Drive

There has been some controversy about the effect of All Wheel Drive. Some say it only affects your ability to steer in the mud, and that it has little to no effect on your ability to move in the mud. However, this is utter bullcrap. Having All Wheel Drive has a massive effect on your ability to move in the mud, and of course, dramatically increases your ability to steer. Having Diff Lock on however, impairs your ability to steer, because it forces all of your wheels to rotate at the same speed, which makes it problematic for the truck to turn correctly. Sometimes it's worth disengaging it to make a tight turn, unless you are in very deep mud.

It's also worth mentioning that All Wheel Drive consumes more fuel. A LOT more fuel. But you should always have an ample supply of fuel available anyways, so it's much easier and smarter to keep the All Wheel Drive on. It saves you a lot of gray hair, and more importantly, time. Feel free to disengage it on hard surfaces when you don't need it.

Advanced Gearbox Use

Near crucial skill to master on Hardcore, since you can't use Diff lock on automatic. The manual 1st gear and 1+ will be your best friends. I noticed that some people use the gearbox by clicking on the gear lever with mouse, but it's quite inefficient and cumbersome to do. Easiest way to shift, is to hit R button, and simply move your mouse towards the gear you wish to select. It's important to shift quickly enough to not lose too much speed.

Cart vs Semi

There are few cases where you can choose between cart and a semi. I will cover the core differences with cart and semi before going into detail.
A cart, or full-trailer, is a trailer with a front axle, and is attached to the puller truck via shaft. Semi-trailer is, as the name implies, a half-trailer, meaning it has no front axle, because the puller-truck's rear axles act as it's front axle. Now, a breakdown with the core differences:

Semi	Cart
+Easier to reverse	-Hard to reverse. Can be countered with Jack-knife turn trick
-Very poor off-road capabilites	+Much better off-road capabilities
-Requires a lot of space	+Requires very little space
-Harder to detach, all the goods are in trailer	+Easy to detach and re-attach, shares goods with puller, meaning you can ditch the trailer once it's resources are exhausted
+Very easily winchable, if you detach it	-Unwinchable, because the devs are idiots and the only winch point is in front of the cart

Me trying to winch pull a cart:

Now for the more specialized choices.
1. Garage parts:
Both cart and semi options do exactly the same thing, carry 8 points, enough to unlock a garage. My recommendation, cart all the way. Only pick semi if you're driving on tarmac, like in the beginning of the hill level. Otherwise do yourself a favor and go with the cart.
2. Fuel:
Now this takes a little more thought. Either pick a Cistern Semitrailer, with insane 3200 litre capacity, or pick Fuel cistern (1200l) with Utility cart (400l) totaling 1600 litre capacity. Well, the capacity for the semitrailer is insane, literally. Because it's unusual you would ever need that much fuel, unless you're burning it by the gallons with Type E or D truck. There a few advantages with cart as well. First of all, the utility trailer carries 600 repair points. That is a lot, and it can save your ass if you make an error. Second of all, after consuming all the fuel in the trailer, you can just ditch it and continue with the puller truck alone, making things all the much simpler. So my advice, go with the cart again, unless you need tons of fuel for some reason.
3. Utility:
I've never needed either of these particular vehicles myself, but they have more interesting options than the rest. Utility semitrailer carries 900l of fuel and 1200 repair points. Going with the Utility attachment and Utility cart you can carry whopping 1400 repair points and 400l of fuel. Again, going with cart makes it easier to make it to your destination, but 1400 repair points is a overkill unless you need to bring a whole convoy back to life. Recommendation, utility semitrailer.
4. Logs:
Carriage with Carriage trailer is super overpowered. It carries the same amount of points (4) as the conventional medium log cart combination, but it's literally impossible to tip over, and it drives like a tank in mud. It has one major flaw though: You can't load it unless you have another truck with crane. Therefore, here my recommendation goes to Cart with crane attachment, with Medium log cart attached.

Summing up, cart is almost always the superior choice. Feel free to experiment, find out what suits you the best.

Attaching Carts

For clarification, a quick tip on how to attach carts. It works quite well and realistically in my opinion, but some people have had problems with it.
Simply reverse the back of your truck, you can see the towing hook with the white dot, onto the shaft of the trailer (the black dot).

Attaching Semis

Same as above. However, a bit more tricky to explain if you're not familiar with semi-trucks. Therefore NEVER detach a semi unless absolutely necessary. However, I will expain how to do it properly here. First of all, always remember to use the "Park Trailer" option from the advanced menu:
After that, it is safe to detach it. To re-attach it, drive the tractor you can see on your truck, UNDER the semitrailer, as so:
Easy enough. How about you forget to use the "Park Trailer" option? Well, unfortunately, it means trouble, and a lot of it. The only way to attach the trailer, is to place winch on it, and keep driving back and forth, preferably finding a slope or something like that to push it against, whilst pulling it with your winch. It's very hard and tedious work, so I can't press it enough to always remember to use "Park Trailer" before detaching it, and moreso never detach a semi at all, because it's more often than not unnecessary and useless.

Honk

Your horn actually sends out a powerful enough soundwave to remove lightweight debris, barrels and such, out of your way. Thanks to keithb for pointing this out.

Thank you

Guess that's all folks. I'll be adding more if I can come up with any. Please leave your own suggestions at the comments and be sure to ask if you can't get these to work or if you just need any help with something. Thanks.

[holbs]

Don't forget...when using 1st or Reverse gears, there are 3x speed options for each. The middle option will get you thru some of the deepest mud you encounter (...same for Reverse) if drive slowly.

[DrPlowKing]

Godsninja Anyway, holla at me mate if you need help, I can help you if you want

[DrPlowKing]

Godsninja You do not load logs with your trailer on your back. You simply unload your trailer from your truck, attach it and pack the logs as you normally would. This only saves fuel and makes it easier to maneuver with the truck

[Godsninja]

Pack Medium Log Cart: "Simple use crane to grab the trailer from the shaft, then detach the trailer, and pull it onto the truck. The leave it there, without releasing the crane grab."
- Then how do I pack logs?

Jack-knife turn / Native American turn: Not sure of your explanation. Do you mean use automatic and go back and forth until you have gotten 180 degrees with the trailer and have turned around?

I'm on the river playing on hardcore. I haven't gotten to the point yet where I am getting timber, am still bringing garage points across the river. I am confused as to the difference between the short, medium, and long log carts. And to the difference between the wood itself. Also am not too sure about the types of cranes, if there are more than 1. It seems like sometimes log carts have cranes?

[Rygir]

Great tips, I didn't know a bunch of them!

[ArielMomo]

Great guide indeed. one thing I experienced to get out of mud in hard mode: instead of putting full speed, I do just small bursts or two seconds . This gives some forward momentuum. Just repeat, burst after burst and you will be to start moving forward (or backward) untill youi reach some hard ground. worth trying..

[DrPlowKing]

IneptGamer11 Thank you mate, I'm honored to know someone found this guide useful. Sorry for the late responses, I've been having some network issues of late.

[DrPlowKing]

G-man III Yeah, if you manage to get the tree between the puller and the trailer, then you are in for some very bad time indeed. But you'd have to make some really sharp turns to make that happen, since the cart is so short that it pretty much follows in the puller truck's tracks. The semi however, it won't get lodged between the trees, true, but you can get stuck quite easily since you need to take corners more wide in order not to hit trees... but you can usually power through that though. Kind of a two-bladed sword.

[Cliffo11]

awesome guide will be using many of these as i am going to do all of the maps on hardcore, solo.

[G-man III]

Btw you should add that carts gets stuck on trees a lot more then semi trailers.