Realistic Driving Settings [RETIRED]

Overview

[THIS GUIDE HAS BEEN RETIRED]Settings you may want to change to enable a more realistic driving experience, as the default settings are very forgiving.

Settings

The settings shown above are what you’ll be changing. Each one is detailed below. Feel free to give me ideas to make the game more realistic and I’ll be sure to update.

Transmission Type
If you have a physical shifting device, use it. If you don’t, change this to Sequential. Real Automatic works best with a wheel and pedals, but Sequential can actually prove challenging. If you don’t shift properly, you can gain too much speed going downhill and be unable to stop. Likewise, you can lose too much speed going uphill, causing you to either stall or roll backwards.

Fatigue simulation
Turn this on. It requires you to rest occasionally. If you don’t, you can be fined. In real life, you’re limited to hours as well by law.

Steering autocenter
Turn this off. While the steering wheel in real life will slowly correct itself, no way does it do it as fast as in the game. This requires you to actually maintain good steering, instead of doing sharp turns and letting the wheel reset itself.

Braking intensity
Move this all the way down (to the left). If you’re carrying something that’s 30,000lbs, plus the weight of the truck, no way will you be stopping as quickly as you do in game; physics and momentum just won’t allow it. This makes it so you need to brake properly, instead of speeding up to cars, lights, etc. and then pushing down on the brake, stopping almost immediately.

Trailer stability
Move this down a bit (to the left). Play with this however you feel comfortable, because in real life, not all trailers react the same way. The lower you go, the more unstable the trailer becomes. This means that if you take a sharp turn at 90mph, your trailer will wobble and could disconnect from the cab, flip, etc.

Truck speed limiter
Turn this on. Modern trucks built after a certain year require them to have a limiter. This is law in some jurisdictions, but is not federally mandated by an official body. This caps the truck at a certain speed, usually set by the employer, in relation to any law they may follow. My employer caps our trucks at 105km, which is 5km over the highway speed (Canada).

Automatic retarder
Turn this off.

Automatic exhaust brake
Turn this off.

Automatic engine and electricity start
Turn this off. If on, you’ll start the engine simply by hitting the accelerator. With this off, you’ll need to start it yourself before the accelerator will do anything.

Automatic drop of liftable axles
Turn this off.

Air brakes simulation
Turn this on. As you brake, you use up air, since trucks use an air brake system. This air constantly gets refilled. However, if you brake a lot too often, you’ll empty the system. To fix this, you need to let the truck sit idle with the engine running while the air pressure builds back up.

Realistic fuel consumption
Turn this on.

Parking difficulty
Make this always set to the hardest, “where would you like it” option. More often then not, when delivering a trailer in real life, it’s not going to be in an easy spot, and even the easier spots might be narrow or require very precise movements to get into.

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