Granite

1. Tachograph is just a texture you can't do anything with it. In most trucks it's just a static texture, buttons or display don't even light up, in few newer models buttons may be illuminated Only the old DAF XF105 has both buttons and display illuminated, but the display is still only static. 2. I am not aware wheter TMP has any plans of altering trucks in any way (other than added CB radio). Just about everything you see in the game, including truck interiors, is developed by SCS Software, and as far as I have seen, they are far more likely to add new truck than really overhaul existing trucks.

It looks nearly identical to G27, including steel pedals and shifter, it would cost about 250-300€ new, so it's in the same league with G27 or G29. However, it's going to be old, at least 12 years old. I have no idea how long these wheels can last, even if it has seen little use (doubt it), it's still old, and you may run into problems with software - you would need to find old version that it will work with, so maybe you would be better off getting used G29 instead.

Probably by improperly using smaller wheels from lowbed trailer on a regular trailer resulting in a glitchy, broken nonsense which clips through the tractor and road surface.

Something isn't right here ... the blue DAF wasn't smashed and tossed over the guardrail? I say it's all staged!

We have turned away a bit from the topic, let's consider it sum of my experience with the official convoys, and I have been in quite a few, before bad things became dominant over good things, leading me to stop participating. So, this is my advice to the original topic: If someone in front of you is going the speed you are not comfortable with, it's better to not force yourself, stay at the speed you can comfortably maintain control of your vehicle, nobody will punish you if you can't keep up. If anyone behind you safely overtakes you at this point, when the road is open, you shouldn't fret about it and shouldn't report that, don't try to prevent it. I would consider this acceptable and it should be overlooked. It's a whole different story when the convoy slows down to a crawl or stops temporarily, you can report overtaking in this case, but still don't try to intervene in any way, these people are usually kicked or banned promptly, due to high probability of being observed by game moderator. As long as you are following the route and instructions from the event staff, even if you need to stop to refuel, you are safe. If you need to stop for longer period of time, wait until some safe spot, while there isn't AFK auto-kick, you may still get kicked for inactivity. In case you are disconnected, drive to somewhere well out of the way and remain stationary until you are connected, just don't reconnect while driving down the route, or you will more than likely cause trouble and risk being banned. If you crash or get rammed and end up unable to move, you can use F7, or load manual save made in NCZ (don't ever load quicksaves), then teleport to closest possible location and try to rejoin convoy, it's up to you if you want continue.

I agree, but we are really outnumbered here, not to mention I have seen people stopping in the middle of the road to take pictures. Honestly, that's not how convoys should go, it's official event, they promote simulation on their servers, yet the official convoys are capped at 150km/h. We already know how that works, they can't possibly expect that everone can go that fast, but it's promoted like anyone is invited, so big "no, thank you" from me as well. It should be promoted with warning that you will be encouraged and expected to speed excessively. How would you know what to expect for the first time, need to experience few of these to get the picture. I would expect something entirely different.

So, if the green period was extended to about 1 minute, than only means you also have to wait at the red light for whole 2 minutes (although, second set of traffic lights has been removed). Are you telling me this is better accepted, that people are willing to wait that long for green light? Nooo, it can't be, I simply can't believe that.

@FernandoCR [ESP] It's not that simple, OP talks about official TMP convoys with hundreds of participants. Convoy leader actually goes really slowly during the whole event and it takes up to an hour for rear of the convoy to even start moving. Any slow turn creates domino effect - huge jams in front and huge gaps behind, the convoy inevitably breaks appart into smaller and smaller groups. This leads to people driving really fast to carch up and frequent overtaking of those who don't want to or can't do that, which only makes slowdowns ans stopages longer - the main reason for me to not participate. You can't talk about safe distance at that speed. If you are not willing to speed excessively during "catch up" phases, then these events are not for you, if you don't mind that, I recommend using truck with a lot of power and empty trailer.

Hmm...OP has about 10-15 minutes of experience on TMP servers, according to steam profile. Interesting to have such strong opinion already, isn't it?

I agree with @FernandoCR [ESP], we live in the age of social media now, they have huge impact on TMP, mostly people just want to be seen and see others, though some might be only looking for a daily dose of adrenaline. Same with Kirkenes quarry road on Promods server. To think those people invested in all the map DLC just to get there and keep driving up and down that tiny spot on the huge map. Iceland used to be a thing when Promods started on TMP, now it's largely abandoned, despite offering numerous and far more challenging routes, and there are better roads than C/D road even on vanilla base map. I was always looking for a peaceful and respectful ride, but it turned out a blip on the radar anywhere on the map puts me into elevated alert mode, that's why I don't go near there, too many blips, just passing over interchange outside Calais on my way to or form Channel tunnel is more than enough, if I feel like daring, I might try to use ferry to Dover, if I can go straight through that interchange.

How will that change anything? It's incredibly trivial to make money in the game, besides ridiculous payoffs, even without any cheats, just get loans buy garages and trucks, hire drivers and start quick traveling between two garages. If you are lazy you can use mods or cheats in singleplayer or download pre-made savegames. Nothing will change unless you prevent that in the first place (also, making profiles server side, so that you can't "cheat") before thinking about any in-game economy, which isn't really focus of the game anyway. It is designed around freedom of choice, it's up to the player how they play it, and apparently, barely anybody still playing on TMP servers is intrested in that. For me it's about driving realistically, doesn't matter where or what I am hauling that much - the journey is the destination, pretty much. If you stick to singleplayer, you cant try some mods that alter economy (soon also in convoy mode), but I just prefer to simply reduce the income in the config to 10% to look somewhat reasonable (g_income_factor 0.1) - works for WoT and TMP too, although I don't recommend that due to high probability that your repair expenses exceed income.

@FernandoCR [ESP] I haven't even tried convoy mode yet, because of no mod support. I prefer singleplayer with selection of mods that I am accustomed to, coupled with popular map mods - promods ATS/ETS2, rusmap and southern regions, which are the only non-workshop mods. If I want do some WoT jobs in ETS2 (no reason to bother with empty ATS servers, since promods don't affect WoT), I would jump on TMP server, I don't even know if they are supported in convoy mode. I agree, that it will be probably harder to find mod-free public convoy lobbies, but that don't bother me, that's not really what I am looking for. I would only really be interested in convoy with up to one or two partners maybe, it would be much more realistic than bigger convoys, and much easier to agree on which mods to use.

SCS imported some trailers directly from the older ETS game (and as such are of very low quality), some of these are still used to this day, but not the two you are mentioning. ActualIy, I don't remember them ever being used in ETS2, for example the yellow dumper trailer is succeded by newer trailer modeled after Schmitz Cargobull dumper trailer. However models are still in the game files and can be re-enabled either with mods or save editing. Triple (only b-triple) trailers can be used in TMP, but again only through mods or save editing.

Hey, but would you join some random person, or host public lobby and let random strangers in? If you are not that kind of a person and just want to play with few friends you know, you will be able to use any mods you and your friends want. I think that is very interesting ... maybe more bad news for TMP.

Citing from Commercial Driver License Manual: "The trailer hand valve (also called the trolley valve or Johnson bar) works the trailer brakes. The trailer hand valve should be used only to test the trailer brakes. Do not use it in driving because of the danger of making the trailer skid. The foot brake sends air to all of the brakes on the vehicle (including the trailer(s)). There is much less danger of causing a skid or jackknife when using just the foot brake. Never use the hand valve for parking because all the air might leak out unlocking the brakes (in trailers that don't have spring brakes). Always use the parking brakes when parking. If the trailer does not have spring brakes, use wheel chocks to keep the trailer from moving." The trick that always works for me is to slow down before bend, and if you think you are still a bit too fast, touching the foot brake gently is much better than locking up trailer wheels mid-turn in my opinion. Unless you are on some unpaved road, you shouldn't worry about that. Retarder, just like exhaust or jake brake, works the drive axles only, so using one or the other isn't that different. Actually, using manual retarder in some trucks, namely Scania, it will use both retarder and exhaust brake together in strongest settings. I am using retarder all the time when going down the hills, even through truns and bends, never had any problems, If used correctly, to keep the truck within speed limits, you can use retarder safely even in rain or snow, just be careful when going downhill on some uneven quarry road.