07/13/2023
SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:
[Skip this if you dont care.] 5 years ago I when I was with SRT I did holiday peak with UPS. Much to SRT's frustration with how much I kept tearing off my mudflap hangers, UPS was absolutely delighted as I was the only peak driver out of my assigned terminal that had a doubles and triples endorsement. So every night for that month and a half I picked up a set of doubles, hauled them down one way loaded, and brought back whatever empty they needed off the property.
But enough about me. As far as my main mods are concerned, I have smaller compatibility updates coming for 1.48 for things like companies and other small adjustments I can make based on feedback but that's all I can manage as every mod currently is pending updates to the models themselves. And I see that as a double edged sword as these either are MASSIVE models in their own right, or contain MANY (up to dozens) small models that need to be adjusted 1 by 1. And to be honest, I simply just got sick of staring at the same like 5 things in Blender and wanted to do something different with the stockpile of trailer models I have sitting in my storage folder. This is my small modding break away from modding, and I will be making parcel trailers available to the community soonβ’. This will not only include UPS pups, but FedEx drop sill pups as well. For the UPS pups, youll have your standard single, double, and triple configurations available. The trailers themselves are accurate to the prototype, which includes the spray suppressant strips (the tassels) which you can remove if you dont want them, selectable aero mudflaps, and the iconic low shank bumper using the VAST-20N dolly converter. I always found these unique because these dollies do not have suspension on the axle, but rather the fifth wheel sits on a set of leaf springs which cushions the trailer directly allowing for a much smoother ride over conventional dollies. These types of dollies are explicitly made for parcel service use.
Because these will be more prototypical like most of my equipment, there won't be much customization to choose from as the trailers themselves dont come in any other natural configuration, but templates will be included so you can make your own parcel delivery service. Now remember what I said about constantly ripping off my mudflap hangers pulling these? The same thing rings true here. You WILL either require a 4x2 tractor or a 6x4 that has your fifth wheel slid hella back or you will clip through the landing gear. That being said, conventional SCS 6x4 trucks will not work with the UPS pups (they will with the FedEx drop sills). Im sorry but thats just by nature of trailer design.
Now as for cargo, I am actively setting up a semi-realistic unique feeder system. This works in 3 ways. "Inbound" parcels are picked up at companies and dropped off at sorting facilities (these will be generic freight terminals like Equos repurposed). "Outbound" parcels will go from sorting facilities to final destination companies. And lastly "transfers" will take you from one sorting facility to another. The cargo wont be the same, as there will be varying parcel types offering different payouts based on shipping urgency (flat rate, commercial ground, 2nd day air, overnight priority, final mile, etc). But if you say "screw all that jazz" then dont worry, you can change the body type to dryvan if you want to haul standard SCS cargo.
Still reading? Nice, time for the last key piece of information: price. I plan on offering a wide variety of normal trailers moving forward. Just your every day plain jane type of stuff like this, so I wont be charging an arm and a leg for stuff like this. I plan on making all my non-specialized trailers cheaper than my TK360 which I established as a baseline. So you can expect this to cost $10 or less (TBA when I get there).
[TESTERS INFORMATION:] The alpha for this trailer should go live for you in a couple days, possibly around this weekend. Ill let you know when to check your test folder.