Thinking of downloading euro truck simulator to help me for when i go in for my test, Things like reversing etc…
Is this a silly idea or could it be effective?
I’ve used it, but it’s not a simple simulator. It’s expensive because you’ll need a steering wheel and foot pedals on top of the programme, a decent spec PC to run it and a large screen or screens.
The plus side when you reverse you do a get an idea of how the truck moves and a idea of how the truck drives, but you’ve got to program buttons for the reverse and the wipes, head lights etc which all take away from the enjoyment.
I’d played it for years before ever even thinking about doing the real thing, and I think it did help, the principles of how the trailer reacts were already second nature for me. How much you get from it though depends. Although you can use the keyboard you really need the wheel and pedals - do you have them?
Spots:
Thinking of downloading euro truck simulator to help me for when i go in for my test, Things like reversing etc…
Is this a silly idea or could it be effective?
I paid for my licence myself and took the attitude that the driving school should be able to get me in a good enough situation to pass. Then I took the attitude that whichever business / company I am working for didn’t pay for my licence, so they can pay for me taking my sweet time working out how to reverse properly.
Massive help for me. As someone mentioned, the trailer movements and reversing are the same principles so it gives you a head start. However I played it in VR so the cost is pretty prohibitive.
I’ve got ETS2 and ATS with a steering wheel and pedal set up.
The only thing I found it useful for was reversing and working out which way the trailer was going to go.
I found it no benefit for the following:
the real life roads, changing conditions, day and night and traffic interactions
how quickly or slowly the trailer would turn on the fifth wheel dependent on length and wheelbase
how tall the truck was
how the trailer cut in in real life
counter steering to pull trailers away from kerbs
straddling lanes
engine brakes and the way the cab leans in corners
trees etc.
at the end of the day, its a game, and while it may help to understand steering trailers, i found this was as far as it went
Only useful for doing basic reversing.
Most of the roads are wider than real UK roads. No worrying about your nearside mirror in hedges. All yard entrances are huge, no little places or pokey little industrial estates. Towns are hilariously simple to navigate.
One thing it is good for though, is speed running/time trialing. Now that’s fun.
I found it helpful for reversing but the roads are too generic to be anything like real life, and there’s no pedestrians to worry about on the kerbside either!