The Svalbard Challenge (ProMods 2.1+)

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Polestar
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12 Aug 2016 23:26

Hello all!

I had this idea when I installed ProMods and looked at the new content!
Here's the story as to what this challenge will do:

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Moskushamn, Svalbard

This tiny town on the Norwegian Island of Svalbard is located close to Svalbard's capital, Longyearbyen. These two villages were added in ProMods 2.1.
As you can see, this beautiful landscape is traveller's heaven, although hard to reach with any form of wheeled transport. Plus, the few roads Svalbard has, are mostly unpaved.
If you thought Iceland was remote, you ain't seen nothing yet.

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This picture taken in Longyearbyen shows the landscape which is rewarding for the time it takes to get there.
It will be a real treat to get there, however, that is the thing.

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Barcelona, Spain

This big city in Northern Spain is also a tourist's heaven, although that is a different kind of tourist for a different reason. As you can see, this industrial part of Barcelona is very alive and there's things being built everywhere. It's probably the polar opposite of Longyearbyen.
That got me an idea.

Between Barcelona, where I am now, and Longyearbyen, are more than 6,000 km of roads and ferries, which estimates the travelling time to more than 5 days. My goal is to reach Svalbard with a truck, carrying loads as much as possible. This means crossing the entirety of Europe, probably 15(!) countries and the quality of the roads and infrastructure lowers per country, over to the vast and empty highlands of Siberia, crossing to Svalbard, the most remote island of Europe.

That's gonna be a hell of a truck I'm going to use for this. Oh hell yes.

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Renault Premium

Whereas the funny character of the Magnum actually suits the below average performance of Renault trucks, the Premium, its little brother, often gets the bad rep. Renault has changed this with the introduction of the Range T, a new truck to compete with the bigger names, such as MAN, Volvo, Scania... And it seems to get very close.
With the Range T coming to ETS soon, the Premium will probably dive into a deep section of forgottenness. Me, the ambassador of justice, won't take that. So this Premium will be my choice of truck for the upcoming 6,000 miles towards Svalbard.

Obviously, I can't take risks, seeing the road quality that's ahead. So I fitted the Renault with special tires, the front ones with class A fuel consumption, and the back ones with class A winter tires, delivering maximum grip.
I fitted the 460 DXI engine with, you guessed it, 460 PS. Combine this with the space cabin, a good set of Luminator spotlights, a racing paint job, and I think the Premium can actually do this.

Myself, I can't think of a better countdown towards getting my hands on a Range T. I will prove that the Premium shouldn't be forgotten!

I will keep this thread updated with my adventures towards Svalbard.
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Current truck: 2021 Mercedes Actros MP5
Current trailer: 2021 Schmitz S.KO
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Vøytek
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13 Aug 2016 18:35

Good luck and I hope others will try to finish that challenge too ;)
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Polestar
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13 Aug 2016 19:38

Thanks Zniwek!

The first 1000 km have been made. I took a load from Barca to Brussels, Belgium.

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Industrial zone of Barcelona.

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Barcelona is so nice! :D

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On the highway towards La Jonquera, aka the border.

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Mountains!

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It's France, so we need to pay toll.

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A bridge, not sure where this exactly is.

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The journey went so smooth that I forgot to take pictures until it was getting dark :) This was made around Limoges.

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In Limoges I pulled over to the Lidl to get some food.

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Getting out of the Lidl car park is a challenge on its own :D

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The weather became worse and it was getting dark.

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And.... a classic traffic jam in Orléans.

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I decided to pull over to get some rest.

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And I woke up at exactly the moment of sunrise!

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A quick and relaxing drive to Paris....

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Peripherique of Paris...

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Traffic started to become bad.

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Like, really.

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Final tollbooth of France....

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And the skyline of Lille indicates...

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The border!

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On to the Belgian highways!

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The Renault overtook this MAN with ease! :D

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Delivered the freight at McDonalds.

Stay tuned for part 2!
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Current truck: 2021 Mercedes Actros MP5
Current trailer: 2021 Schmitz S.KO
License plate:
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Supralisma
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13 Aug 2016 20:49

I like where this is going, and your reason for the truck you chose, I love it :mrgreen: I'm also eagerly waiting the Range T!

Looking forward to the pictures of the scenery when entering Russia, and everything further on from there all the way up to Svalbard.
I drove from Riga to Longyearbyen, that was far enough for me :P

Horizon™
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13 Aug 2016 21:24

I love your scenic screenshots of the areas you are passing through; I love your very good selection of a Renault - it looks like average work machine and not like over-tuned or overpowered vehicle.

It'll be a very long journey for you - I have already experienced it without using GPS and always keeping an eye on every signage (...and getting lost couple of times)
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Polestar
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13 Aug 2016 21:59

Supralisma wrote:I like where this is going, and your reason for the truck you chose, I love it :mrgreen: I'm also eagerly waiting the Range T!

Looking forward to the pictures of the scenery when entering Russia, and everything further on from there all the way up to Svalbard.
I drove from Riga to Longyearbyen, that was far enough for me :P
Thanks mate! The first journeys are pretty straight forward motorway cruising, I think the real challenge starts in Finland ;)
DeusHorizon wrote:I love your scenic screenshots of the areas you are passing through; I love your very good selection of a Renault - it looks like average work machine and not like over-tuned or overpowered vehicle.

It'll be a very long journey for you - I have already experienced it without using GPS and always keeping an eye on every signage (...and getting lost couple of times)
I like the Premium so far, if you can excuse the outdated material use in the interior, mainly the gauges, and the lack of for instance a GPS screen, it's just what you need and nothing more. The trailer I hauled in the first set of screens was 25 tonnes, it was without problems!
By the way, I still have a GPS from the interior accesoires DLC, I think it's indeed more challenging to remove it ;)
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Current truck: 2021 Mercedes Actros MP5
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License plate:
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Dannu
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13 Aug 2016 23:18

I have myself done Barcelona-Balvi before Svalbard was in beta :P I will try this someday too :)
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Polestar
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14 Aug 2016 01:26

MrSimsFaniFIN wrote:I have myself done Barcelona-Balvi before Svalbard was in beta :P I will try this someday too :)
I've attempted Reykjavik - Moscow, in a version when ARP wasn't completed (only the Ruhrgebied part), Poland Rebuilding wasn't integrated thus I wasn't using it, you notice that after 5 countries (UK, Belgium, NL, Germany, Poland) of standard SCS roads, you need ProMods in your life.

Fun thing is that I've been driving on the main connection road that goes all the way from Amsterdam to Brest (BY) a lot and it doesn't get boring. It's well made.

Point is: Barcelona - Svalbard means crossing almost nothing but ProMods territory. I guess the challenge is not to be bored this time, but to survive all the way through the different conditions.

But, thanks to Deus, first let's find our way to the north again, because I removed my GPS and German highways are hard without it ;)
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Current truck: 2021 Mercedes Actros MP5
Current trailer: 2021 Schmitz S.KO
License plate:
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Polestar
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14 Aug 2016 11:24

Day 3: Brussels - Trelleborg

When I say Brussels, I mean that the first thing I did was race to Eindhoven to pick up a trailer there.
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Right into the sunrise! :)

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A very anonymous trailer, containing truck parts, because I picked it up at the Daf depot.

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Also, as suggested by DeusHorizon, I removed my GPS. First things first, let's get out of Eindhoven.

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The GPS project worked, I immeadiatly took the wrong turn, so we headed into Arnhem...

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Arnhem has very truck-friendly infrastructure, that is if you not take the buslane and have to three-point turn back towards the right lane...

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...to then arrive at a dead end.

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The Centrumring is a nice addon but getting out of Arnhem is harder than getting into it ;)

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Eventually I found the right exit and headed back towards the highway.

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Heading towards Germany.

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German highways are so smooth and relaxed that I forgot to take pictures, this is already near Bremen :D

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A quick stop to get some food IRL :D

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Approaching Hamburg.

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Hamburg Harbor.

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And ofcourse the Elbtunnel.

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Approaching the border to the sixth country on this adventure: Denmark.

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Our destination, Padborg, is right after the border, so no Danish highways today :)

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Another safe and trouble-less journey :)

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Sunrise at 6 AM, time to pick up our next freight.

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In Herning!

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Leaving Herning again to head towards Copenhagen and Malmö.

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Denmark and Sweden's bridges.

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This was a quickie, but we made progress!

We're already 2.985 km underway, but that is less than half of what we need to do! Next part will contain the epic drive to Umea, from off then it's hello to Finnish single carriage ways and vast drives towards the Arctic Circles.
I already said the road and conditions will get worse with every country we cross, so this first half was the easy part.

Stay tuned for the next update!
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Current truck: 2021 Mercedes Actros MP5
Current trailer: 2021 Schmitz S.KO
License plate:
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kabelaffe007
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14 Aug 2016 11:47

I love all of your screens!
But how you make the screenshots smaller without a bad quality?! :o

I wait for the next screens!
Greetings from Germany
kabelaffe007
Check out my Thread with screenshots of ETS2



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