Truckful customization centers on two progression loops: mechanical performance tuning purchased with delivery coins, and specialized utility gadgets unlocked using salvage scrap. Modifying your pickup truck alters physical handling parameters—including horsepower, steering responsiveness, traction, braking force, and chassis weight—while directly dictating how much fragile cargo your truck bed can carry across rough terrain without spilling.
Customizing your vehicle is mandatory for traversing the Valley's rugged routes, steep climbs, marshlands, and supernatural encounters like the Ghost Truck.
Customization Workshops and Valley Currencies
Upgrades in Truckful are managed across dedicated service locations scattered across the Valley rather than an on-the-fly pause menu.
- Theresa's Garage (Repair Shop): Located on the town outskirts near Willow Avenue and Traveler's Road, Grandma Theresa services core automotive components. She provides initial horn repairs, engine upgrades, steering adjustments, suspensions, brakes, and paint resprays.
- Red's Scrapyard: Run by Rusty Red and his son Zed in the eastern sector, this facility houses a large automated recycling drop-off machine. Zed specializes in mounting custom inventions, heavy utilities, and tactical survival equipment.
- Field Garages: Smaller secondary repair stations exist at key crossroads, such as near the forest intersection and the northern approaches, allowing you to reconfigure cargo beds or install parts when an active delivery demands specific capabilities.
Customization relies on two distinct economic currencies:
- Coins: Earned by fulfilling delivery contracts, meeting main objectives, and achieving bonus medals (such as Clocked Mileage for short routes or Express Delivery for fast times). Coins pay for standard vehicle mechanical components and paint styles.
- Scrap: Harvested by finding abandoned machinery, metal debris, and discarded military hardware scattered across the Valley and the Eastern Railway line. Depositing scrap into the crusher at Red's Scrapyard funds experimental gadgets and specialist utility tools.
Core Mechanical Upgrades and Vehicle Stats
Every mechanical component fitted to your pickup truck alters its core driving attributes: Power, Handling, Traction, Suspension, Brakes, and Weight.
| Part Category | Observed Upgrades | Stat & Handling Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Engine | Stock, 75 HP Engine, 90 HP Engine | Increases horsepower and torque. Crucial for hauling heavy freight up steep hills and maintaining speed during forest pursuits. |
| Steering | Standard, Wider Steering, Power Steering | Enhances turning responsiveness and stability, preventing spinouts when steering through sharp switchbacks. |
| Suspension | Rusty, Derusted Suspension | Absorbs ground impacts from potholes, sinkhole edges, and unpaved trails, reducing cargo bounce. |
| Tires | Standard, Refurb Tyres, Off-road Tyres | Increases wheel traction over mud, loose dirt, and wet grass. |
| Braking System | Worn Brakes, Upgraded Brake Assemblies | Shortens stopping distance on steep descents to prevent overshooting checkpoints or crashing into hazards. |
| Chassis / Body Rigidity | Steel Body, Superlight Body, Alloy Super Light | Dictates vehicle mass. Heavy steel prevents the truck from being tossed by bumps, while superlight chassis reduce inertia. |
Cargo Bed Customization and Space Management
Customizing the rear of your truck is essential for high-volume contracts. Cargo in Truckful relies on dynamic physics: tall stacks, unstrapped barrels, and fragile porcelain vases shift with momentum. Installing different truck beds changes the grid capacity and side-wall retention.
- Narrow Basket 18+ & Chimney 12+: Compact setups designed for early deliveries, featuring tall side barriers that prevent lightweight parcels or passenger seats from tumbling sideways on turns.
- Painted GT18+ & Tarp 18: Mid-tier beds balancing flat floor space with lateral protection, ideal for irregularly shaped cargo like furniture and herbicide drums.
- Flatbed XL 30+: A heavy-duty expansion designed for multi-item hauling, construction workers, and bulky concrete mixers.
While larger cargo beds allow you to accept orders that trigger capacity warnings on stock beds, extra payload heavily compresses the rear suspension. Overloaded beds drag along the ground when climbing rocky ridges or reversing, requiring paired engine and suspension upgrades to maintain adequate clearance and rear-wheel traction.
Special Utility Gadgets and Abilities
Beyond basic automotive tuning, your truck can be fitted with active tools and passive equipment to bypass roadblocks, clear environmental obstacles, and survive hostile encounters:
- Navigation (GPS): Mounts a digital compass and mapping system onto your vehicle dashboard. Displays your exact coordinates, active delivery destination markers, and directional tracking arrows in your journal map.
- Sticky Cargo: An activated electromagnetic stabilizer that temporarily locks parcels to the cargo bed. Activating the ability locks freight in place during violent bumps and automatically retrieves items that were thrown from the bed shortly beforehand.
- Booster (Nitro / NOS): A thruster that provides sudden forward acceleration with an active cooldown. Used to leap across washed-out gaps or break line-of-sight against pursuers.
- Winch: A front-mounted cable pull system. Essential for extracting the truck when submerged in deep mud bogs or scaling otherwise impassable muddy inclines, such as the route to the local medical clinic.
- Metal Detector: A scanner that alerts drivers to concealed iron deposits, buried military equipment, and dangerous valley minefields.
- Snorkel: An engine intake extension tracked via the dashboard water-level meter. Allows the pickup truck to forge through swamps, flooded roadways, and marshes without drowning the engine block.
- Audio Horns & Howlers: The standard horn clears sheep herds from roadways, while upgraded Howler horns can disperse hostile adult wild boars blocking thoroughfares.
- Camouflage & Runes: Defensive augmentations. Camouflage reduces the probability of encountering aggressive entities like the Ghost Truck in dark woods, while Runes provide a passive slow effect against chasing hazards.
Visual Customization and Paint
Cosmetic styling allows you to personalize the pickup truck's look across Valley routes:
- Paint Finishes: Theresa's workshop offers six core body paint colors: standard Red, Pink, Green, Blue, Yellow, and Black.
- Body Styling: Additional visual customization planned includes ornaments, hood figurines, and stickers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do I install upgrades that require scrap instead of coins?
Scrap-based upgrades—such as the Winch, Boosters, and detection equipment—are unlocked and fitted at Red's Scrapyard in the eastern region through Zed, whereas standard engine parts, tires, and mechanical repairs are primarily handled at Theresa's Garage.
Can I install and swap upgrades anywhere on the road?
No. Truck parts and equipment can only be altered when parked inside an interactive garage bay, such as Theresa's Repair Shop, Red's Scrapyard, or regional field garages.
Does vehicle weight affect how cargo behaves?
Yes. Installing heavy steel body plating lowers your risk of rolling over when nudged by environmental hazards, but increases braking distance.
