These are the 5 American Truck Simulator mods I can’t play without. If you’re looking for the best ATS mods to make the game more immersive, this list covers real companies, better engine sounds, upgraded cab audio, animated cab cats, and a huge traffic overhaul.
Four of these ATS mods are on the Steam Workshop, so they’re a one-click install. The fifth, Jazzycat’s Traffic Pack, you’ll need to grab separately.
American Truck Simulator mods in this video:
Real Companies, Gas Stations & Billboards
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2316796205
JC’s Amateur Engine Pack
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2616959943
JC’s Amateur Sound Effects Pack https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2633425168
Farsel’s Cab Cats
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2963527908
Jazzycat’s Traffic Pack (plus the Truck, Trailer & Cargo, Motorcycle, and Classic traffic packs)
https://www.modland.net/american-truck-simulator-mods/other/ai-traffic-pack-by-jazzycat-19.html
Whether you’re new to modding American Truck Simulator or you’ve been running ATS mods for years, these are the ones that changed how the game feels for me. Real brands on the depots and trailers, engines like the Cummins N14 and Mack E9, better blinkers, wipers and air brakes, and highways that finally look like America.
What’s the one ATS mod you can’t live without? Let me know in the comments.
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Real Companies, Gas Stations & Billboards works but only in single player. me and my bro tried to use it yesterday as before and everytime one of us have it the other will show mod mismatch or wrong version. we both took it off and could play together.
manually adding product placement is strange to me
Readl advertisement, real fuel price, ATS – Realistic Rain And Water And Thunder Sounds, Extended Traffic Light Timing, Realistic Vehicle Lights Mod
Is the cabin sound enhancement mod compatible with the Kriechbaum Engine Sounds mod?
For traffic AI i use (Real Traffic Density ATS) By Erbkaiser & Cipus
Plus (Realistic Drivers) By Purity Control
Truck lights i use (Real Good Headlights for SCS Trucks) By maurice
Sounds i use (Engine Sound Pack) By TGModz
All the mods listed can be found on workshop
Mods i can't live without
Walk outside the truck mod is also a must now
SCS made it SO easy to mod the game, either its workshop or from other sites. I LOVE driving around my K100E with the Mack Big E9, its got enough torque I can easly tow just about anything (since my main trailer is a double 53ft reefer) and cruise at the higher speeds (using the fast 12 speed mod)
i play wih very little mods and my two always on mods; "Sound Fixes pack" by Drivesafely and my own mod "Slav Jerry Minipack" on the workshop. Slav's engine mods are far above any other free mod out there, seriously look them up individually or use my mod.
Does Jazzycat still cause memory leaks? I really enjoyed it for a long time, but my game is so much more stable without it sadly.
The JazzyCat mod is BS. Cannot find a clear link for a straight download. I'm not signing up for other websites or servers or apps to download.
I might be one of the few that actually prefers SCS' fake company brands? Like, there's some undeniable charm in driving in a world that resembles, but isn't quite like our own… Combined with the 1/20 map scale, it makes it feel like I'm playing in a diorama world. "Haha, the Darwing factory in Everett wants an order from Wallbert in Seattle, that's only a five-minute drive…" It just wouldn't feel the same to me if I was literally running a Walmart trailer to Boeing.
As for my own can't-play-without mods… Based on my playstyle, the game would be literally impossible to play without the No Damage mod. Then there's No Limits, which thanos snaps the accursed escort cars and makes the Special Transport DLC actually playable! And since I'm going for a True 100% Completion run (not just all map discovery and cheevos, but all depots which I have to manually track in a text doc), I have Discovery Map Helper on standby (turns discovered roads grey and undiscovered ones bright red, so I can find that one little pixel of road hiding over in Tulsa), but 95% of the time I have the mod turned off since it makes normal map navigation a lot harder.
Yeah see the thing with immersion. You need the Real Billboards and Gas Stations mod. That's always my go to and the reason is really simple. Because here you are driving around in an environment where it has all these made up names throughout the entire game but you have a license Peterbilt Kenworth Volvo and such. That is such a deal breaker for me It's a total disconnect.
so having real billboards and businesses mod helps add the immersion. The only other way to do it is to go the opposite direction where all of your trucks that are actually licensed trucks are fictitious then you can have the fictitious names fictitious trucks trailers and whatnot and everything is the same having them some are real and some are not just cretes creates a mersion breaking disjointed experience in my opinion.
And as far as all the rest of the mods that are depicted in this script in this video are fine I am just not going to do the cat mod because I can careless. in real life I can look over to my left shoulder or right shoulder and I would see a cat right there so I really don't need to add cats in the game when I have one in real life along with a dog. but that's just me.
As of this post I bought South Dakota which I haven't gained access to yet because I've been driving other places. Get to it eventually. But what I have enjoyed is the road trip with the Fords. That's been pretty cool actually. I wish they would have included or hopefully somebody will take the reins and make it happen More Ford automobiles to drive in the game for me would be the Ford Maverick Lobo because I own it in real life the 2026 model year and it's been an awesome experience so far for me anyway. those are my thoughts cheers.
GeneralSams dad really got around back in the day, it's almost uncanny your resemblance to his bloodline
Nice list, I'm really surprised that Sound Fixes Pack by Drivesafely wasn't in your list. That mod really helps with the immersion as far as sounds go. I'd put it above the JC sound effects pack because it hasn't been updated in ages.
For a little more immersion (and aesthetics) I use "HN Immersive Symbols Extreme".
It replaces all of the flashing boxes at depots and gas stations with manhole covers and cones. It's also available for ETS2 on the workshop.
All of these mods are outdated. Would they even work in the new VNL?
I refuse to play with are 1) Zmod engine sounds. 2) Corey Watson's GMC Astro 95. 3) FLX 359 Peterbilt.
Slav Jerrys engines are a must. As well as Snowy Moon TLAA (for free) and DLSS Swapper/DLSS 5 Swapper, to make the Antialiasing even better.
For some comment , introduce paid graphic mod , I say No!
Engine sound sucks
What about DLL5 and Project NextGen?
nice man. Don't forget Snowy Moon (Paid)
I used to use Real Companies, Gas Stations & Billboards religiously, but after SCS changed the gas station signage they look really bad. I'm amazed no one has figured out how to alter the models yet. As it stands any gas station rebranding mod just throws a texture over the top of the new models and nothing matches.
My only must have mod now is Icons! by DaStrobel.