You've probably spent hours hauling logs through the rainy backroads of Washington or cruising the neon-soaked highways of Nevada in the vanilla game. It’s great. But eventually, that map starts feeling a little... small. You look at the edge of the world in New Mexico or Texas and think, "I want to keep going east until I hit the Atlantic." That is exactly why the Coast to Coast American Truck Simulator mod exists. It’s a massive undertaking.
Honestly, the scale is staggering.
Most people find it through the SCS Software forums or Mantrid’s official threads. It isn't just a tiny expansion; it’s an attempt to bridge the gap between the West Coast and the East Coast, adding thousands of miles of road that SCS hasn't officially touched yet. But there’s a catch. Or several catches. If you're expecting the high-fidelity, every-rock-is-hand-placed detail of the official Oklahoma or Montana DLCs, you’re going to be in for a bit of a shock.
What Coast to Coast American Truck Simulator Actually Is
Basically, Coast to Coast (often just called C2C) is a map mod that adds the entire United States. Sorta.
It’s the work of a dedicated modding community, led for years by a creator named Mantrid. The mod functions as a "background" map for many other projects. While SCS Software is meticulously building one or two states per year, C2C gives you the whole thing right now. If you want to drive from Los Angeles all the way to Miami without a loading screen, this is how you do it.
The geography is... diverse.
In the states that SCS hasn't officially released, C2C uses a lot of "cloned" assets. This means a highway in Alabama might look suspiciously like a highway in Arizona because the modder is limited by the assets available in the base game. It’s a trade-off. You get the distance, but you lose the local flavor. You’re trading quality for quantity.
The Quality Gap and Why It Matters
Let's be real: some parts of the Coast to Coast American Truck Simulator mod are empty.
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I’m talking about long stretches of highway with nothing but green grass and the occasional generic gas station. This is often referred to by the community as "The Great Plains Problem." Because the mod covers such a massive area, it’s physically impossible for a small team of hobbyists to detail every exit, every Cracker Barrel, and every local landmark.
Wait. It gets better.
The mod is designed to be a "base layer." If you just run C2C alone, the East Coast feels a bit like a ghost town. However, the real magic happens when you start layering other mods on top of it. Think of C2C as the skeleton. You then add "Project Mid-Atlantic" or "Team Reform" to put the muscle and skin on those bones. Without C2C, many of these highly detailed regional mods wouldn't have a place to sit on the map.
Compatibility and the Load Order Nightmare
If you’ve ever modded a Bethesda game, you know the pain.
American Truck Simulator is no different. C2C is notorious for breaking if you don't have your load order exactly right in the Mod Manager. Usually, it needs to be near the bottom, but above other map add-ons. If you mess this up, you get the "broken road" bug. You’ll be driving at 65 mph and suddenly—poof—the road disappears into a gray void.
You also need the DLCs. All of them.
Because C2C uses assets from every official expansion, you generally can't run the latest version of the Coast to Coast American Truck Simulator mod unless you own the official Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas DLCs. It’s an expensive hobby. But for the hardcore simmer, it’s the only way to feel the true scale of a cross-country haul.
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Why Do People Still Play It?
It's the "Long Haul" itch.
There is a specific kind of zen that comes with a 3,000-mile delivery. In the vanilla game, a "long" trip might take 30 or 40 minutes of real-time. With C2C, you’re looking at several hours. For VTC (Virtual Trucking Company) players, this is the gold standard. It allows for realistic logbook entries and a sense of progression that the small official map just can't match.
The community keeps it alive.
Whenever SCS releases a new update, C2C usually breaks. And within days, sometimes hours, the modding team is patching it. That level of dedication is rare. It’s why, despite the "boring" scenery in parts of the Midwest, the mod remains one of the most downloaded files on sites like ATSMods or the SCS forums.
Technical Reality Check
Your PC might hate you.
While the mod itself isn't incredibly "heavy" on textures (since it uses mostly vanilla assets), the sheer size of the map file can lead to longer loading times. If you're running it on an old HDD, forget about it. You need an SSD. Also, because the mod isn't optimized by professional developers, you might see frame rate dips in heavily populated areas like the makeshift New York City or Atlanta.
It’s a labor of love, not a polished product.
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How to Get Started with C2C
Don't just go Googling "C2C download." You'll end up on a sketchy site full of pop-ups.
- Go directly to the SCS Software forums. This is the only place to get the official, "clean" link.
- Check your version. If ATS just updated to 1.50 or 1.51, make sure the mod has been updated too.
- Grab a "Mega Map" load order guide. YouTubers like Wombat Trucker or GMC Logistics spend their lives testing these things so you don't have to.
- Lower your expectations for the scenery in the "empty" states. Use it as a time to catch up on your favorite podcasts.
The Future of Coast to Coast
As SCS Software moves further East, the Coast to Coast American Truck Simulator mod actually gets smaller.
Wait, what?
Basically, as official DLCs come out for states like Louisiana or Arkansas, the C2C developers "delete" their version of those states and stitch the official SCS version into the mod. This is a win-win. The overall map gets higher in quality while maintaining the massive scale. Eventually, years from now, SCS will hit the Atlantic. On that day, C2C might finally be retired.
Until then, it’s the only way to see the sun rise over the Atlantic and set over the Pacific in a single session.
Actionable Next Steps
If you’re ready to expand your map, start by backing up your profile. Map mods are notorious for corrupting save files if something goes wrong. Create a separate "Modding Profile" in ATS specifically for C2C so your main career remains safe. Download the mod only from the official Mantrid thread on the SCS forums to ensure you aren't getting malware or outdated files. Finally, look into the "CanaDream" and "ProMods Canada" expansions to link with C2C—this creates a North American monster map that will keep you busy for years.
Just remember to keep an eye on your fuel gauge; those stretches through the C2C version of the South can be longer than they look.