The Bus Side Trunk is a loot container mounted on the side of parked buses in ARC Raiders. It behaves like other breachable containers in the game: you cannot simply open it; you must breach it to see what is inside. Bus Side Trunks are part of the general container pool and appear in normal raids, not as a limited event feature.
The key properties of the Bus Side Trunk are:
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Container name | Bus Side Trunk |
| Category | Container (bus-side compartment) |
| Must be breached | Yes |
| Number of sections | 1 |
| Event only | No |
| Affected by events | No |
| Can be trapped | No |
In practice, this means each Bus Side Trunk is a single, self-contained loot roll. Because it is explicitly marked as not trapped, you do not have to worry about triggering built-in container traps when you breach it, although you still need to be alert to enemy patrols and other raiders nearby.
Bus Side Trunk mechanics and breaching
Bus Side Trunks are locked containers. To access their contents, you must use the standard breach interaction used elsewhere in ARC Raiders on sealed doors, crates, and similar objects. Until you complete the breach, you cannot search the trunk.
The fact that Bus Side Trunks are defined as having a single section means you are interacting with one container per trunk, not a stack of separate drawers or compartments. Once breached, you get one set of items from that trunk in that raid.
Two additional flags are important from a planning perspective:
- Event only: No – Bus Side Trunks are part of the regular map layout and can appear regardless of whether any special event is active.
- Event affected: No – Events do not change whether these trunks spawn or fundamentally alter how they work.
As a result, you can route around known bus locations in any normal raid without worrying that an event is required for them to appear.
Bus Side Trunk locations on Dam Battlegrounds
The clearest, repeatable place to use Bus Side Trunks is on the Dam Battlegrounds map. At the northern end of this map, close to the North Complex Elevator extraction point, there is a small cluster of buses. These buses are parked very near each other, which makes them an efficient stop on a loot route.
On these buses, you will find two different container types:
| Bus container | Position on bus | Interaction |
|---|---|---|
| Bus Side Trunk | Along the side panels of the bus | Searchable after breaching |
| Bus Rear Trunk | At the back of the bus | Breachable loot box in the rear |
Near the North Complex Elevator, there are several buses that combine both rear and side containers. Players who focus on this area typically breach the rear trunks for general loot but rely on the Bus Side Trunks along the flanks of each bus for specific, rare mechanical parts.
Bus Side Trunk loot: Rusted Gears and Motors
Bus Side Trunks are most notable because of the rare mechanical items they can drop. The side compartments on the buses near North Complex Elevator are a proven way to obtain:
| Item | Type | Why players care |
|---|---|---|
| Rusted Gears | Rare mechanical scrap | Part of the small set of hard-to-find quest and project materials needed for progression. |
| Motors | Mechanical component | Another late-game material frequently required alongside gears and other industrial parts. |
Rusted Gears, in particular, are one of the items that many players struggle with. A common pattern is to find plenty of more generic scrap while remaining stuck on a small number of needed gears. The bus-side compartments at the top of Dam Battlegrounds are a direct answer to that problem: multiple side trunks, all in one small area, each with the potential to drop the gears you are missing.
Motors are slightly easier to find across the game, but are still limited enough that you may stall projects or upgrades if you ignore their best sources. The same Bus Side Trunks that provide Rusted Gears are also a strong source of Motors, and many players report getting more Motors here than from the rear trunks on the same buses.
Bus Side Trunk in your rare-material routes
Because each Bus Side Trunk can yield high-value parts, it makes sense to anchor at least one of your Dam Battlegrounds routes around the North Complex Elevator buses. A simple approach is:
- Plan a raid on Dam Battlegrounds that brings you through the northern region of the map.
- Pass through the bus cluster near the North Complex Elevator extraction point.
- Breach all Bus Side Trunks along the sides of each bus, then, if time and safety allow, also breach the rear trunks for extra loot.
On Dam Battlegrounds, Bus Side Trunks fit into a broader network of mechanical-scrap sources. Other strong spots for similar items include the storage containers in the loading bay under the Primary Facility and the various cars and industrial vehicles in high-tech or industrial zones. While those other containers can also provide Rusted Gears and Motors, the bus-side compartments stand out because several are grouped tightly in one location right next to an extraction.
If you are specifically stuck on the rare mechanical items listed at the top of most expedition and bench requirements (Rusted Gears, Motors, and the like), treating the North Complex Elevator bus cluster as a fixed stop in your runs is an efficient way to make progress without relying purely on chance encounters with the right container types elsewhere.
Bus Side Trunks are a small detail in ARC Raiders’ world design, but they matter a lot once you start chasing late-game materials. They are safe to breach, always potentially available, and concentrated in a known spot on Dam Battlegrounds. If you still need Rusted Gears or Motors for projects or quests, make the side compartments on those northern buses a regular part of your loot circuit.
