Bulk Potato Load with Vent/Inspection Door Open?

The temp is at 63 now and was at 73 some 3-4 hours ago. The temp is now cooling very fast and that’s because it’s been dark for about an hour here in the east coast, luckily.

My observation is that opening the vent will not take out the heat, unless the outdoor temp is lower than your current inside trailer temp. The outdoor temp was in the low 90s over here. When I had the vent door open, the temp appeared stuck. Once I closed it, the temp suddenly started lowering, but by the decimal only.

I remember seeing some pictures online that showed that the reefer works by sucking in air from the bottom, and they also mentioned that for this reason the reefer should be off if being loaded or unloaded at a dock with warmer air than the inside of the trailer.

 

So how does that work to my advantage?

 

I forgot to mention that the last time I hauled the full load of onions requiring the vent to be open was so moisture wouldn’t build up inside the trailer and damage the onions. It had nothing to do with taking out the heat. In fact, it was cold outside (in ID). I remember asking the receiver how the onions would look if the vent were not open, and they said the outside of the onions would be wet or have some moisture.

 

A few hours ago I spoke to an actual Thermo King mechanic who provides after-hour services. I think he was a contractor because I had to given the after-hours representative my phone number to then receive a call from an available mechanic. He said he had some 15 years of experience and that around this time of the year many people would call about temperature problems from loading hot loads. He advised me to cancel the alarm codes (26 & 32), and continued rolling and checking the temp. He said I should be fine as long as the temperature was lowering.

Code 26 was just some warning, while code 32 would turn off your reefer and display a specific image on the outdoor reefer display that one can see while driving. I think I got code 32 some 4 times. Every time I cleared the codes, they took longer and longer to reappear, which was a good sign the reefer was lowering the inside temp.