Magnum ltd - fargo, nd

When my bunk heater went out in my first otr truck, I grabbed a 15 dollar electric space heater from Menards. Set on low, it did the trick for keeping me warm enough until I got back to Fargo a couple of weeks later for home time and was able to have it fixed without messing up my productivity. As a bonus, setting it on low or fan only when it was really cold could add a bit more heat, improve circulation and keep the apu running to help keep the engine warm. I never idled my truck. Even when it was 30 below. I hate idling. Not because I care about fuel consumption, but because I hated breakdowns, and idling is absolutely horrible for the dpf system. Less idle time means less parked regens, longer DPF life, fewer breakdowns and, less time spent in some motel near a repair shop not making money waiting for your truck to get fixed.

 

My bunk heater isn't out though, my APU is. Bunk heater works fine. The issue is that it's tied into the APU system, so it'll work until the APU decides to fire up, and then when it detects a problem it shuts everything off.

The temp sensor on my truck says it's 42 outside, but since the idle timer kicks in at 40 or above, this is the predicament i find myself in.

 

Darn, that's a bummer. I missed that. Can't say I got a lot of good advice for you, other than add more blankets. Hopefully you can get if fixed asap.

 

I have everything off in my truck that can be. Turned my inverter off, turned fridge to low. I doubt my truck will go dead in 8 hours. Just to be clear, the bunk heater will work as long as the APU doesn't kick on because it hit the low voltage threshold, hence why i turned off as many electrical accessories as possible. I talked to Randy and he said that the Coon Rapids shop should be able to fix it, and i should be there sometime Monday morning. I just don't want to wake up to a dead truck tomorrow morning.

 

Mine shuts off between 40-70, I have a peterbilt

 

Start reefer, run jumper cables.

 

Coon Rapids is not my favorite place in the world, for sure. When I ran out of Duluth two or three times, I got stuck there for 5 hours. My cutoff was usually about 3 hours on that run if I was going to be coming down for a second trip. Even when I was running out of SF I did my best to avoid that terminal. The pay was ok with it being a 500 mile run but you never knew how long you were going to get stuck there. When I ran the DSM run, I could leave the yard at the same time as one of our drivers headed to coon rapids and could often beat them back to the yard even though I was driving about 100 miles farther. I never had to wait at the DSM terminal. The paperwork was always printed out and ready for me when I walked in the door. Just had to do my drop and hook, finish my 30 and roll out. Gate to gate I was usually done in about 10.5 hours.

 

I never even thought of that. Would that actually work? I've used my truck to jump a reefer before, but not the other way around.

 

Works both ways. The batteries don't care where the juice comes from.

Might want to put reefer on continuous for the night, depending on load, ambient temperature, etc.

 

Checked into the Coon Rapids shop to have them look into why my APU is on the fritz. Apparently there's a PM that needs done too, which i wasn't aware of. I'll probably be sitting here in the lounge all evening.

Jenn had me drop my load in the yard for a local, then I pick up in St. Cloud tomorrow afternoon to Jackson, MS. Hopefully i can get out before this nasty storm blows through.