Question about idling/IdleAire

35% is an unreachable #, and usually only "required" for you to meet fuel bonus.

The math just does not compute...and even with an automatic idle, it is nearly impossible.

24hrs in a day, say you drive a full 11hrs, thats probably another 10-12hrs you will be in the truck.

DONT SLEEP WITH WINDOWS OPEN, it is DANGEROUS.

If you are running a TV or LAPTOP off of an inverter, or even a 12v tv, you will mostlikely need to run the truck more to make the power.


K

 

How much fuel does a truck usually burn while idleing per hour?

 

I think the standard answer is about 1 gallon/ hour.

 

Why is 35% idle time unreachable? Assuming that the driver has a halfway decent sleeping bag, he doesn;t have a reason to idle the truck at all during the majority of the spring and fall season. I often ran late into the winter before idling the truck, simply by tucking myself away in my bag at night. In summer, I often found that I could easily sleep at night without the A/C on by leaving the bunk vents open and leaving the windows down. Some nights it gets warm, and on those nights I run the engine for cooling, but last summer I think there were only about 7-8 nites total where I needed to do that. Unless you have screwed up your schedule to the point where you are running all night long and sleeping all day, then you make use of the temps and sleep in the cooler times.

If the theory of not having the windows don is because of someone breaking in to your truck, well that's never been a concern for me. never had anyone try to do it, and if they step up on the side of the truck, I am awake and able to take whatever steps are needed.

35% idle time should be easily achievable. When you go inside to a customer, shut the truck off and save some fuel. The new engines start fine, time after time and don;t need to be idled nearly as long as older engines did.

35% is not a hard number to make in any truck, unless you are just dead set on idling your engine because that's the way you think truckers are supposed to act.

 

It isn't a bake oven after a day of running. I run the bunk AC during the day in summer to assist with the truck A/C. I usually don't shut down for the night until the sun sets, and I make efforts to park to my advantage if i have to park earlier. If I can, I find a place on the west edge of the parking lot where there are some trees or shade and then park the truck so the sun is not coming directly into the windshield making heat. The west end of the lot will get shaded first if there's any trees. If not, I may use other trailers to blck the sun for myself. I let my own trailer act as a sunblock against the back of the cab preventing it from gathering warmth. If you do these things, the cab doesn't get that warm to begin with and it's not hard to get a good nights sleep without A/C.

Now if i need it, or I can't get parked where I need to, then I run the engine for cooling. I'm not squeamish about it, and we have no rules that would forbid it or discourage it. But I use the landscape around me and that way I don't have to run the engine much. It's not rocket science, it just takes a little bit of effort and considering the area where you are parked. One truckstop may have east-west parking and the next one be aligned N-S. Make use of the E-W one and you can park in more shade.

 

I do most of my driving durring the nighttime, so when I am sleeping durring the day and it is over 65* out the cab usually reaches oven temperatures.

I also run a reefer, so vents open and windows cracked will give me allot of noise.

If companies really want to save $$$ than an apu is the only alternative. Most large companies have shops and are capable of self installation. The units are efficient and with proper maintenance, there is no reason they could not be moved from truck to truck for 10 years, as they retire and purchase new trucks.

I always wondered if a reefer could be fixed with a small generator system to run power to an electric heating and cooling device...there are many efficient units that RV's use that could be powered by such a generator.



K