Company driver... Indispensable cooking tip!

Most companies have some form of a cab-heater to use in the winter months. Those same companies also have strict rules about having portable stoves/grills/hot-plates etc...

Well, if you still have one of the old Webasto-style diesel-fired cab heaters, I have great news for you. This works better than a microwave and faster than trying to do silly things like putting a can on a running engine block.

Simply aim the heat vent at the ground and place a can of beans, chef boyardee, soup, or anything else that is in a high-heat resistant container (even cardboard) directly in front of the blast of hot air. Leave about 6 inches for can, and probably a foot if you're using a plastic container (this will take longer.) Wait 10 min, and open! I was curious, so I bought a can of Chef Boyardee to test it with, and it worked beautifully.

This also has the benefit of not requiring the painfully slow lunchbox oven, and cleanup is reduced to one fork/spoon, and whatever dish you put it in.

Save yourself some cash, and use the heater for cooking, this will help with your food budget tremendously.

 

It depends how your company sets up the APU:

If they included an inverter, then it SHOULD function with, or without the truck running. This would also depend on how the installers wired the inverter, because if it is powered by the generator rather than the truck's batteries, then you would have to have the APU running to power it.

If they didn't include an inverter, then you wouldn't have the "shore power" anyway.

 

Yeah, but I've never much liked microwaves... They cook quick enough, but at the expense of flavor. They also have a tendency to dry things out unless you prepare it right beforehand.

 

No problem, just make sure that the inverter you buy complies with the company's policy. At Schneider we weren't "allowed" anything bigger than 100w, which will power a 19" flat panel TV, OR a laptop, OR a coffee pot, OR... you get the idea. For a microwave, you'll want at least 1,000w of power for a 700w microwave, because they draw more juice when starting than they do when running. So, I would advise shutting off anything else relying on power when you kick the Micro on.

If you want a PS3, XBOX 360, or desktop style PC (better have a flat panel monitor) you'll need 1,500w of power. They sell portable electric ranges now (I think it was a coleman product) which give you two electric stove-style burners, but they run at 1,500w, which would probably need a 2,000w inverter to be safe. Again, these all require substantial starting power (PS3 runs on 700w, but draws 12-1300 on start-up) so be careful what else is running off the inverter.

It really depends on what you want, how much power it requires, and what your company will allow.

Cooking with the cab-heater is a nice way to avoid any policy problems, because, as of yet, I don't think any companies have banned using them for heating beans, lol.