Lite Petes in Winter

Its always possible you might have a weak battery... I'd see if RA would let you take it in for a load test. I know you can get that done at a TA, I imagine a Petro could do it as well.

 

Been there done that. TA found nothing when the Prime shop found it a week later. Saved me from having to pay for a pull start that occurred when I was bobtail and got charged for it.

Low voltage alarm would trip on my inverter everytime I turned the engine over told me sumpthin wuz up. TA said it was nothing.

 

i had that problem too with a freightliner. the what they call "apu" they put on some of the lightweights is nothing more than added weight and wind drag. it wouldnt even charge the batteries enough to run itself, much less anything in the truck. i couldnt even idle more than 5 minutes because they said they couldnt take the 10 minutes to reprogram the idle shut off because it had an "apu". so i know exactly what you mean by freezing in the middle of the night, extra blankets included. i finaly had it in the shop enough times that my fm said enough and had a new truck issued to me. same style, FL columbia, but sans "apu", so i can actualy idle now if needed. i cant speak for you, but ill take a bite on fuel mileage for the week if it means im warm enough to actualy sleep the night through.

 

You certainly aren't. I've spoken with a few other drivers who have told me the same thing. I know the heaters take quite a bit of energy, so it should improve as the temps warm and as you are able to keep that heater turned off.

I love this company and I love working at Prime. It is extremely difficult to ever see me complain about them on the forums, but if they ever tried to force me into a lightweight that would be the end of it for me. And from what I've heard (from a very reliable source - not a driver ), at least for experienced drivers, if you tell them it's either a condo truck or no truck, they'll find you a condo.

 

I am 6"4" and when it came time to get my truck about 4 weeks ago I told my FM that I would not fit in a lite pete. He agreed and got me an 09 Century. I don't know if I would have gone so far as to say a Condo or no truck as it did not come down to that thankfully.

 

It certainly flavored my decision to go onto the lease side. That being said, I let my company-side FM know that I wasn't looking forward to the LW truck... he told me that he'd get me into a condo.

The point of this is that if you have a track record - a good one - an FM has enough pull to get you into something bigger. If he wants to keep you...