Sleeping in the extreme heat or cold

In winter, many trucks have a "webesto" heater. They burn diesel to create heat that is blown into the cab. More trucks have these then have APU's. APU's are geared more for summertime A/C and electrical maintenance. They incorporate a webasto heater alongside the APU system to supply heat.

if they don't have a webasto heater, they have to idle.

 

I use a Bunk warming pad that goes under the fitted sheet and I can sleep comfortable down to 26 degrees with it only halfway up BUT AND I REPEAT BUT waking up and waitin for the truck to warm up is a B&*(C$!!!

 

Everything you see above and if none of that is an option....IDLE THE TRUCK. Dont go to work for a company that either wont let you idle or doesnt provide a APU and or a Bunk Heater....



American Trucker

 

in the middle of summer when I was OTR I was in a volvo where the air con was broken, driving isnt too bad because you can have the windows open, sleeping was bad, I semi ignored the problem as Im used to sleeping in heat, but after only getting 3 hours sleep one night and my eyes burning from sweat pooling in them while I slept I threw a tantrum and refused to drive it until It was fixed

 

Last summer my condenser on my old employers truck got a hole in it while on a run doing two drops.in Houston. I had a pickup scheduled in Waco back to El Paso the next day and my boss picked up the tab for a motel. Let's just say the drive to Waco and subsequently back to El.Paso in triple digit temps was not pleasant. I didn't have to stop.to urinate hardly at all despite consuming bottle after bottle of Gatorade, lol!

 

hubby's truck will not idel between 20 and 90 and bunk heater does not work co. keeps making excuses about fixing it always this load has to go now, its lkind of hard to sleep when you have to sit up all night hitting the clutch to make truck idle. kind of hard to sleep when you are freezing, is there any rules about this to make his co. fix it. He got real sick the last cold front and now he will be sick again. Thanks

 

Any way to put something on the clutch just enough it pushes the switch so it will continue idling? Other than that, obviously the company he is working for doesn't care if (when) either freezing to death or dying in your sleep from the extreme heat will happen. If they think he is out of line for demanding it be fixed or he is quitting, he should tell them to drive their own truck then. I bet this contributes to their overall driver turnover rate significantly.

Alternatively, there are a few places around the country, one is in Effingham, IL, there is a guy there that reprograms ECMs. For probably $100, he could have the idle limit changed to never shutdown. Mr. Haney could also probably hook you up with this. Just as long as the person changing ECM doesn't call the company to ask permission first.

 

This is exactly why its important to do lots of research before picking a company to work for and why you should avoid big companies like the plauge. Only thing i can think of other then bothing the hello out of his dispatcher about it, have him try parking and releasing the tractor brakes (have him tug on the trailer brake first to make sure they'll hold and IF it works tell him to go into the truck stop and buy a few wheel chocks as a backup just in case.




American Trucker