CB Radios

Please do not buy a cb. Post your cell phone number on the back of your trailer so I can call you and tell you about your brakes smoking before they catch fire, or your trailer lights not working, or your chains loose on your lowboy, or your air lines dragging and making sparks, or your tire coming apart, or the road closed ahead, and how to get around it, etc. I see most drivers than don't need cb's are wannabes or 0-1 yr experience. BTW, I have a smart phone, GPS, PeopleNet, Atlas, etc., but for 43 years, my cb always goes with me.

 

CB is a very handy / useful TOOL just do not be a TOOL when you have 1

 

The cb radio is an excellent tool for new drivers.It got me out of a few jams.But once I got the exp I quit using the cb.So back in 2003 when I started feeling less nervous was the last time I use the cb.I dont even carry one to orientation.I use that space where the cb goes as a junk space.

 

Wouldn't want to be without one

 

Makes sense to have one right? Info on traffic, bears, creeper cops, weigh stations, pickle park and short skirts.

 

Few weeks ago at a warehouse that calls you on the CB to enter the warehouse to unload your steel , guy next to me watched the truck beside him pull in to get unloaded.

Then he gets called on the CB ( which he does not have ) COMPANY XYZ truck #123 pull in for unloading , I go over to tell him they are calling him , he says " No WAY my phone has not even rang " , I went back to my truck and they called me in as he was not responding. He was still sitting there after I unloaded , pulled over to the other warehouse and was reloaded.

 

I'll bet a bunch of drivers on I-77 in southern VA would have either wanted one or wished theirs was on before the wrecking ensued.

The worse the weather, the more mine is on. Handy, too, for some shippers and receivers.

 

I NEVER had one UNTIL I started running the same route, with the same guys, and seeing them every day. Now the workday is awhole nicer; especially the ride home.

 

CB 98% of the time, either just annoying or useless. It's the other 2% you want it for. It can save you from loosing something off a flat deck load that you have no idea has worked loose, or finding out that you have a flat tire, or a smoking bearing, or brakes, or forgot to turn your backup lights off (I see this one a lot). Not to mention hazards up ahead, or being able to talk to pilot trucks with a 30 foot wide load. All it has to do is save your bacon one time, and you will be grateful. Just try not to get into using it improperly, or respond to idiots on it (and there are lots). Used properly, it's a valuable tool, just like tirechains or a decent tow sling.

 

Or better yet, just text 'em. That's how the kids roll these days. Never understood that "why talk when you can type" mentality.


Okay, so I'm just an approaching on middle-age wannabe whose only close exposure to trucking was my dad who drove flatbed many years ago, but I can't think of any good reasons NOT to have a CB in the truck. In my opinion, they're a good idea for anyone who spends much time on an interstate.
I must be nostalgic and old-fashioned. In spite of owning a tablet, laptop, desktop, cell phone/smartphone, Roku, lcd/led's and digital everything else... my dad's old Cobra might be my favorite electronic gadget I own.