How Comfortable Are You In the Sleeper in Hot Weather? and other Questions

It would have been easy for you just to look down the list of USA THREADS and gotten the answer. Currently almost all trucks are APU/inverter equipped. Some of the new ones do not, but are set to idle when the tempurature is below 20 or above 70. In states where it is unlawful to idle they have taken the position that they will fight the ticket because all the trucks have been clean idle certified.

Unlike other companies usa at least pretends to care about the drivers. No pets is the policy.

 

The idle policy is 5% for APU equipped trucks and I think 30% for others but policies here are lightly enforced.

 

Most of the older USA trucks are ,APU equipped for driver comfort as long as you can keep it running LOL
Ive heard our newer trucks are not equipped but I believe they will idle and are probably equipped with temp sensors (not 100 percent sure on that)

The trucks with APUs also have inverters.

Hope this helps

 

You were obviously a happy, comfortable driver with the APU. Why wouldn't all companies put them in, if just for the happy driver quotient? I understand they'd save money without installing it, but at what cost? Don't happy and comfortable drivers perform better?

 

The only problem was maintenance. They couldn't work on the APU"s. The y could only change the oil on it. Every time something went wrong, they would go tighten the belt. Call it good. They didn't like sending it to Thermo King. It took me about three months to get the gosh dog thing fixed.

 

As jfrog said mostly ever truck has apus/ inverters , only non apus are some of the newest cascadias , with smart idle, as far as comfort my apu can freeze me out my truck and sweat u out in winter both work great. As far as inverters my truck has one of the bigger ones, powers small black n decker refrigerator, and tv fine with out draining batteries. Have a microwave as well but have to turn truck on to use that. Just a tip keep a eye out on ur apu checking oil daily etc if you stay on top of it , they sill hardly break down. In my last 8 mths in this cascadia my apu only broke down once when the belt snapped other than that has ran like a champ

 

If you ever work for a company that writes you up for having Idle time too high when they don't have an idle system or a properly working one and you have told them about it. One word for you.........................QUIT!!!!!! Go somewhere else. I won't work another day for a company that takes issue with what I have to do to make my truck comfortable to sleep in. It is their job to make sure the drivers are enabled to get a good night sleep. Better put it is their part to let you idle or provide you with accommodations. Any trucking company will understand you quitting. To answer the question I never had a problem sleeping in the sleeper so long as my APU was working right. The standard mattress sucks but you can get a memory foam for about 60 bucks.

 

If your apu is broke and its I beleave above 70 for the night or night etc they will put u in a hotel. Same goes for winter time, when my apu belt snapped I was in Texas going to Ocala,fl they put me in a hotel for a week in half until I made it to a terminal to get it fixed. And during winter I had a ground wire go out from all the salt and calcium on the roads I stYed in hotel until it got fixed. As ling as its in the parameters above 70 below 30. They try there best to make sure u get your rest.