What will Roehl let you put in and on their trucks?

I've pulled reefer a few times, actually am today. You'll hear it running for sure, but the noise can be soothing if you're used to sleeping with things running.

 

Slight correction: I'm pretty sure they say it is their goal to get you that many miles. For what it's worth.

 

I was just quoting my recruiter. I think the website does say goal etc. that's why I asked. But of course there are never guarantees.

 

I just asked the recruiter today about add on's, and just got an email earlier where she said the trucks have APU's or EPU's (they are switching over). She said refrigerators and microwaves are allowed, inverters can't exceed 1,000 watts and must be installed by them. Is the EPU she mentioned the battery packs that start the engine when a charge is needed that was talked about previously?

 

Yes. The EPU is an expanded set of batteries for the truck in general. Those batteries are charged whenever the engine is running -- while you are driving of course, but also when the system detects the battery voltage to be getting low and auto-starts the engine while parked, in order to charge them. Obviously if the voltage gets too low, there won't be enough power in the batteries to crank the engine over, but the auto-start detector kicks in long before that happens.

Note that you have a choice whether to enable auto-start or not. If you don't have it enabled, then when the battery voltage gets low, power is cut off to auxiliary sockets in the cab and to the sleeper A/C and heater in order to prevent further drainage.

Note that since the inverter will run for only two hours before needing to be shut off for ten hours, it's not suitable for powering a 120v refrigerator.

Finally, I have seen one or two trucks who have the EPU expanded batteries but do not have the auto-start feature. That means that when the battery voltage gets too low, you lose the A/C and heat etc. until you manually start the engine and somehow keep it idling enough to charge up the batteries. Those trucks seem to be fairly rare though.

 

Thanks for clearing that up. I hadn't even heard of the EPU before. A Maverick recruiter had told us about the battery system in their trucks, but I didn't know what it was called. So I guess there really is no way to run a refrigerator other than a 12volt in their trucks then. Too bad. They are a lot cheaper than the 12volt ones.

 

I and a lot of other drivers use a 12v Koolatron thermoelectric cooler. It's solid-state and the only moving part is the fan to circulate the air around the heat sinks. It's worked great for me so far.

Due to the jostling around in a truck, an actual "refrigerator" with a compressor and refrigerant needs to be built specifically for mobile use; a typical "cube" refrigerator from Walmart etc. won't last long in a truck. Yes, they make the hardened ones, even for 12v use, but they're really really expensive, much more than a thermoelectric cooler like a Koolatron.

 

Does Roehl refrigerated run west and south.

 

Just bought a Rand McNally GPS today. Was looking at the Garmin but for $40 less and better reviews I thought I may as well try it. Anyone have any personal experience with it? Does the Koolatron keep things real cold? I thought about paying the extra for the 12v freezer/fridge that uses real low steady voltage. Leaving SAT for Marshfield. RDTC starts Monday!

 

It will ice up water if put right next to the blower part.
Depends on GPS model. I got the 510 or 520. Whatever, it's 5 something. I like it. Does what I need. 95% I pretty much use it for eta, but that is an extremely useful piece of info.