Best Place to buy trucking supplies?

It is best to only buy what you have to, at a truck stop. If at all possible, go to a major retail business such as wal-mart, or sears, etc...

 

Where is a good place to look for a GPS???

 

Since no one else has said it:

Buy the best work gloves you can. Yes, I mean spend $20-$30 on a pair, and buy a pair of good insulated work gloves for the winter too. Such gloves provide superior protection to your palms and fingers, but also will last longer than cheaper pairs that retail around $4.

I find my gloves last between 10-14 months at $20 a pair. The $4 gloves last maybe a month or two, which still cost $24-$40 per year, but provide none of the protection or insulation that superior gloves provide.

 

if you're a member of AAA, i guess you can get maps and atlas for a good price if not free

 

If you don't want to shell out hundreds of dollars for a truck specific GPS and know how to read an MCRA, check out your local pawn shop.

I picked up a pretty nice Garmin model for $60 and it works perfectly. I loaded on some custom POI's for low clearance warnings, truck stops, and scales. Also updated the software to the latest version to ensure it works properly.

Just remember that a GPS is only an accessory to what should be your main method of trip planning... an MCRA.

 

I bought a GPS receiver from here, http://www.usglobalsat.com/, to use with copilot truck on my laptop. It ran about $100 and the software was $300. However, you can find bootleg copies of the software at some truckstops around San Antonio if that doesn't bother you for about $20.

 

Are you using a mount for the laptop or is it sitting on the passenger seat? Just curious.

Also, I heard that there may be some new laws coming in to play regarding an open laptop in a moving vehicle. Of course we all know that will never apply to law enforcement.

 

Well then you got lucky. It seems they have changed the design in the last year or so. Go read some reviews on the units purchased by truckers recently. The unit now has an exterior and an interior fan. The exterior fan breaks very quickly. They say that it's only good for continuous operation for about two months now.

 

I have the laptop sitting on the passenger seat but it is strapped to the seat. I don't want it to go flying if I have to hit the brakes. Iwouldn't worry too much about such laws. They have actually moved away from such things within the last year. Originally you couldn't have anything that is even capable of showing tv or movies within view of the driver which of course includes laptops because of the dvd player most have in them now. But they backed off and started saying laptops are ok as long as you are running navigational software and NOT watching movies.