Anyone using a portable propane heater?

Hi, I'm a company driver. My co truck dose have a battery power ac/ heater for the sleeper. However after setting all night running the batteries are depleted. It takes 6-8 hours of drive time to fully recharge them. This works fine when I've run all day. But sometimes I get stuck at a dock for hours to be loaded, and my batteries quickly run down. My truck will not stay idle for more than a few minutes unless it is below 10F so I'm thinking about one of those little portable propane heathers folks use for camping.

 

Fmcsa 393.77 under heaters....types prohibited under (a)(6)

Portable heaters shall not be used in any space occupied by persons except the cargo space of motor vehicles which are being loaded or unloaded.

Tried to to post the link but couldn't get it to work in my phone lol the way I read it it isn't legal but somebody more familiar with that particular reg may elaborate on it more

not telling you what to do by any means as I looked into it myself when I was job hunting because I WILL stay comfortable lol I just got lucky and got a good gig that provides trucks with outstanding bunk heaters.

 

Set your cruise control and manually increase RPMs with the button to like 800 or so.

 

Only if the truck is able to idle.

 

That's if his company doesn't have the trucks set to auto shutdown after so many minutes the parking brake is set. I've worked for two companies that set them up this way and it tended to be a PITA at times when the APU just wasn't enough to keep up with the extreme cold or heat. Literally almost froze to death my first year in the first winter storm rolled through Wyoming in 08'. Not effing cool at all. Scared the hell outta me. Company wouldn't do a thing about it including getting me a hotel room after wrapping the lines under the cab with news paper to help insulate it from the cold and I added more than enough anti gel to the tanks but the lines still gel'ed. Trying to sleep was a nightmare in fear of not waking up but couldn't sit up all night trying to keep the truck running. Spent the whole night napping in 20 minute increments but after a couple hours the block was cold and heat was impossible. Spent the last 4 hours in the pilot in Cheyenne drinking coffee. Thankfully the employees were generous to let me stay after I told them what was going on. Companies shouldn't be allowed to set their trucks like that in case of such an emergency situation even though that one was rare.

 

I drove for one and it shut down at 4 minutes no matter what.

The night the APU died, I woke up at 4 in the morning and it was 19 in the sleeper and minus 26 outside. The truck started, but every 4 minutes I had to restart it.

 

I had a couple of guys tell me to chock my wheels and release the parking brake but this truck was even set to shutdown after a period of time 15-20 minutes if I remember correct. I was pulling reefer at the time but a flatbedder was stuck in the area so he loaned me some 4x4 boards to put in front and behind of my wheels. It didn't work so I returned them. He said he would offer a bunk in his truck but he didn't have a top bunk. Told him thank you and it was ok. Not something I ever want to experience again and hope no one else ever has to endure. It was -23 that night and the inside really wasn't much different with the exception of not being in the wind.

 

I was sitting on level ground, with ice that prevented the truck from moving.

I started it and bumped the cruise. It shut down as usual.
I started it and pulled out only the trailer brake, it shutdown as usual.
I started it and no brakes pulled and it shut down as usual.
I started it and no brakes ran the rpms to 1500 and it shut down as usual.
I started it and put the automatic in gear and held the brake and it shut down.

Called night dispatch to tell them.

He said, what do you want me to do about it. Did not care at all. The next 3 hours were miserable.

 

That's the exact same thing I tried except I was in a 10 speed so I couldn't hold the clutch all night. Best I could do is bump the clutch pedal when the engine warning shut off light started flashing. There was nothing to keep it running. I sat there from 4pm that afternoon as the storm was rolling in and didn't get a dispatch till 10 the next morning. Got told to deadhead to SLC to pick up load and even then after 80 was opened back up, took me an hour to jump my truck because the cold killed the truck batteries so I had to use the reefer to jump it off. Had trouble driving once I got on the road because my arms were froze so bad I could barely move them so I actually had to shift my body weight to shift the truck. A couple months later they were giving me hell about my MPG's and cut my truck to 55. Got home, cleaned it out and asked for a load back to the yard and tossed my keys. All that crap after enduring 6 months with a trainer and being told I couldn't take any time off and not making any money. "I'm done here, CYA!"

 

No way would I run any type of portable heater in a closed environment and risk Carbon Monoxide death. Our bunk heaters work great. Right now I haven't had to use mine but I run a 300W inverter for my cpap, my fridge and sometimes a fan all night with no problem. I do have 4 new batteries and if you treat them well they will be o.k.
Our trucks have a low battery alarm that sounds and lets you know to turn on the truck and run the batteries up. We also have free idle at under 20 degrees and over 80 degrees. On our Volvos you can defeat the auto shut down by cruise or tapping the break, but you risk going over allowed maximum, but they are pretty generous with the amounts allowed.