Coffin sleeper/historical question

Man I guess you had to just have a mason jar to pee in and hope that is all you have to do....

 

Update: (although this was back in March) I had to run a round trip to Boston from PA with a 6 hour unload.

I had to be at the receiver at 6:30 am (early start construction) but they gave me a day cab.

Couldn't get a hotel room for 7am to 5 pm (the maids clean the room from 11-3)

So I got up at midnight, arrived at 6am, checked in, walked for breakfast, took some moving blankets with me and made a bunk in the belly box under the floor. I slept for about 4 hours the first stretch and 3.5 hours after a pee break. Made sure none of the guys locked me in. Not the best "night" sleep I've ever had. Got home about 2am the next morning.

 

Furniture pads on plywood over the seats of a day cab were not uncommon when I started observing drivers in the 1950s. I used that method myself whenever a sleeper cab was not available, but the load had to run. Just be sure to log an eight hour break rather than a sleeper break. I knew one owner operator who specified a bench seat just for the sleeping arrangement. One day, we had to help him out of the truck. His hemorrhoids were hurting that bad. Management didn't seem to care.

 

A while ago I asked, (re: line #2 vs. line #1, 10 hr breaks and hotel receipts) if I took a tent with me and camped out near the truck for an off duty break.

I had about 6-8 runs up to NW Pennsylvania in a 3 month period. Was a 13 hr round trip so I kinda needed to take the break for legal reasons.
I found a nice spot in a state park about 1 hr short of the shipper. But decided I'd rather deal with a local hotel than a local bear. (the furry, honey-eating kind, not the let me see your logbooks and ticket kind.)

 

Back in 1980, my husband and I ran team in a '79 Pete, with a coffin sleeper behind the cab, with a "dive through". It was actually just the back window of the Pete had been taken out and you had to "dive through" to get in the sleeper and yes, you drop down. My husband was a big man, about 6' tall but over 240# or so, and I weighed maybe 130. The "coffin" was so narrow, (maybe 30/32") that in the times when we had to lay over or wait to load/unload, and both wanted to sleep at the same time, we had to sleep "spoon fashion" and when one turned over, the other had to, also. No power steering (center point, only) no cruise control, the cab was so narrow that the driver could reach the window crank on the passenger side door. Lots of fun. We did drive much nicer trucks over the years, with all the comforts of home, just about, triple digit trucks. How many times did I say, "oh, I feel so good, I could drive a Winn Dixie truck to California and back". We ran team for about a dozen years, running to California every week, from L.A. (lower Alabama) to L.A. (Los Angeles area) or from south Louisiana, for about 10 years, until he had to get off the truck for health reasons. I kept on driving for the same company, only instead of Cali once a week, I was going to Orlando twice a week to unload (from Louisiana) then reloading to go home. My husband, by that time had undergone open heart surgery and had both legs amputated due to diabetes. When he lost the second leg in '96, I went to work locally for (wait for it...) Winn Dixie, day cab, 65 mph, top speed and ran four states and still home every night (or part of one). He passed 20 years ago, and I retired 10 years ago, 2010. It was fun while it lasted. Thirty years, no tickets, no accidents, clean MVR. I got to see lots of our beautiful country!

 

Great stories, I hope you'll share more on here there's a lot of people who would be very interested. You're posting in a general public area now, but with your history you have an experience bank that will entertain and educate most drivers so please dont be a stranger.

 

I hope these links work for you, they are examples of what you were looking for. All though your original post was from back in 2011.
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