Daycab VS. Sleeper

I want a day cab because it signifies that i sleep in my bed every night

 

I drive a day cab.With an extended cab it'll probably take you alittle bit getting use to but once you drive it won't take long.Just remember you now have a bigger trk and some places won't be as easy to back into as a day cab is.You'll have to swing wider.Other then where i.m at now I usually open my door and back,would'nt be as easy for an extended cab for me.With this job I pull on a farm road then back out of it when the oil trk is done unloading me.

 

not true, i am out 2 nights a week. the company puts us up in hotels.

 

Yeah, i have been out for 18 days...

 

In a day cab,if you get in back to sleep,be careful that you don't fall off the cat walk when turning in your sleep

 

Not always. At 240", I'm as long as a smaller (36-48") sleeper truck.

Not necessarily. With 485hp under the hood, an 18 speed transmission, and 4.17 rears, my "underpowered" day cab will out pull most OTR trucks, even if I'm 10-15K heavier than they are. I work with a few guys who have the same big-displacement motors as the large cars...many with work done to them (pushing 700+hp) in their day cabs, and they'll leave me looking like an underpowered fleet truck. Short answer, the cab and whether or not it has a closet behind it has nothing to do with what kind of power it has under the hood. If anything, they'll be geared lower to help with starting from a stop and getting a load moving in the stop & go city environment where an OTR truck is usually spec'd with higher geared rears to reduce RPM's at highway speed for better fuel mileage.

Trucks are for working. When it is time to rest, go into the house, check into a motel, or spread a blanket out under a shade tree and pull your cap down over your eyes. You couldn't pay me enough to sleep in a truck. 12-14 hours in a truck is plenty for 1 day...

 

Sorry PB, that's not true.^^^ Motels are awful places, and $100 dollars. When I got my sleeper, it was great! Even though I was more or less a local driver, there were times when a quick nap, or had to camp out at a customer, and the sleeper came in mighty handy. I wouldn't drive a truck without one, and many people on this site live in their trucks, "so going into the house", is not an option.

 

+1 on the bunk. you never know when a nap will help you out. (just my .02)

 

Problem is, when you don't feel like showing the DOT officer your log book...or don't want to show him more than just the current day if you're out past the 100 air mile radius...it is a heck of a lot more convincing playing the "local driver" card if you don't have a bunk.

I've trucked OTR with a sleeper, and I've trucked locally without. I've trucked regionally both ways. I just prefer truckin' it up in a day cab. If I don't get home, I can usually find a Super 8, Days Inn, Travelodge, Motel 6, Quality Inn...even stayed at the Holiday Inn and a Mariot once or twice. Usually the upper scale hotels have a "business" rate, which you qualify for since you are there on business. Usually I don't spend more than $50-60 plus tax on the room...which when you figure $4/gallon * 10 hours @ 1 gal/hr...you're looking at $40 just for fuel. Add in the wear & tear on the engine idling all night, and then add in the cost of breakfast and coffee in the morning (free with the motel). Then figure most hotels are within walking distance of decent sit-down-and-eat restaurants or at the very least have a wide variety of places that will deliver to a motel room if you call from the room phone. Many delivery places are reluctant to bring you food if you're calling from an out-of-the-area cell phone, so if you're in your truck you are pretty much stuck with whatever you're packing with you or take your chances with the slop they try to pass off as "food" in the truck stop. Motels have clean, private showers. After a long, hard day when you're just feeling nasty & gross, if you want to stand under a hot shower for 3 hours, have at it. Nobody is wandering the aisles carrying their shower bag waiting for you to finish up...and you didn't have to wait your turn either...your room, your shower to enjoy as long as you like. Want to shower again in the morning? Go for it.

...and before anyone says "Get an APU so you don't have to idle", for as rare as an overnight trip is for me, I just can't justify the expense. Being paid by the ton also weighs into it...instead of dragging around a closet that rarely gets used, I can load a couple hundred extra pounds every load.

To each their own, though...