Fueling reefer while reefer on?

There is a world of difference between comments on an internet forum and sitting in an inspection parking lot at a scale. I will NOT get into a pissing contest with a DOT officer over such a fine point then have him then go and find enough (stuff) wrong to put my rig OOS. Your perfectly free to do so if you desire, however I will not. Thankfully this is no longer a problem for me.

 

I was multitasking when I wrote that last comment. The day that happened in Ohio the DOT cop directed me to shut off my reefer and my APU. Then pull my tractor brakes then my trailer brakes one at a time as he walked around listening for air leaks. Yes I know about the temp sensors placed in loads as well as them checking temps with handheld thermometers. However shutting off a reefer for 15 to 20 minutes is not going to harm the load, at least it has never been my experience. Look I think it is silly to turn a reefer off and on willy nilly. I am only reacting to the comments made about not doing so because of a fear it won't re-crank afterward. I pulled reefers and my father did for years. I honestly never remember being around a major reefer failure under those circumstances. It has been my experience the largest problems has arose from trying to crank up a reefer that has sit for weeks. Call me a fool if you will. However I will never subscribe to having fear of equipment failing every other day. It is just not a good way to truck. Yes I agree, leave the dang unit on until you are directed to shut it off to unload or after it is unloaded. But to live in fear? No, i'm not going to do that.

 

I’d never shut the reefer unit off under a load. Had to have a couple emergency road calls in the past because the unit quit, typically because the starter would die when it was running on start/stop mode. Which is why I’d always switch the settings to run continuous when it was time to sleep as well. A ####### to sleep through that thing starting and stopping every 20 minutes and that “click” you hear when you know it’s not going to start back up...

 

I loved running a reefer in continuous mode. However I discovered more and more of our reefers had that mode disabled for fuel economy reasons. However I got so used to that on and off I got to where I slept better just letting it cycle.

 

Having a part in a regional warehouse 600miles away does not help a reefer or load that was shut down for fueling a 3:00 am.

Even regional warehouses do not stock all the parts. I have seen reefers spend a whole week waiting for logic boards to be air freighted in. If those units were under a load the load would be lost.

Further more not every mechanic is adept at diagnosing logic boards, control panels, and thermostats. Likely, the guy they send to restart the reefer in the remote location in the middle of the night will have little or no dealings with those parts. But he will know fuel systems.

Obviously you have never been a mechanic. Waiting for parts is what a mechanic does.

Agreed, but exactly that does happen.

If I am gambling the thousands of dollars in a refrigerated claims, even if it is not my own money, I will take the remote risk of an air bubble in the fuel system over a dead logic board, master switch, or thermostat.

I have never seen an air bubble stall or stammer a refer while filling up. Never read a manual from a cooling unit manufacture recommend power down a reefer for fill up. Do you want to produce one?

Load can be re-powered easy enough. Even the rare late delivery fee does not come close to comparing with a full refrigerated load claim.

 

I never said anything about overnight shipping. I said reefers are a critical item that must run. The multi billion dollar industry mandates this. TK has these parts on the shelf and in their service trucks. I ran reefers for years. Name it and at some point I had it to happen. I had a door to fall off, TK had one. I have had just about every component you can imagine to go bad. I never remember waiting more then a few hours to get a load going. I am talking from personal experience from pulling in a lot of cases pure junk. I am not basing my opinions from others. You can go on and on about this but it does not jive with what I saw with my own eyes.

Edited. Yes I have had mechanics tell me they need to overnight parts on other things, but NEVER something for my reefer.

 

I am going to state my position about this topic ONE MORE TIME. I also think it is silly to shut off a running reefer. How many times must I say that? I am speaking about this fear topic. I refused to drive in fear of my truck and the parts of it failing. Respect the situation, yes. However fear is something totally different. Things break, tires go bad, you can get bad fuel. I once had a battery to blow up. It is to be expected and as much as possible prepared for. However to drive in fear of these things is just not something I did and if I were still driving something I would still not do.

 

It’s not an air bubble that does it, it’s crud and bacterial slime from the bottom of the tank that gets stirred up and sucked into the primary screen, plugging it up.

If you own your own trailer and drain the sump every time you fuel, as I do, then it’s not a worry. However, if you don’t maintain your unit’s fuel system and regularly fuel them from a contaminated tanker that hasn’t been cleaned since the 60’s, like MCT in Sanford, Florida, then yes, it is a real concern. Their ####ty trailers are how I learned to clean a fuel screen.

 

If you know anything about the junk Comcar uses at MCT and before the merger WSE then you understand my comments about the junk I pulled.

 

Thats what I though I read from you so why argue?

I have heard that too as well as the air bubble one, I just never ever read it in any manual for a cooling unit.

Nor have I had anything like that happen to any diesel I have refilled while running. I account the whole thing to trucker lore?