How long does a truck have to idle?

There are lots of drivers that let there trucks idle no matter what temp it is. 65 degrees in Oxnard the other night and the trucks parked waiting for doors at Dole were all idling. So it is not always a driver comfort issue. I understand when it is an issue say over 70 or under 50 , but there are plenty of drivers that will not shut down for anything.

Back in the day when we had air starters I understood the need, but todays modern truck do not need to idle except for driver comfort unless there is an actual problem.

The funny part was when Oxnard Police came thru and anyone parked on the street sleeping with a running truck (Of course lite up like a Christmas tree, nothing like advertising a running truck in a state where idling is illegal) were issued tickets. It is posted that it is not legal to sleep in a parked vehicle overnight in the City of Oxnard. This used to be used to move the homeless of the beach parking areas. The trucks that were just parked there engine off they never even looked at. These guys were screaming bloody murder on the radio.

The parking ticket is $45.00, If they wrote them for the anti-idle law I understand it is considerably higher. Maybe demented on my part but I did find a bit of humor in it, just shut it off, it was 65 degrees.

 

Man these people would not like living in my house. We live in the desert and don't use A/C or heat ever. And yes it does get cold, down in the 10's and 20's at night during the winter. The house doesn't drop that far though obviously.

What's sad is I've gotten so used to it I have to wear a sweatshirt if I go to a friend's house with A/C.

 

A 3 minute idle is recommended for cool down to let the coolant settle to normal operating temperature. You don't want to shut down a hot engine as the coolant pressure raises and puts more stress on the parts like hoses, radiator, etc. You can watch your gauge and most likely it's close to 190 or so and it's okay to shut down. If it's above 200, I would wait for the thermostat to open and cool things down a little.

If you have an APU, it takes over the cooling, but I would still wait for the thermostat to open before shut down.

The same with start up, I would give it 3 minutes to get the oil circulating good and let the cylinders and other moving parts warm up a hair before you start making her work. In extreme cold weather I would let her warm up to let the oil thin back up.

 

Oso, I dont have an APU, but I do have a bunk heater which is great, when winter comes.

What am I supposed to do when it's above 85 and humid all night? Like it is, in the SUMMER.
you get to sleep in your nice bed with the A/C running, which is powered by, typically, a coal power plant.

Do you expect me to get 2-3 hours of sleep because it's too hot and I keep waking up sweating my ### off? then drive another 9-10-11 hours safely?

 

I believe that you missed my post on Page 1:

And, fyi, because I have the good fortune to live in beautiful Ontario, my a/c is powered either by Hydroelectric dams or by nuclear plants. The last few coal plants were phased out a few years back. It's more a fluke of geography than anything else - Canada always had a lot of rivers that could be dammed.

 

Well, where are the Canadian truckers to explain Northern winters to this person? An APU often won't cut it with those extreme temperatures. A bunk heater definitely won't. And it really has nothing to do with driver comfort, but rather, function of the motor itself. Leave your car outside all night long when it's 15 below F (-26C) and tell me how well it starts. Especially if it's a diesel.

I idle when I'm working on the computer because my 400W inverter won't work otherwise. If I shut the truck off, it takes the inverter with it...then how would I be able to bug everybody on this forum?

Quite frankly, I'm getting tired of people outside this industry trying to make up rules those of us inside it have to follow. Regarding carbon pollution, your car puts out more carbon with a hour of engine run time than my big diesel motor puts out in 10. Why? Because you do not have an after-treatment system on your car. If I'm the one buying the fuel for my truck and you are not part of the transaction, why is it your business what I do with the fuel that belongs to me? I'm not dumping it on your lawn and using it to kill your roses, so why do you even care?

Dam up the rivers and flood valuable habitat for wild animals. Plug the rivers with concrete so the fish have no way to get to their spawning beds. Go on ahead and use that nuclear power. Then figure out what you're going to do with the highly toxic waste. There is a trade-off for everything.

 

Get used to it: it's the same for every other industry. I'm sure that doctors, lumberjacks, police, chemical manufacturers, etc. all feel the same way.

Because you are "dumping it on everybody's lawn." We all breathe the same air, get the same skin-cancer, endure the same freaky weather and share in oil shortages. And if you think long-term, then every drop of oil that you use is one drop that our kids won't have in the future.

I never said otherwise. All I said is that Ontario doesn't burn coal anymore.

 

Oso,

Do you know what happens to the spent fuel rods from a nuclear power plant? Clean energy? Not

Go live in the woods of Toronto and make you clothes out of bark, eat bugs and also stop using your computer that is made from plastic (oil) and mercury. After 5 years your PC will be garbage and fill the landfill with these hazardous materials.

A highway truck is more than a means of transport, it is also the living quarters for the operator. So as this truck driver goes down the road bringing the much needed supplies to your town, he or she lives in a 8x5 room.

 

I'm not sure why you guys are trying to beat me down about things that I never said. All I said about coal power is that Ontario doesn't use it anymore, nothing more, nothing less. I just agreed above that there's a trade-off for everything - so I guess that means that I'm aware about the trade-offs between my lifestyle and pollution/energy usage.

Is it a bad thing to think that trucking could be better, more fuel efficient and less polluting?

 

The pollution standards in the trucking industry are tougher than many think.

E-Tests are done once a year, not every two like the cars. Fleets have speed limiters and anti-idlers, four wheelers don't.