idling a truck. . .

When I drove for werner. I would jam fifth wheel puller between the clutch and the seat. So, it would engage it and it wouldnt shut off for my break. Of course its bad for it, but I needed my comfort. They eventually turned it off for me, cause I told them some bs about battery not working, or somthing like that, complete lie by the way lol

 

It sounds like your driving a swift truck. Release the trailer brakes and see if that buys you 20mins of idle time. Unless you have a bunk heater your going to freeze during winter. Did you ask your shop how to idle longer?

 

Or you can find a company with an apu and inverter. Ill never stay out for weeks in the truckd without all my appliances plugged in.

 

Yup, what he said!!!

Not promoting my company but we have 1800-2000 watt inverters, built in refrigerators, no APUs but very liberal idling policy below 35 and above 65.

Might be worth looking around for better options with a better company with better equipment.

But then again, we rarely sit long enough to drain a battery on a computer ... LOL ... So that may not work for you either...

 

Cliff notes?

 

Your laptop does not draw that much.

If it is equppied with say a 2.0 Pentium Intel CPU you are drawing approximately 80 to 110 TDW, meaning the heat value of the power consumed by it that needs to be disappated is about equal to a regular incadesant light bulb. The SSD hard drive storage on the laptop draws about three AA's worth of power constantly and the spinner 7200 older tech hard drives draw 12 volt at roughly 1.5 amps which it can dissapate itself on the metal. The motherboard have voltages ranging from right about .9 to 1.6 volts AT MOST for the CPU and I think it 's right about 3 to 5 volts for the RAM. Video card probably 9 volts at current ratings supplied by the power supply, whatever it might be stepping down from house power 120 volts 15 amps at home down to a range of voltages from 1 or so all the way to 12 on seperate internal wires or circuts to the entire computer.

My big computer here at home is drawing 1400 watts at 20 amps on a special T connection and it contains feed wire larger than you will see inside a harness of your dash board because the current is enough to kill a man. The CPU on that computer under my desk is equal to about two of the old style bulbs and has a liquid radiator almost two feet long to radiate and remove the heat it makes. It costs me about 50 a month in electric just to feed it 24/7 and to cool it. I can kill a truck battery set with it in about a hour no problem because in terms of amps that you use to crank your starter, I can burn that much in a few hours.

As far as your batteries in a box in some kind of giant conspiracy theory to prevent YOU from accessing it, that's not true. Batteries in trucks in sets of 3 or 4 are a dangerous source of fire by themselves. SO they require a box strong enough to keep ice out of them. If you left the battery cover off and went onto snow about a foot deep, you wont get 10 miles because the snow will splash onto all of that battery and kill your power right quick. Change your mindset from conspiracy to practicality.

We used a inverter with our 2001 Century for a whole year, it's still on that truck. FFE Approved freightliner to install it at the dealership using special 20 foot or so very, very big supply wires almost a half inch thick for safety between the Inverter and batteries. We are drawing 15 amp, 120 volts at several thousand watts. Enough to turn over a Refridgerator or start a high load heat pump air conditioning or something. It's a huge load on the battery and alternator on the century. The alternator was a monster around 200 amps if I recall. We had 15 volts at cruise, fire the inverter and watch it sag to 12.7 or so at 60 plus going down the road. It's awesome how much heat that needed dumping from it under the bunk. But no biggie.

Regarding the idle problem of your tractor at 66 degrees etc. You have two choices... stay with the engine off, rely on your smart phone for internet. Or... find another job in which that company does not have a idle policy or APU. Just go find another company to run for. Quit #####ing.

There is a third. Configuring a tractor to bypass the shutdown. DON'T do it. Tampering with company property is a no no. If you wanna do that you buy your own truck.

We are experiencing a future in which costs must be controlled. idling that truck is worth about 20 to 30 dollars a night for 8 hours sleep more or less in fuel terms. If a company wont pay it they will not let it idle. 20 to 30 dollars per truck per night of sleeping across 200, 1000, 10,000 trucks becomes REAL money very fast.

Me? Im a total idler or a APU burner. I want that cab to be 72 all the time regardless of it is 125 or -70 because there is food in there being chilled with electric power that we rely on for a month at a time. If we lost the food because we cannot idle. Then #### it. We are gone. They can stick a immigrant from the middle east to sweat his ### off inside that non idling truck for the precious 20 dollars savings.

 

For starters. It's not the manufacture that programmed the truck that way. It's the company that spec'd out the truck that way.

My last company, was spec'd to shut off after 1 minute. Regardless the temp outside. To bypass it. You pulled the yellow valve. Turned on the cruise. And tapped the SET button. That would raise the idle from 600 to 800. And get you 9 hours idle plus 1 hour warning to regenerate. After 10 hours you regenerated or the truck won't idle. Now you've got 5 hours of idle time. To which you regenerate again. And the second regen takes much longer then the first. And if it's 100 plus outside, Have your fire extinguisher handy cuz that dpf will start glowing and smoke will start billowing out. And the truck might burn down.

If the regen light comes on and your ready to roll. You do the regen first because the light will never shut off. And you could find yourself trying to drive with no power.

If you happen to roll during your idle time. All it takes is a couple of miles and the idle timer resets itself.

It's not good to idle your engine at 600 rpm. And your a/c won't be much good either. Thus, the step up to 800 rpm.

The good companies have bunk heaters installed on the trucks. Although, it's still not good to let truck sit below 20 degrees. You risk the possibility of fuel gelling. And a dead truck. Depending on what part of the region you fuelled up at.

 

Im not a firefighter to stand next to the DPF holding a firebottle. Are you kidding me? (*Rhetorical question...) Im a driver. I want that truck ready to go now. None of this regen business.

Im not here to complain much or give you a hard time but this regen business would be the one thing I hate most because time is precious.

Not to mention many other computer programming by idiots that derate engines and take away power for nothing at all except for fear of totally blowing it up or something that can be fixed in a few hours. That gets my goat too.

No wonder I look in the days of the old iron with joy. Of what was at one time long ago where men were men and trucks can cross death valley a few gallons short of fluid because you take care of it and will add more when you get to haven.

I appreciate your information, I really do and value it. This regen stuff, if I did not sound off now no one will understand why I hate it.

 

My last company was mostly california. Towards the end of my OTR chapter. We sat in california. A LOT.

One time. I actually had smoke. While trying to get out of traffic. But the smoke died as soon as i got pulled over to investigate. I thought it was the brakes but i wasn't going anywhere to heat em up. So i can only assume it was the dpf. The truck must of have been doing some sort of lean idle I'm guessing. As that was the fastest i went for about an hour. THE CALIFORNIA IDLE CRAWL. Yes, that sucked with the clutch part on teh tired leg.