Issues with quality of life in a truck?

A more eco friendly and driver friendly way to heat and cool the cab when the engine is off.

 

A portable sink/toilet that actually allows you to wash your hands with clean water.

It has been difficult to find a place to wash your hands and use the bathroom during COVID-19..

 

A seperate smaller engine that runs a generator to power A/C... Or a couple big batteries.... Or you just freeze in the winter and bake invthe summer. This last one is probably the most common as companies wont spring for the other options and they program the truck to shut off if it doesnt move for 5 mins.

Someway of having super efficient yet sturdy solar array built into the truck would be amazing.

 

The good heat comes from an oil furnace (espar). Not going to get much more efficient than that. And proper insulation makes a world of difference. Arctic spec trucks are good.

My dream is a sink. It'd be so nice to be able to work with a sink instead of a jug of water. I've considered just making one with a 12v pump and a 6gallon water jug, maybe a second for grey water.

 

I saw a few new Volvo 860s with a shower/toilet/sink combo fitted in to the stock sleeper. However, I assume you lose all the storage on that side.

 

Couple different things come to mind.

The biggest factor is that trucking is, by nature, a pretty sedentary job. You sit on your butt most of the time or sit/lay in the sleeper. Yea, some jobs involve physical activity (flatbed, tanker, local deliveries) but most don't. This leads to laziness and many of the other quality of life issues like body aches and pains, poor eating, etc. Gotta be active once in a while, at least get out and walk around.

Food is a big thing, without the equipment to prepare meals and ability to properly store food, many drivers resort to just eating fast food. Laziness causes people to not want to prepare meals even if they can. If you own your truck or your company provides an inverter, you can get around this pretty easily. A slow cooker and/or other appliances, a small fridge or chest freezer, or, more expensive portable freezers.

Posture somewhat depends on the seat and it's position. Gotta get it comfortable. But again, inactivity leads to being sore and stiff and your seating wont change that.

A good mattress is a key thing to good sleep and reduced back pain. Most trucks come with pretty crappy mattresses. Like just a slab of foam.

I think storage can be somewhat of an issue, but that largely depends on how much you want to put in the truck. I pretty much live in my truck so I have it packed full of stuff, it's like a small apartment except for not having a bathroom.

 

I've done all sorts of cooking to try and save money. I often cook using an induction cooktop, but I've also used a 17" blackstone griddle which doesn't need electric. The biggest problem is time. It all takes so very long. Cooking and eating, then cleaning and putting everything away.

All the inconveniences just take time and imagination to smooth out. There's a large number of creative folks with their own one off inventions in trucking. The sink I mentioned could be some elaborate setup, or a large tupperware container to wash things in.

The biggest issue I foresee is marketing.

 

I would like somebody to make a shower setup for the inside of regular sleepers. It sucks tarping something , getting dirty as heck and the elogs strand u from the truckstop .