Question about bulk potatoes.

I'm hauling a load of bulk potatoes in a reefer trailer at the moment. It won't cool to the BOL temp of 50°F. The boss told me to open top trailer flap and back trailer flap, this seems counter productive to me. Reefer is throwing up error code 26 (thermo king) Low refrigeration capacity.

Now I read that other thread similar to this question, but will it hurt if the load stays at 60°F overnight? It won't go any lower than this, with the flaps closed or open. It's my 2nd reefer load and I'm super paranoid, can't even sleep. Do potatoes really take this long to cool down? It's been like 7 hours now and it's only at 60F.

 

Listen to your boss. Open your flaps, and get some sleep. They will dump you like a trash truck and we will all be eating rotten sour cream and chive potato chips in no time.
Honestly, get some sleep and let the man paying your check worry.

 

I hauled them in a dry van. As long as it was vented, it was fine.

 

Alright, I'm gonna just leave the vents open and go to sleep, hopefully all is well in the morning. Thanks for your input, makes me feel a bit better considering you did it in a dry van

 

@Cattleman84

 

sometimes when you load a dry product on a reefer it takes longer for the temp to come down because of the temp of the product when its loaded.

 

I haul bulk potatoes all year long with a insulated trailer summer months just open vents and ride you will never cool a load of potatoes in a reefer in the summer months

 

Potatoes is what I haul every week from Idaho to the Mid west, alot of which are bulk loads. Most require a temp of 42° but some times as high as 50°... 60° is a little high, I would be concerned, but it really depends on how cool the potatoes were before they were loaded. All potatoes in Idaho are kept at 42° in storage cellars, and in fresh pack warehouses.

Ive never had a problem keeping potatoes at 42° degrees in the trailer, even when it was over 100° outside. I would say your reefer may need to have the refrigeration unit serviced. Close your front vent before going down the road... With it open it will just drive hot air and moisture inside... If you do manage to get them down below 52° close both vents, and monitor temp closely. You can tell when they are starting to go bad by smell, sniff through vent door... Should smell like cool clean dirt (like good fresh potatoes). If they start to smell sweet, sour, or like something died... Well then you've got problems.

What state did you load in and how far are you taking them?

 

The reefer shut off last night while I was sleeping, I caught it maybe half hour later when it hit 68F. When I picked it up it was transferred from a farm truck, to a conveyor belt and than into my trailer. I'm taking them about a total of 700 miles, I have about 500 miles left on my trip. The last load I pulled was supposed to be set at -10F, the reefer had no problems keeping it there. These potatoes really caught me off guard. Pickup was in Camden, NC and it's headed to Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.

 

Sounds like they came straight out of the field. We’ve had a lot of rain in Nc. So you probably have a lot of moisture and hot product. I would do a manual defrost every 3-4 hours and leave the vent door open at the back. Really not much else you can do.