Reefer / Produce hauling tips

usually in the winter i put a bottle of seafoam in tank when full..... never had problems starting or gelling...

 

RollOver Thanks for the wealth of information you shared. I will be starting my refer job sometime this coming week. Hoping to learn more from this thread, and as i learn i will share.

 

This would make a great sticky!
Thanks for the tips.

 

If a reefer is run out of fuel can you refill your tank and shoot it with ether in a pinch? I know that you can do this with a truck that's been run dry and sometimes they fire up.

 

usually you have to pump them up the bleed the air out of them

 

Ether and glow plugs don't work well together.

 

10-4, never ran a reefer in my life and until they stick one on my flatbed I probably never will

but I thought that maybe it could get someone out of a jam if it would work...

 

Once upon a time a fellow reefer driver asked me if I could help him jumpstart his truck. Asked him if he had jumper cables, even though I had a set, and his response was yes. Than nicely ask him if his company ever taught him that he has a engine right behind the truck that could charge the batteries, of course his response was no. So since he didn't have a single cable to reach from the reefer battery to his I told him to just seperate the cables and hook them up together to make them longer, of course I heard don't I need to hook up a ground between the batteries. My response was no to that since it is not necessary since it is grounded through the fifth wheel.

So just a piece of advice to new reefer drivers, you ALWAYS have a way to jumpstart the truck just carry some cables with you. Another thing I did when I had my own trailer was use one of the extra pins on the pigtail I had for the dump valves on the spreadaxle trailer for when I was going to be sitting for awhile with the reefer running. Just run a wire from each engines batteries to the electrical box and utilize the extra pin on the pigtail to charge the truck batteries.

 

Just fill up the filter and prime it and usually it starts up. I wouldn't recommend ether. Reefer engines are pretty easy to get running after they run dry. I love finding trailers with no fuel at our drop yards or at shipper/receivers. The night dispatcher pays me $75 to get them running for a few minutes of work.

 

Thanks ! That's really useful !