Setting up new truck for solo OTR

"Democracy in Chains" Nancy MacLean

I'm 52 and grew up on Asimov and my dictionary to see what the heck he meant. Truck drivers dont read, lol.
I gamed with more 60+ gamers in Fallout 76 it was amazing and refreshing. I was the young'n, lol.

Sorry for borrowing your thread for a bit Taylormade. He's lucky to have you. Very considerate and some great advice here already. Pack light! Pack like he may have to take a greyhound home any moment, he might. Depends on how much BS he can tolerate. Not making $$$ AND being away from home is my line.

I'm well versed in IT/IS having been a wire tech at AT&T, gaming since Pong RF and being heavy into business/personal computing since 2001 (when fast internet arrived here). Competitive games where fps matters are extremely hard (not impossible) mobile. Wifi will largely depend on him being in range of TA, Pilot or Loves router which may/not charge or be overloaded. Overloading will cause packet loss thus making Triple AAA titles like Call of Duty or Overwatch unplayable. Depending on where he parks for the night he would probably have better luck gaming on a carrier 5g network through their dedicated 5g mobile router. That can get pricey as unlimited plans are from years ago and even if you were to use a phone as a wifi hotspot, probably still have a 5-50 gig tether limit.

My experience trying to watch TV (YoutubeTV, Netflix, Prime Video) was often the spinning wheel of buffering. Cant imagine trying to game on that crap. Honestly it was probably more the ipad as Apple devices don't have the range/power of other architecture. The iPad however is the perfect size tv when your laying in your bunk at night, lol.

 

Between driving a big rig for 8 - 11 hours per day, finding a safe, legal place to park, showering, finding/prepping food, trip planning (or updating it, as needed...for weather, traffic, etc), fueling, doing pre- & post trips on the rig, & any req'd paperwork...as a new(er) driver...I found precious little time for anything else (except sleep, or maybe a laundry here & there).

If hubby really focuses on the task of driving & paying attention to traffic, not making any wrong turns or exits, and continuously anticipating what may be next ....he will be too tired for most anything else...when he parks it...at shift's end.

Call them "steering wheel holders" all ya want -- REALLY DRIVING a big rig safely is real work.

I had NO PROBLEMS sleeping while doing OTR trucking.

-- L

 

@lual is correct here for sure. Driving a truck and doing it safely is real work. This type of work is very demanding. Your husband is probably going to find the mental aspect of trucking to be the part that is very demanding and very tiring. When you are new to the trucking world there is so much information to absorb along with paying attention to driving, loading, unloading, paperwork, weigh stations, where to park/where not to park, where to fuel the truck, truck stops, laundry, food prep, showers, trip planning, accurate directions, etc. By the end of a 14 hour day those 10 hours of off time before the next shift don't seem long enough.

Once he finds a safe, legal place to park his head will be searching for the pillow but he needs food and a shower. It may be an hour and a half wait for a shower. Once he showers and gets back to the truck and ready for bed it may be that he only has 7.0 hours left before he needs to be up and rolling again so that only leaves 6 hours and some change to sleep. Can he operate on that kind of sleep? Think about these things and plan accordingly.

Good luck to you and your husband and the new journey.

 

Psssh... I'm a huge gamer on the computer and I don't bring that stuff on the road.

I have to agree with the majority opinion. Things change... pretty quick... without notice. Even if things to work out, trucks break down, you get shuffled around. You just don't know. Every time I change trucks, I always lose something... always. It doesn't matter. Even when I don't change trucks. I swear, there's a gremlin living in truck that comes out at night and steals my finger nail clippers. During the day when I sleep, he sits on top of a massive pile of my clippers and says to himself, "theyre all mine!"

You'll change trucks a few times, then you'll scale back.

 

Or Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler?

 

Along with provisions that @Opus mentioned, make sure he has a full set of winter clothes including boots, hat, and gloves. His life may depend on it if his truck gels at -20 degrees and he is sitting along side the road for 24 hours awaiting help.

 

Oh really now?

I guess my library and I didnt get the memo

 

Thia was Atlanta about 12 years ago.......some were stuck on the highway for more than 24 hours