Tips and Tricks to make life easier OTR

I leave a bag next to the drivers seat with water and some munchies in it reach down grabb what you need bungie through paper towel allows you to hang it up when backing GET OUT AND LOOK

 

I leave a bag next to the drivers seat with water and some munchies in it.
Reach down. grab what you need.

Bungie through paper towel allows you to hang it up.

When backing, GET OUT AND LOOK.

Anyone else notice some hard to read posts getting more frequent on forums last year or two??

Must be the new wizz-bang phones used for posting.

(punctuation is our FRIEND)

 

Nice post, this is gonna be useful to me in the future for sure.

 

Just for the newbies, the last thing you want to do is make sure you have a bag full of munchies right there within arms reach while you are driving! Don't even keep munchies in the truck! Unless it is carrots or broccoli! You will be pushing 450lbs in less than a year if this is your way to cure boredom!

 

I'll need to take that advice! Don't want to have a bag of pretzels or some peanuts beside me; I'd want to have a beer with them! jk

 

For dark docks or inside docks i would buy a 2 -6 volt latterns, then you can buy rolls of white refecter tape at abot 30 feet by 2 inchs, i then hang the the two laterns from dock pointed downward at the tape, after i layed the tape on both lines, it took me all but 15 mins too set up and about that long too take up , save in the long run after muilta pull ups if not there just some crazy stuff i did ,too make my job easer , Everett

 

One big thing to remember is this......

THERE IS NO SIN/SHAME IN A "PULL-UP".

Better to pull up a dozen times than to damage a truck or trailer.

 

There's lots of good advice in the original message. But I strongly disagree with hiding a key outside of the truck. You will not outsmart people who steal trucks for a living. Keep the truck key on you. I never once failed to have pants on while outside of the truck, so I always have a truck key in those pants. If you want to be extra paranoid keep a key in your shoe and one in your pocket and use another key for regular door/ignition switch use.

I had one keyring for the truck with a truck key, car key, house key and no other keys. I then had a truck key in my wallet. You can also wear a key on a necklace or in your shoe.

I'm type A on this because I did get locked out of my truck after about a year of driving. In fear of getting locked out I tested my truck several times trying lock the door while the door was open and with a key in my hand. I never could lock myself out. Then one day when I was sick and going to quickly run into the truckstop for some OTC remedy and got locked out. The shop mechanics told me how to break into my own truck. It took me a good while in cold weather and then it took me a much longer time trying to fix how I broke into my truck.

Don't make excuses, and don't refuse to change habits if necessary. A word to the wise is sufficient. For everyone else, nothing but hard knocks is even noticed.

 

I'm gonna say again that hiding a key is a top shelf idea.

I got my advice to do so from a 40+ year driver, and I used it for many myself.

Other drivers have done the same, and unless done haphazzardly it is never been a problem that I have heard of.
(YMMV... and I welcome reports where it has caused theft)

If you are REALLY smart, you can come up with a few dozen places to hide a key outside your truck.
But don't think "easy to get" as much as "hard to find" when you hide it.

Lemme put it this way.....
The chances of your truck being stolen or broken into with your hidden key are almost ZILCH.

One place you can use (that I wasn't gonna mention on a forum).....

I used to hide mine in a wiring harness cluster wrapped with electrical tape.
You woulda never even seen it if you didn't know it was there.
Had to tilt hood and climb on top of engine to get to it.

And it came in REAL handy when I went to the bushes off a dead end exit out in the middle of Wyoming one night with noone around for miles and no jacket on, and the truck was locked and idling on my return.
I had hit the lock by accident when I got out.

It beat walking to the road and trying to wave down another truck in the dark.


BTW - with a pocketknife and 3 or 4 minutes, I can break into ALMOST ANY truck.
And $15 later it will be just like new.

All you heve to do is cut the rubber gasket from around the little glass in the passenger door, and pop out the glass.
Tape it back in place and pick up another gasket at the next dealership.

Sure is a LOT cheaper than a $45+ unlock service.

 

Hey Everett ever have a 747 land on your home made runway before you back in to the dock?