Truck Idle for the Summer Nights

Its not the best for the emissions system but your little cummins is just as tuff at his bigger brothers in the semi trucks so running all night is fine.

 

I do alot of idling with my old 350 as a defensive measure.

What I do is take her out several times a month for a run. Blow that carbon out of there if its a gas engine. Burn it off the internal cylinders and spark plug, so you wont get misfires.

Idle a diesel? I keep the RPM just under torque where she will idle nicely but without effort, water temp around 170 if 185 is working temp. that keeps the block and cylinders warm and that fuel return warm and round and round she goes all the day is long.

 

If you have to idle, be sure to get yourself a battery powered carbon monoxide detector if you want to wake up in the morning. Smoke detector isn't a bad idea either. I got both at one of the big box hardware stores for like $20

 

And sleep upwind.

IF you are a sloped parking area do not park in low spot and park in the corner closest to the wind. Otherwise it will just fill your truck with exhaust and that alarm will scream all night.

 

I'd high idle if it's so hot I couldn't sleep. On your ram, turn cruise control on, & press set button. It should jump to about 1100rpm. Will burn a bit more fuel, but will be better for the engine in the long run. Emission engines don't really like to idle.

I despise idling my series 60 Detroit, & if it's so hot my electric fan won't keep me comfortable, I just buy a $50-$70 room for the night. The way I see it, my truck will burn ~$30 in fuel over the 10 hour break, so what's another $20 bucks for my peace of mine & comfort. That said, if forced to idle because of HOS, I high idle mine around 900rpm where its preset on my cruise switch..
I lucked out, just did a bit over 2 weeks around NE, KS, IA, MN, IL, KY, & NC. Didn't idle one night. Great sleeping weather between 50°-65°F at night. Also get yourself a decent 12volt fan. Ive got the road pro tornado. Makes a world of difference, & is very quiet..

 

I used to carry generator and portable a/c it worked however it was a hassle. You have exhaust hose to expell hot air out the window. A lot of times it looked like goat rope as I would use sponges to fill in the window where the hose was. If I was running over the road again I would just get a small a/c and blow cold air in from the back. The portable also needs a place to drain inside a couple of times when humidity was high it would overflow.

 

There is a point at which if you idle too low all you are doing is gunking everything up If you idle too fast, the engine thinks you are at 60 and promply wants to drink fuel at 30 gallons a hour. It's unnecessary.

Just under torque allows the engine to "jog" all night at a steady rate without either extreme.

 

Do what you gotta do but I wouldn’t idle a newer DPF motor. I’ve idled my ‘19 PACCAR three nights in 180k miles due to sub zero temps. The second night was at around 120k and I had to do a 55 minute parked regen before I could take off that morning. The third night was at about 150k miles and it was about an hour. Only regens I’ve ever done on this 579 Pete. I think my company has the DPF’s cleaned at around 250k miles. Idle every night and that probably drops to 180k miles or so.

Idling just causes to many headaches for me as a company driver. I’m not using a loaner unless absolutely necessary. I’ll sit at home and/or go fishing and I’m grateful to be able to do that.