WHAT DO YOU DO?

You just have to be careful about where you idle. So many places have ordinances about idling. NY is one. Some cities in PA have ordinances against it (Lampeter, PA for one). Cannot even run an APU there at Exide. A lot of shippers have their own rules about idling, which are tied to city ordinances, which have to do with noise control. You just about have to be an attorney to drive a truck anymore. LOL

 

Most engines have a safety system that will shut down the engine if it starts to overheat. If you bump your idle a little bit, you'll be fine.

 

Up in Canada we don't need an apu for ac because it's only too hot maybe 2 months a year at most. Not every day either. For heat, many of us use small bunk heaters. The 2 main manufacturers are webasto and espar. It uses a small amount of current provided from the battery to heat an element that burns diesel and turns a fan and works very well. It uses very little fuel, maybe 0.5 gallon for a 10 hour break. However, if it is extremely cold, we run into the problem of the engine may not start if you turn it off at night. Our anti idling laws are rarely enforced up here.

 

Those webasto's get things plenty toasty.

 

Many trucks have APU's (Auxiliary poer units) that provide heat and or air condictioning.

Idling a truck for 1 hour burns a gallon of fuel (that gets expensive), but using an APU burns a gallon of fuel every 16 hrs????

 

Well....If you'really "Spoiled" you musn't idle ..You have an APU in your truck..works good.

 

Copy...Our ate up company worries about 5 minutes of idle time! Gives you a Bad Report Card LoL..I say yeah...but I'm averaging 8.5 mpg compared to the Amish guy in the sleepers 6.5 mpg!WTF

 

I love having an APU, we had a truck sitting in our company yard from Thanksgiving until after New Years. Went to start it up, dead battery, tried to turn the APU on, and it struggled but fired up.

Not only do they use less fuel, they take less amperage to crank!

In :30 minutes the truck was ready to start, and ran all shift.