Personally I hate idle aire. I have used it when they first started. Will not keep the cab very cool on a hot day in El Paso or San Antonio.

Then my main bitch is that they are reserving parking spots.....so you pull into the truckstop pump on 200 gallons and want a shower and something to eat and the only spots are the idle aire ones with red cones in front of them. The truckstops need to figure out if they want to sell diesel and chicken fried steaks or make commission off idle aire. Then there is the damn issue that if there is no regular spots left and you park in an idle aire one, they harass you if you back in and if you idle your truck or run your APU they come by every 10 minutes and tell you that it is a quite zone and need to turn it off.......Had the manager at the Petro in Bucksville, AL tell me that if I was parked in the idle air that I could not idle and if I did not like it I could leave.....so I have not been back to that Petro.

My company has put APU's on '05 tractors and up, having an APU is 100% better than dealing with the jerks at Idle Aire.

I think Trace Atkins is one of their big time backers and that is one reason they are building all the new locations.....I hope they go broke.

I think there was a thread just recently bashing IdleAire. Newbie just wanted to hear the benefits, not the rants. :roll:

You need to go reread the author's original post. He did not ask what idleaire was about he ask for EXPERIENCES with idleaire and mine have not been very positive.

There is alot more to idleaire than just how their equipment does not work on a very hot day. In how they have ruined the parking at so many
locations and how they absolutely haress drivers trying to get them to sign up and use it....in some locations they are worse than lot lizards.

I use it and love it myself. Now as to a hot day in El Paso Or San Antonio. Use just a little common sense. Put up a window curtain on your front window to block out the sun. And put the AC on manual high speed. Does the trick every time. As to being bugged by there employees. It hasn't happened for me. And I do sometimes pull into one of there spots and do not use it. All in all I like there service.

My last expeirence with Idleaire was at the Petro, I-285 in Atlanta back in November. Had filled the tanks.200 gallons out of 240 capacity, then parked under the Idelarire racks...tons of parking spots...and started to walk into the restaruant for breakfast...guy on a golf cart comes whipping up, and tells me to move my truck if I'm not gonna use Idleaire.

After a "deep" discussion with Mr. Rambo-aire and a Petro security gal....Petro manager comes out...tells Idleaire that I have every right to park in one of those spot's, and that Idle wasn't to harrass anymore clients!... That manager knows that we have trucks fueling there every single day, as well as showers and eating. We do not however use Idleaire, as the company pay's for motel rooms, so there is no need to sleep in a daycab or a sleeper truck.



Haaaa. :borg:

I bet the harrassment continues to this day at that facility.

Gotta love em!!

Now there is also the financial part of using idleaire. All in all it is not very cost effective.
1. you can only use it at truckstops for the most part.
2. when compared to an APU, if you use idleaire 125 times a year for 8 hours you can pay for the APU, and have the benefit if using it wherever you are parked.
3. Most apu's have 110 power so you can fire it up anywhere to use a microwave and prepare a hot meal, saving even more when compared to buying a meal out.

I don't think that idleaire is very cost efficient for an O/O or a company paying for it for their drivers, and if you are a company driver paying for it out of your own pocket that is crazy. For ten hours and $18.50 I would rather put a few more bucks with it and get a cheap motel room.

Where are you getting an APU for under $3000? :shock:

125X8=1000

1000X$2.85 an hour = $2850

I am basing that figure on a 4 year life cycle for the truck and apu.

I tried idleaire one weekend. My opinion is: Don't waste your money. I used it for 6 hours with the heat set on high. At the end of the six hours I was cold enough to need to idle the truck anyway to keep warm. The outside temp was a nice 20 to 25 degrees. I have the $10 plastic window adapter that I figure I can use sometimes when the only parking spaces are idleaire spaces.

I generally idle for 2 hours then turn the truck off for 4 to 6 hours. If the temp is below 15 degrees, then I idle the truck all the time anyway. My truck has a sweet spot idling at 850 rpm using half a gallon an hour. So ten hours of idling is 5 gallons, or about $13.50. Ten hours of Idleaire at the silver rate is $21.50. $8.00 more per day/night for inadequate heat and an electrical outlet just isn't worth it in my opinion.

The other major issue that I have is that Idleaire internet has a blanket ban on CAD here. You can't access CAD from Idleaire, so that is a major disapointment.

In all fairness, you aren't including in the cost of fuel or maintainance on the APU.