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Originally Posted by Part Time Dweller
Windywalker, I did run a sleeper truck for years, and as a matter of fact, I was the 1st one in the fleet to have aux heating for the winter climate here. I am talking in 96, when it was unheard of. I also shut my truck off when it wasn't necessary for survival. All I am saying is many of the present idle laws were brought about by those who never shut their trucks off and idled needlessly, even when the laws were being talked about. They could have shown some give and take by voluntarily cutting down on idle time, but didn't. It didn't fit the Last American Cowboy/ Convoy mentality that many Dwellers have.
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Ahhh... Chicago. Doesn't get all that cold in winter, and doesn't get all that warm in summer either. Try Corpus Christi, TX in the middle of July, and the A/C pump locks up. The company tells you that they will not have it fixed out on the road, and you have to get it back to the yard in WI tob have that replaced. Didn't have a lot of choice but to sleep under the trailer, in the shade. Had it been a reefer, I would have slept IN IT.
Or, try Minot, ND right behind an Alberta Clipper. Even with an APU, tell me you can shut your truck off and have it start in the morning.
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Originally Posted by Part Time Dweller
As far as you pulling my truck when it is cold, I wouldn't worry about that too much. Our trucks are kept in nice heated buildings so they are ready to go at a moments notice and don't sit out for any length of time.
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That's what I figured. Hey, did you know that after you've driven local for a while, they won't hire you to go OTR anymore? I understand it has something to do with being "OUT OF TOUCH".
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Originally Posted by Part Time Dweller
As far as my AC not working, the most it would be is for a day, and that would only happen if the required part wasn't in stock at our shop to fix it when I got in, and again, I don't see ever having a need to sleep under a trailer like some homeless stew bum. But hey, to each their own, if that is your thing go for it. :thumbsup:
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Originally Posted by Part Time Dweller
What is even funnier is the fact that the uneducated highway heroes don't know that a truck diesel puts out far more harmful toxins and pollutants than a gas engine. :roll:
Ever see a haze of smoke hanging over an area where there are a bunch of cars idling? Me either. But I have seen and felt the effects of the smoke hanging over any truck stop parking lot.
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Really? Where have you been?
Don't know if I can find it, but I did read an article a few years ago, where Austrailia did a "REAL-TIME STUDY" of minors, working underground, with diesel equipment. Over a 30-year period, the minors had 15% fewer cases of cancer than the general public. And, that was not using any of the low-sulphur fuels. Think about it. Confined area like an underground mine. How many engines running. Surrounded with the fumes every working day, for years at a time, and less cases of cancer than people that get fresh air. If pollutants from a diesel engine were that great, the cancer rate would have been the other way around.
The engines we had in our trucks 15 years ago put out 30 parts per million of NOX, and only 10 parts per million of Carbon-monoxide. A gasoline engine without pollution controls puts out 130 parts per million of carbon-monoxide, and I don't remember the NOX. With pollution controls, the gasoline engine still puts out 30 parts per million of Carbon-monoxide, and about 10 to 15 parts of NOX.
In FL, during the peak of the tourist season, along clearwater beach, with traffic bumper to bumper, and going nowhere fast, you can see a haze in the air. Same thing at the sponge docks in Tarpon Springs. No trucks, just cars, bumper to bumper... And idling. And, the breeze is coming our of the gulf. No trucks out there either. And, it's worse than the haze I've seen over truck stops.
Take Rte 60 over the bridge to Clearwater Beach, and from the island, where all the cars are, you can see the source of the haze. Same goes for going across Causeway Blvd to Honeymoon Island during tourist season.
Idling cars most certainly do produce a haze.
so that he can get back into is ice cold air conditioned car when he is done.
