In a message dated 4/21/2006 3:00:48 AM Mountain Standard Time,
paul.hunt1@blueyonder.co.uk writes:
Which leads me to a
question - whilst in America a few years ago at a couple of truck stops I
noticed there were rows and rows of trucks locked up with the engines all
thundering away while the drivers were presumably having a rest stop. Is
this because they don't like getting into a hot cabin (it was in Arizona)?
Or because they don't like restarting a hot engine because of something to
do with oil circulation?
There are several reasons, primarily that the driver(s) actually live in
those trucks and usually are sleeping in the running trucks. Most of those
drivers only see home once a month or so. If it is a single driver he can
only
drive around 11 hours before having to take 10 off, and until a couple of
months ago, team drivers could drive 5 hours and take 5 off and alternate, but
now they must both rest part of the day, so there are more trucks with off
duty drivers at truck stops than ever before. Also, since diesel used to be
so
cheap, it was cheaper to keep them running and avoid problems with
re-starting.
New diesel engine technology and the price of diesel, higher than gas here
now, makes it un-necssesary to keep them idling all the time. Some cities
have ordinaces against it now.
Truck stops are beginning to supply hot and cold air ducts to trucks, and
there is a whole new industry of small diesel engine powered generators that
mount on the trucks to run all the air conditioning, heating, microwave,
stove,
satellite TV, computers, and such in the cab...even hot water heaters for
those with on-board showers.
Thus idling 9 liter engines will soon be a thing of the past. Fuel is
rapidly becoming the single largest cost of moving freight by truck in this
country.
Regards,
Robert B. Houston
63 TR4
74.5 MGBGT
73 MG Midget
b&Reminds me of my safari in Africa, somebody forgot the corkscrew and for
several days we had to live on nothing but food and water. W. C Fields
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