Climate control, revisited

Just finished a shower--occasionally I'm in more or less the right place at the right time. It's good to feel human again.

Shaving was fun. I took way too much time between shaves. These multi-bladed disposable wonders are great when you're almost clean-shaven already; but when your beard reaches a certain length you end up clogging the space between the blades with a mass of shaving cream and wet whiskers. Doesn't work well at all. The only cure I've found is to shave dry. Dry whiskers don't clot up. But your face certainly experiences the experience.

Now I'm waiting for the truck to cool down enough to let me sleep without sweating too much. As I may have mentioned once upon a time, the sleeper cab is something a lot of people think is kind of cool. Or is that pretty hot? Well, they're right either way. When you want it to be warm, it's quite cool. And when you want to relax in the evening breezes, it's quite hot.

In most trucks, if you want to fix that you've got one option: Start the motor and run the heater or the air conditioner, depending.* But that's becoming less of an option these days, for several reasons.

Fuel

The kind of engine that powers an eighteen-wheeler burns about a gallon an hour idling. At $3.00 a gallon that was real money. At beyond $4.00 and climbing on afterburners, it's become a Matter of Concern to management. My company hasn't gone all Big Brother at the truck stops (yet), but they have cracked down on idling at their own terminals. And they go to a lot of trouble to explain how not idling can make us more competitive (read: "get more miles").

Environmental concerns

You are turning a lot of fuel into, um, other stuff, after all. And big diesels are woefully inefficient at idle, so they're dirtier, too.

Prohibition

Citing the environmental concerns, several states (especially in the Northeast--and California, of course) have actually outlawed idling. Run your truck more than five minutes while standing still and they can fine you big time. I have always suspected they didn't really want trucks up there...

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So what to do? There are several solutions floating around out there. They all cause mixed emotions. The ones I know about include:

Shorepower

The oldest solution. Lots of trucks out west are equipped with an AC plug like the one on RV's or boats. Mostly it's to power some kind of heater in or around your engine block, to keep the coolant from freezing and destroying your engine during a Rocky Mountain blizzard or the like. I have an uncle who once told me that a lot of Colorado restaurants have hookups for the trucks that get stranded in their parking lots.

As long as you have the wiring there it's not too hard to add other things to the circuit, like a battery charger. If your coolant (antifreeze) is hot, your heater works. Winter becomes survivable.

Summer is less so. The truck's A/C can't be run off batteries. And carrying two A/C's, one of which only works when parked and plugged in, may be all right for an RV--but these trucks are supposed to haul PAYING weight. Besides, it would only work when you plug it in--and I have yet to see a truck stop that has shorepower outlets. (Mind you, I've never been further west than Texas and Chicago--as I said, I've heard they're common in the mountain states. But still...)

IdleAire(tm)

This is a company that has installations at a bunch of truck stops across the country. At each such truck stop, you will find a set of parking spaces with an elaborate framework overhead. Pull into a space, put a special adapter in your passenger window, and attach the gadget you'll find hanging down from the framework.

From the outside it looks like a caterpillar from outer space is trying to crawl into the truck and eat you. From the inside, it's like the mother of all drive-in movie window speakers. But once you've shown the monster your membership card and bribed it with your Visa (or other acceptable form of payment), you have climate control, with filtered air. And electrical power. And an Ethernet port to get you onto the Internet. And a phone line, if you have a phone. And a dedicated browser if you don't have your computer with you. And cable tv.

And you don't have to add a thing to your truck to use all of it. Except for a plastic window insert you stick behind a cabinet when you're not using it.

I've spent the night this way a few times. It's heavenly. But there are a few disadvantages:

They don't have it everywhere.

Even where they do have it, they don't have it at all the parking spaces. I haven't often found every space taken, but I have seen it.

You have to pay for the service.
At the going hourly rate, an overnight stay costs a bit less than a cheap motel room. I can't spend that kind of money routinely. And of those company drivers who can, many will say "Why pay when I can just idle the truck? I'm not paying for the fuel."

Owner-operators may well think it's worth it. And moving-van crews do--they frequently sit for days waiting for a contract, and many of them do it at an IdleAire facility. Some companies buy a fleetwide membership for their drivers. Others won't touch it, saying it'll make their drivers plan their routes around IdleAire stops instead fuel efficiency, delivery time, and the Good of the Company in general.

Opti-Idle

(I think that's how it's spelled.)
A setup that lets you tell the truck what you want in the way of temperature, battery levels, etc. The truck then starts and shuts down the engine as needed. The problem is the off-and-on nature of it.

The second or third time you wake up that night because a big diesel decided to fire up without warning, you start wondering how wonderful this invention is. (Reefers* are bad enough...)

Oh, yeah, and you're still idling the truck part of the time. Which still gives you all the problems I mentioned above.

Auxiliary Power Units

APU's for short. A little diesel motor (why carry two kinds of fuel?) mounted on the frame behind the cab, running a generator, an A/C, and some kind of heater. Depending on how you rig them they can also keep your engine from freezing in the REAL winter.

Advantages?

They burn a quarter the fuel the big engine would--sometimes less. They do just as good a job of keeping the truck warm/cool and the batteries charged (so you can run your fridge, microwave, tv, etc.). And they work anywhere you happen to park. Including the customer's freight yard and that little spot by the side of the road.

Disadvantages?

They're almost as noisy as the big engines, at least at present. Muffler tech doesn't seem to be a big priority. And they generally have their exhaust coming right out of the box. Which means that you and your neighbors are breathing the fumes (the big boys at least shove their exhaust up above the truck). They cut in and out as needed, which makes them as pleasant as Opti-Idle trucks and reefers.

Oh. And California won't let you run them anyway. Not any that are on the market at the moment, at least.

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At the moment, of course, all of this is irrelevant. I have no APU. My company decided not to inflict Opti-Idle on its drivers. They don't underwrite IdleAire, either; and this truck stop doesn't have it anyway. Neither the truck nor the stop is set up for shorepower.

And it's starting to cool down. About time. Night, all.

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*Reefer--Refrigerated trailer.
It has a diesel-powered cooling unit mounted on the front, that fires up as needed to keep the trailer cool. Reefer drivers claim the sound is comforting, and that they have trouble sleeping without it. That may be true. It isn't especially comforting to the rest of us.

**Well, you can run the fans (in the summer). In the winter, you might try a 12V electric blanket/heat pad. For as long as the batteries hold out. At some point you might have to start the truck anyhow.