Stay Healthy, Saving Money, And Make The Truck Your Home?

Greeting everyone,

I'm really thinking about making the jump into truck driving. One of my concerns is staying active and healthy. I go to the gym once a week lifting weights and doing cardio. Any ideas on how to still go to they gym if I am driving 2-4 times a week at a time?

Another concern is food. Now I do like to restaurant once to twice a week, but I don't want to go every day and night, or fast food every meal. Are you able to bring electronic devices on the truck like a microwave, a crock pot, or Forman grill? Where would you clean them after usage? Any site or book to make simple meals while on the road?

Last concern is being away from home. What thing should you bring with you (like my labtop and cell phone), what thing you should buy in the first month (like a mini refrigerator), and what thing you get within six months? Any advice on beding, clothes, showers, bathroom break, ect.?

Love to hear from the veteran drivers about your tricks to stay healthy, saving money, and make the truck your home?

You want to drive a truck and still actively workout? Well my friend. Flatbed. I was 155lbs in the orientation class back in 2012 and When I quit to handle a family crises I was 185 or 190lbs with a low % of body fat (just enough to still be healthy) I'm 6'4 so i still looked lanky. and I didn't work out not one bit. The only "workout" you can say was throwing tarps, slinging chains and strapping. You're probably thinking "what? that sounds easy how is that a workout" Here let me paint you a picture of securing and tarping a load. Alright here it goes. I keep my tarps in a side box under the sleeper on the passenger side. the trailer is chest height on me. We used the lighter steel tarps with 8 foot drops. (8feet side and 8 feet across by 24ft long.) each tarp is roughly 90-120lbs depending if there new or if they have grim and what not. With my company we tarped a lot of our loads. Gran-it some times you'd get loaded with a fork lift and he'd lift your tarps on the load. As I said earlier we used the smaller 3 piece tarps. so a full load its all three two ends and one center piece. getting it out of the box and up on the trailer was a workout in itself now you have to put it on the load. some loads are short and some are tall (some places made you use their rigging system to lift tarps and put you in a harness) lifting placing carrying them. bungee. bun-geeing is like a resistance work out. So alone in itself Tarps are a workout.

Chains are heavy, binders are heavy. always stoping to make sure the straps or chains are still tight. Its is a very active career. I think Melton did a number crunch and the average a Melton driver drove in a day was 425 miles. It wasn't a lack of miles just we have a strict safety code we follow. every 150 miles you get out and check that load and your tires. So if you want to stay fit, go into a Flat-bedding career. As for your other questions. Trucks equipped with with a sleeper berth and driven OTR. Especially if it's a solo driver will buy and install (if you're a company driver they don't want the driver to install it, so their shop will) an inverter. I don't know if you know what that is but it is basically a electronic device that runs off of your trucks batteries and gives you the same plugs you use to power electronics in your home.They come in all sizes. You can tellwhat size it is from the watts. I think it ranges from the smallest, like 150 watts to 3000 watt units. The small ones plug into your cigarette lighter and I think once you get to 1000 watt units it runs of the trucks battery power. Now I know a lot of company's only allow up to a 1500 watt inverter to be installed on company trucks. Now the company's that use the APU (basically a generator that runs off diesel fuel) allow the 3000 watt units on their company trucks and usually the trucks already have the 3000 watt inverters installed on the trucks. The reason for this is because the trucks without the APU units use battery power and if you aren't idling your truck it drains the power. Although a lot of those company's have the device where if the trucks battery amps reach a certain point turns all the electronics in the truck off to save just enough amps to get the tractor started. Now company's with the diesel powered APU's you can use the 3000 watt units due to the diesel powered APU units when it's running charges your batteries. And for bringing food and devices to cook with on the road. Depending on the size of the inverter is what you can use. If you look at the cooking device or any electronic it will tell you how many watts it uses and amps. You have to make sure the inverter has the required wattage to power said device or the inverter goes into "safe mode" just shuts it off. and the more amps it uses, the faster it drains your batteries. And trucks are surprisingly high tech. They make refrigerators microwaves and grills for trucks now. They come in all shapes and sizes, just remember. Make sure the inverter you have will sustain the required watts the devices need to be powered. And if you're a solo driver with a full size tractor. the big ones that are 13'6 there is more than enough space to live comfortably on the road. The company I was with used kw t660 mid roofs, they were 12'6 so it has less room but for the almost two years I was with them I had enough room to still more and be comfortable ( I stand 6'4) and I had my 55lbs dog with me 100% of the time and even brought my cousin OTR with me for a few months.

Hope that helps and I do apologize if it sounds like I am explaining things like it's meant for someone that knows nothing. I just didn't know if you knew what devices we used and how they worked. If I offended you it wasn't my intention. And another note I mention my company because it's pretty much the only carrier I am experienced with and am not trying to snipe you. Stay safe and if you choose to get into trucking Welcome aboard and keep the wheels rollin'

OTR:

Over The Road

OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.

Sleeper Berth:

The portion of the tractor behind the seats which acts as the "living space" for the driver. It generally contains a bed (or bunk beds), cabinets, lights, temperature control knobs, and 12 volt plugs for power.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

OWI:

Operating While Intoxicated

OOS:

When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

APU's:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Welcome aboard Joseph!

For starters, we have an awesome Trucker's Career Guide that will answer those questions and a million more. I consider it required reading for anyone considering a career in trucking.

That being said, we have a series of articles about Items To Pack For The Road and those will give you some great ideas.

As far as working out, gym memberships are usually too cumbersome to take advantage of on the road. They're normally not located in trucker-friendly places and your schedule is just going to be too tight to get there regularly. I used to go jogging all the time during my years on the road and really enjoyed it. That's no problem. As far as weight lifting you're going to want to pick up some dumbbells or preferably some sort of resistance bands (lighter and easier to store). Being able to workout in your truck or go jogging are going to be about your only practical options most of the time.

As far as items you can have in the truck, indeed you can have a microwave, TV, laptop (or desktop), the George Foreman Cooker, and all that kind of stuff. You'll get a power inverter to run everything. They also have crock pots, hot plates, refrigerators, and all sorts of small appliances for the truck. So you can hit the grocery store and stock up every so often. That's what most drivers do.