Some More Questions...

1-while on the road this weekend I noticed a few trailers with a green light about half way up the trailer on the drivers side. What is it for? My guess was that they were reefers and that was some kind of light the driver could see in their mirror related to reefers. I don't remember the carriers but I know I saw a ton of central refridgerated trucks that day.

2- are all the gauges on the dash the same from truck to truck with maybe different placement on different makes?

3- are cd players pretty much standard in company trucks? Most videos I see it looks like sirius is stanard and/or aux inputs but I'm going to make a cd for my first solo haul with some open road music.

4- is the lack of a lot of companies hiring in florida because of how difficult it is to get them home?

5- can someone explain what kind of power sources you have in a truck? I don't know anything about apu's or inverters. Do you need a lot of the cigerrete lighter things? Do you need a bunch of random converters? How many power sources do you have? I'm talking about newer trucks with apu's.

Reefer:

A refrigerated trailer.

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.

1-while on the road this weekend I noticed a few trailers with a green light about half way up the trailer on the drivers side. What is it for? My guess was that they were reefers and that was some kind of light the driver could see in their mirror related to reefers. I don't remember the carriers but I know I saw a ton of central refridgerated trucks that day.

I think that is the ABS light you are seeing..a lot of the newer trucks and trailers have ABS Brakes. The green light means the system is working properly.

2- are all the gauges on the dash the same from truck to truck with maybe different placement on different makes?

Just like all cars have pretty much all the same gauges, trucks are no different, yes, they may be in a different spot, but they are all pretty much the same.

3- are cd players pretty much standard in company trucks? Most videos I see it looks like sirius is stanard and/or aux inputs but I'm going to make a cd for my first solo haul with some open road music.

Think this might vary from truck to truck. Company trucks are probably going to be pretty basic, but CD players are a pretty standard equipment package now.

4- is the lack of a lot of companies hiring in florida because of how difficult it is to get them home?

I think it has a lot to do with the fact that not a lot of freight comes OUT of Florida and therefore, yes, it's hard to get guys home without having to deadhead them, which costs the company money.

5- can someone explain what kind of power sources you have in a truck? I don't know anything about apu's or inverters. Do you need a lot of the cigerrete lighter things? Do you need a bunch of random converters? How many power sources do you have? I'm talking about newer trucks with apu's.

Again,just like a car, there are 12v outlets pretty much standard in trucks. Some of them have more than one. APU's, as I understand it provide power mainly for the heating and cooling controls so the driver can be comfortable without having to idle the engine. They may also charge the batteries, but don't quote me on this. Not sure about the correlation between APU and inverter. Most companies have rules about them, but it varies. I think the companies that allow inverters usually provide them and limit whether the driver can add his/her own. Other companies absolutely forbid them.

Deadhead:

To drive with an empty trailer. After delivering your load you will deadhead to a shipper to pick up your next load.

Reefer:

A refrigerated trailer.

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.

Forgot to mention...Arnold is one of the companies that DO hire in Fl. Check em out in the Trucking Companies section.

Forgot to mention...Arnold is one of the companies that DO hire in Fl. Check em out in the Trucking Companies section.

I'm from Missouri, was just curious why a lot of companies had freezes there. Thanks for your answers

1) The green light is for the reefer unit. It's directly in the drivers vision when he or she looks in their left mirror. Green means everything is good and working fine, any other color, you probably need to pull over and check out the reefer unit itself.

2) They're all a little different, but the main gauges (air brake pressure, gas, oil, etc) are all in the main dashboard. It depends on the truck maker on how they lay out the gauges, but all trucks have almost all the same gauges and buttons.

3) My international had a cd player in it, and so did the Volvo, and I'm sure it's standard on all trucks...but I would probably advise to get an mp3 player or sirius when you can. The constant vibration of the truck will eat through those cd's and you're music will skip like crazy after a while. Getting an xm subscription or an mp3 player will alleviate all of that. You can just put on the tunes and go.

4) I've always heard Florida was a dead zone for truckers if you were trying to get out of there. I don't think there's a lot of freight that goes out, but I don't know for sure. I'm sure someone else can answer that for you.

5) Power sources? What are those? LOL I had a couple of 12 volt plugs in the back of my International, I think it was four total, and I was ok. Trucks don't have lot of power sources in them for driver comfort, so you're best bet is to get an inverter when you can and have it hooked up. Make sure you get company approval first of course, can't have some rookie mechanic installing it and you end up having a fire in the truck. And like Guy mentioned, some companies don't allow it. Hopefully you can get a company that has an apu so you won't have to run you're truck at all when you stop for the night.

Reefer:

A refrigerated trailer.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

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.

1-while on the road this weekend I noticed a few trailers with a green light about half way up the trailer on the drivers side. What is it for? My guess was that they were reefers and that was some kind of light the driver could see in their mirror related to reefers. I don't remember the carriers but I know I saw a ton of central refridgerated trucks that day.

On refrigerated trailers, late model Thermo-Kings specifically, will have a green light to indicate that the temp is within set parameters. On some trailers, equipped with the newer ABS system, there is generally a light either at the very rear of the driver's side of the trailer or the very front of the driver's side this light is generally amber in color if the light remains on then that means there is a problem with the ABS system. Normally that problem has more to do with the sensors than it does the actual ABS system in itself. (just my experience thought not to be taken as gospel truth)

2- are all the gauges on the dash the same from truck to truck with maybe different placement on different makes?

Although placement of the gauges vary according to manufactures, there are some gauges required by law, Air gauges, and warning systems, Most generally if you have seen air gauges in one model of truck you have seen them all. There are differences though, my 2013 Peterbilt has manifold temp, and axle temps as well as suspension load gauge, (love that one by the way) Short answer to this question is yes most gauges are pretty much standard.

3- are cd players pretty much standard in company trucks? Most videos I see it looks like sirius is stanard and/or aux inputs but I'm going to make a cd for my first solo haul with some open road music.

The CD player is quickly becoming the Cassette Deck player of the 21st century. Aux inputs seem to be standard for all stereo manufacturers. However word of caution about this. If you use your Smart phone or other electronic device to listen to music via the aux input, remember the federal law about cell phone and operating a commercial motor vehicle? Yeah the hands-free requirements still apply. Something to keep in mind as you are searching for which playlist you want jamming while you roll away the miles.

4- is the lack of a lot of companies hiring in florida because of how difficult it is to get them home?

I can't speak for companies in Florida, what I can speak to though is freight availability. Most often the case with Florida, there is more freight going in than there is coming out, which ultimately means that freight coming out of Florida is "cheap". I always wound up being brokered through CH Robinson, (which is nicked named Cheap and Heavy freight Robinson LOL) So add in the fact that Florida also has some tougher rules on commercial trucks and registration,not to mention higher fuel costs, and you have a huge deterrent for trucking companies hauling freight into Florida, ergo smaller need for drivers in Florida.

5- can someone explain what kind of power sources you have in a truck? I don't know anything about apu's or inverters. Do you need a lot of the cigerrete lighter things? Do you need a bunch of random converters? How many power sources do you have? I'm talking about newer trucks with apu's.

OK the "power source" in a truck is the batteries. Just like your car. The engine recharges the batteries as you roll down the road, or idle (which these days idling has been reduced to an all time low) many companies will install what are called power converters.

Trucks run on 16 volt DC power, which if we were in Europe would just fine to plug our coffee makers into, however seeing how most every appliance we use in America runs on 110volt AC current 50cycles, we need to convert DC to AC. Now add the fact that nearly every truck has an onboard CPU which pretty much runs the entire show, we run into a problem with drawing amps from the system.

This explains why its a big no-no to go out and buy an AC converter that plugs into your cigarette lighter, (AKA DC power outlet) Power converters today need to be able to prevent voltage surges and as well stay within a certain range on drawing amps. My truck requires that I do not draw more that 12 amps.

Our trucks run refrigerators which are hard wired into the system and 110 volt AC converters, which shut down if the voltage to the truck drops to a certain point. This is to protect the CPU. The problem we had with our trucks was most drivers could not make it through a 10 hr break before the system shut down and left all of us in the cold. That was a huge pain! However the shop guys installed and extra bank of batteries and now things are all good. An APU (axillary power unit) has two purposes, 1) Provides power to the truck in order to run heating and cooling system, your Air conditioning, and your heat. Also the APU recharges the batteries if the voltage drops to a set point.

My company had all sorts of problems with APUs to include stricter idling laws which restricted the use of certain APUs, so we switched to the electric cooling systems and have electric heaters which use diesel. They are not as efficient in my humble opinion but they do the job.