Computers, Internet And Trucking (Video Games)

I have a few questions for any techies whom rive OTR..

1) How fast, how reliable and how expensive is a HOTSPOT (i.e. is it worth it/cost efficient)

2) Is having internet everywhere you travel possible?

3) I want to bring my xbox on the road, is this a realistic possibility? If there are any gamer's who truck with a game system how do you manage a tv and does the road tear up your game system?

4) How fast is the internet speeds at truck stops? I would want to DL movies and games etc..

I have a few questions for any techies whom rive OTR..

1) How fast, how reliable and how expensive is a HOTSPOT (i.e. is it worth it/cost efficient)

2) Is having internet everywhere you travel possible?

3) I want to bring my xbox on the road, is this a realistic possibility? If there are any gamer's who truck with a game system how do you manage a tv and does the road tear up your game system?

4) How fast is the internet speeds at truck stops? I would want to DL movies and games etc..

I'm a big time Gamer and have always been before I was a Driver. I mainly play PC Games such as Starcraft II or Diablo, sometimes SimCity. I wouldn't go with a Hot Spot if you plan on Gaming because when I looked into them they all seem to have a Data Cap and that just won't work for me. I currently use Sprint as my Carrier and use an Application called Klink or PDANet to Tether and get free internet where ever I go.

I think getting internet everywhere is possible with proper trip planning. Example if I know I'm running to LA from Idaho you'll be catching the 95 to 395 so I just stop and shut down in major cities or run hard enough that I can shut down early the next day and relax, play games and catch up on Tv Shows or movies. I do this a lot and still manage to run hard.

Xbox will be fine, the vibration doesn't my electronics much. Most times I'll be trucking down the road and my pc will be one and it never shuts off due to vibrations or anything of the sort. My monitor is mounted of course. I would hate for that thing to fall over and crack but it acts as my TV and Monitor.

Question 4 is a tough one because internet speeds vary during the day, early morning and during the day its pretty fast but later in the evening when it starts filling up. Good luck trying to stream anything. If you have further questions feel free to ask but Sprint works good for me and in big Metropolitan Cities I can get up to 40mbps. Thats Very Fast!

DO NOT CALL SPRINT AND ASK ABOUT TETHERING OPTIONS!

I'll have to upload a picture of my mounted Tablet I have on my Dash aswell, so you can say I have quite a bit of electronics on board compared to the average driver.

2 Smarts phones 1 Gaming PC with Monitor/TV Tuner 1 Tablet

I'll have to upload a picture of my mounted Tablet I have on my Dash aswell, so you can say I have quite a bit of electronics on board compared to the average driver.

2 Smarts phones 1 Gaming PC with Monitor/TV Tuner 1 Tablet

OUTSTANDING you completely answered my questions, I was looking into portable gaming systems and I came across this unit from wallmart that is called a "G155 Portable Gaming System"... it has a screen basically in a bag you can put your xbox in and carry around, you just plug it in and BAM.. haha do you know anything about it? I was pondering getting one, but your talking about you have a screen mounted in your truck?!?! how did you work that out?

I'll have to upload a picture of my mounted Tablet I have on my Dash aswell, so you can say I have quite a bit of electronics on board compared to the average driver.

2 Smarts phones 1 Gaming PC with Monitor/TV Tuner 1 Tablet

OUTSTANDING you completely answered my questions, I was looking into portable gaming systems and I came across this unit from wallmart that is called a "G155 Portable Gaming System"... it has a screen basically in a bag you can put your xbox in and carry around, you just plug it in and BAM.. haha do you know anything about it? I was pondering getting one, but your talking about you have a screen mounted in your truck?!?! how did you work that out?

To be honest you don't even need a case if you can get a Tv Mounted but the system looks cool and you can easily take it off and on your truck when you take hometime.

I drive a Kenworth T700 with a Tv Mount option that my company chose and I just use that but 15.5" is a bit to small for my taste but if it works for you don't let that stop you. I run a lot of electronics as you can tell so I hope the truck you are in or will be getting has an APU with an Inverter.

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.

OOOO so your truck came with the tv when they bought it as an add on accessory? How big is the screen that came with your truck?

How did you manage a screen on your dash? I wouldn't mind seeing how you worked that out.. I am also a big techy and its my comfort at home to be honest haha... so any ideas to incorporate that into my trucking lifestyle would be nice..

do most companies allow the installation of inverter's?

Also there is a bigger portable gaming system with a 19" screen but its double the price

My truck only came with a Tv Mount and I put my own 24" LED Monitor in it but my PC functions as a Gaming System and Tv with a Tuner Card installed. I'm a big tech junkie as well I couldn't imagine trucking without all my electronics and as for you question about inverters most companies only allow it to be installed by their own shop but you would have to ask them those questions about APU's and Inverters being stalled.

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.

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.

I didnt know what a Tuner Card was until you just mentioned it and i looked it up on wiki.. How much would you say it was worth to you? like is it worth the price.. also do they all allow you to record? and how is the signal quality? does it only catch digital?

I didnt know what a Tuner Card was until you just mentioned it and i looked it up on wiki.. How much would you say it was worth to you? like is it worth the price.. also do they all allow you to record? and how is the signal quality? does it only catch digital?

Prices vary depending on how much the tuner card can do, some record and some just do the basics of recieving local channels. So where ever you go, you can watch the local news. I like doing that because when I shut down. I can kind of get the feel of where I'm at and to me thats why I'm a Trucker. I love to Travel, if I was rich and didn't need to work I would still Truck. To me I believe the price is worth it, to others maybe not so. I don't solely use that card to watch Tv, I've got other options as well.

I know of websites that will allow me to stream live tv, movies or any channel I wan't. I pretty much use the card to only watch local news other then that I stream everything.

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