When your away all week in the truck, who takes a stove and cooks there own food, and if so, what type of things do you make.
Ta
when i used to tramp id fill the fridge with meat ,salad and i used to buy pasta and tins of stewing steak, peas, spag bol, curries and somtimes pop into a superstore and buy one of them pre cooked chickens and have chicken pasta salad i never really ate in services or nightowels ,they used to call me the chef at my old place 
if you did eat every night in these places because of the limited menu youd end up being the size of an house after a while
I cook a lot in the cab although I don’t take a stove as I have a microwave.
I cook everything and anything. Sitting here waiting to go into the cab tomorrow for this weeks trip I have eggs for an omelette, a peice of fresh fish for poaching, bags of ready prepared fresh veg, some cooked chicken, salad stuff, cheese, pasta etc. I don’t take much tinned stuff apart from soups or chopped tomatoes.
I take it you have a fridge aswell then.
Are these coolers that you see for £40-£50 any good? or is it better to get a fridge and what sort of price are you talking?
Also does anyone know of any websites for getting bits and piece for the truck other than roadpro.co.uk
ta
Yeah I do have a fridge, I ordered this one with the truck and it came built in to one of the overhead lockers and it is a proper compressor fridge. I’ve never used the cool box type but as far as I know they only cool so many degrees below ambient temperature whereas the compressor type will cool right down to freezing. The cool box type are also heavier on the batteries.
gurner a fridge is best ive got an electrolux £199 from cdc but i think there a bit cheaper now its quite big so if youve got a small cab it has to go on bunk or engine cover
Its going in a scania topline, im not 100% sure what the layout is inside, i will find out next week when i go to put all my kit in it.
Im going to get a stove and not sure about a fridge or cool box but it sounds like the fridge may be the better option.
i put my fridge behind the passenger seat mate in the topline and the flat stove fits in that pullout draw in the dash
I’ve been using a cool box for 4mths now, it’s a 12v from Safeways ( £19.99), have had no problems with any food, milk etc going off 
it holds a fair bit as well.
My stove is the flat one sold by roadpro with cartridge gas & carry case, except I bought mine for £9.99 at Trago Mills near me & replacement gas is only £3.99 for four.
Food wise, I take fresh for omelettes, home made curries etc. Always carry 1/2 dozen tins of mixed food, never know if you are going to get caught out. 
Have got a fridge (gaffer supplied) so I dont know what it cost, also one of those flat stoves, theyre great. I tend to park where I can get a meal on the ticket to be honest, but, I carry a loaf, marge, and cheese for a sandwich. For emergencies, little tins of beans and stuff, and tinned fruit with little tins of carnation. Also, a great little peice of kit to make toast over the stove!
Mal.
Yeh im going to have to look into the cost of a fridge, me brother works for scania so ill see if he can get me a deal on one, or i may go for a 12v cool box.
Last time i was away, i ended up eating in services most nights and it cost me a fortune, something i want to try and avoid.
I eat at services a lot Chris, it dont cost me a bean, its on the ticket, if they dont do a meal on the ticket, I dont park there. Friday had a nice KFC! 
I tell you what, that 19 quid coolbox mentioned sounds good.
Mal.
Yeh ill have a look about, arent MSA’s usually, £10 to park overnight and £15 with a food voucher? Id imagine the boss will only pick up the tab for the tenner parking, and i could eat better for a fiver than the meals in the services 
I usually find it about £12.50 on most services. Yorkies is a good feed and thats £8.50 with a meal, I dont get there much though. Im lucky I spose, my gaffer pays whatever the ticket is, but I made it 100% clear when I took the job that was the deal, no parking dough, = no show. I’d just get the meal ones, and give them him and say nowt, if he pays, sorted, if he dont, you know where you stand.
Mal.
Im slowly getting to know the places out and about for a good feed, even as a last resort the hollies will do, been using lymm a bit, and theres a couple of good ’ un’s down here, its just getting to know them.
Is there any chance we could have a list of “Greasy spoons” made up, there was a list knocking about, but it was more aimed at MSA’s
Im trying to find all the little cafes tucked away, sit down places etc
Fully fledged self caterer, tins of stewed steak (really lean, you dont even need teeth its that good ) along with new tates (tinned) & a small tin of garden peas… fire it all in a pan & leave it to simmer until you cant stand watching it anymore.
Those HP all day breakfast / full monty & stuff like that are all easy / quick (I dont usually bother to heat them so only a fork required as the can lids have ringpulls on them.
Fridge, I bought a Hella Roadcool (list price was just over £130 but I chipped them down to £115 (this was 3 or 4 years ago), it will run on 12 or 24 volt (figures it out itself) & will cool or heat, is 32 litre capacity (6 x 2l pop bottles easily).
Supermarkets do a fairly good line in sandwich fillings, Morrisons for instance do loads in little tubs for about a quid a pot, Asda are similar.
Going self catering will save you a fortune in the long run & stove/fridge expenditure will be recouped within a month.
I night out for the extra money & dont spend the expenses on parking or food (might buy a bacon sarnie once a week but I dont make a habit of it).
A decent container that holds a couple of gallons of water is also a necessity unless you use paper plates
I’m veryyyyyyy slowly getting into this self-catering lark too as, like most others, am finding that I’m spending half my weeks wage on food when I’m working
When I first started out on nights away it was always an army of sarnies for my tea and to a point, that still stands today unless I’m near Colsterworth (favourite feeding hole), Whitwood, Cannock or evening tipping at an RDC where I can get a decent hot meal in their canteen.
I’ve started going self-catering in-cab for breakfast which consists of a nice big bowl of Kelloggs Sultana Bran every morning with some milk and that stuff really fills you up for a good slice of the day without getting hungry again too soon.
I recently bought a 10 litre water container with tap on the bottom from Swindon truck stop which comes in useful for washing my breakfast bowl out and also for supplying water to get a quick wash and brush teeth if I decide to park up for the night where I am.
I don’t do fast food at all apart from a special treat sometimes when I’ll stop and pay through the nose for a Pizza Hut pizza but that’s maybe only once or twice a month and now I rarely go past Colsterworth I’ve quit their breakfast “no.2” now which can only be a good thing.
I’m still eating far too many sarnies and these cost me a fortune from garages but I never buy from MSA’s because firstly £4 for one is just crazy and secondly I don’t like Ginsters stuff at all which they all seem to sell.
I’m not really partial to sarnies with salad in because I don’t like cucumber nor toms and the lettuce is always soggy so it usually ends up being Egg & Bacon, Chicken & Bacon, H+C+P, Tuna & sweetcorn/onion etc which all seem to have mayo with them; again not good.
A couple of years ago I was a waist 34 and needed a belt. Now I’m a 36 and don’t need a belt
One of these days I’ll get round to getting a fridge and a little stove…
Rob K:
…unless I’m near ColsterworthA couple of years ago I was a waist 34 and needed a belt. Now I’m a 36 and don’t need a belt
You mean ‘White s’ yeah its not bad there.
I am starting to struggle on the 36’s now (was built like a japanese racing snake till I got behind the wheel)
Cav203k:
Rob K:
…unless I’m near ColsterworthA couple of years ago I was a waist 34 and needed a belt. Now I’m a 36 and don’t need a belt
White’s 
Never heard it called that before, assuming you’re referring to the A1 Diner behind the services on the roundabout.