Dont you just love it when a fridge parks next to you just as your dozing off to sleep!!! OK, I know they have to keep them running, and I can live with that, it’s just bad luck for me if I happen to be parked next to one.
But, last night I was parked in Reading services and at around 10pm in comes Mr Fridge and parks next to me. No problem I thought, pull the pillow over my ears and go to sleep again, but wait a moment, whats that noise? I peek out the window and the driver is dropping the trailer and proceeds to park his unit at the other of the truck park so he can get to sleep!!!
Odd though, I bet his load was refused this morning
If me and Dad pull in a truckstop for our break we always switch it off. Because in the middle of the night the load will stay at nearly the same temperature anyway. Theres no harm in switching it off. Never park up with a load on so no need for a fridge running.
martin your quite right it is annoying and unneccessary(my spellings bad!). I`ve just started running fridges on a night trunk-various destinations. a few weeks ago i went to the truckstop at tebay, plenty of room to drop and changeover without disturbing anyone… however! the other driver had beat me there and had dropped it amongst the other parked up wagons. i asked him why? but was met with a strange look of indifference. maybe all that listening to janice long had affected his thinking process . i personnaly try to show a little consideration as i now what its like. try and sleep around montpellier area in france with all the spanish fridges blaring! not big and not clever
Martin:
pull the pillow over my ears and go to sleep again, but wait a moment, whats that noise? I peek out the window and the driver is dropping the trailer and proceeds to park his unit at the other of the truck park so he can get to sleep!!!
Odd though, I bet his load was refused this morning
No problem Martin just get out of bed and switch the bloody thing off, open the back doors and make sure the ■■■■■■■ thing gets refused then the ignorant fatherless person might realise he,s done something to upset other drivers.
Should anyone REALLY have to sleep with a 2 ltr diesel engine rattling its clemmies off 3 feet from where they have to sleep in this day and age?.
I wonder if those kind folks in Brussels have a directive on the amount of noise a driver should have to withstand when he is on a rest period?.
Nice thought i hope one of them is reading this.
I told a T.M. at Phil Hanley once i havd trouble sleeping when ihad a frozen load at night his reply in typical T.M. fashion was--------- “obviously you haven`t done enough work to be tired then”.
I can’t sleep with the fridge running and won’t expect others to either although several of my mates here found it no trouble.
If I parked up for the night and couldn’t turn it off (very often you can get away with it) I dropped the trailer in a lay-by at the front and parked close behind it. Just a faint hum in the distance. If I parked at a truckstop same thing but left the trailer all by itself in the lay-by.
It’s not the engine so much as the stopping and starting that got me.
BondiTram:
It’s not the engine so much as the stopping and starting that got me.
Yes, you’re right its the repeated breaks to sleep that make working these things so unsociable. I use to get woken up by them starting up AND shutting down. Thankfully I did very little fridge work. What did used to amaze me, and its the subject of this thread, was the complete disregard for others shown by some drivers with these infernal things. I could never work out whether their mentality was either “I’m not going to sleep so no one else is either” or " I can sleep through this thing and that’s all I’m bothered about"
I have been pulling fridges (and nothing else) for several years now. Although I am one of those people that if you put me in the horizontal position, I am asleep, I always tried to be considerate to others.
Quite often pulled into a truckstop early hours for a shower etc, and always turned the fridge off once parked. Had a row once with a bloke (who made more noise than the fridge!!) as he went for me as soon as I pulled up…didn’t give me chance to turn the thing off. What I did hate though was restarting it! I would reach in, start the engine then go round and restart the fridge cos I knew it would roar into life after being off for 45 minutes or so. Would try and be on the move before the fridge fired up lol
BUT I will say that we get so used to pulling fridges that after a year or two, you don’t hear it anymore and that can lead to parking in ‘wrong places’ occassionly
Got to agree with the bear, I ran fridges for about 7 or 8 years and you do get used to not hearing them except for the rattles when they start and stop, probably the only time I would not switch off at night was in the summer with a load of ice cream on, then I would find somewhere to park up by my self, but its usually ok with most other loads to turn it off at night, only problem then is if customer wants print out and notices any big drop in temp
If I had to park with a fridge, at my last drop I would turn it down as low as it would go, get parked, and let other drivers I would be switching it off at so and so time, if I couldn’t switch it off, seafood/ice cream, I would park the wrong way round, head to tail with other trucks.
I find night heaters running all night just as annoying, I don’t know how anyone can sleep with the things on. I have scraped ice off the inside of the screen before now, but been lovely and warm all night.
The only time you will hear a fridge is when it stops! I drove a tanker with a generator and an automatic thermocouple. same principle except when temperature drops it fires up the heating system. If a fridge or a generator is set up properly and the insulation is sound, it should only start a couple of times during the night. OK if you have icecream on at -25 then it will run all night.
its the warning buzzer wakes me up, not the engine!
I told a T.M. at Phil Hanley once i havd trouble sleeping when ihad a frozen load at night his reply in typical T.M. fashion was--------- “obviously you haven`t done enough work to be tired then”.
Wasn’t dangerous Brian was it. Any way our firm is getting rid of the old trailers and replacing them with T/Kingsl400’s. Very quite.
I personally wont use truck parks because of the noise and disturbance, of my fridge. Hope this helps, sorry
I don’t pull fridges but don’t have any problem sleeping if one pull up alongside. I find the noise quite relaxing and it shuts out other annoying intermittent noises; it’s a constant. I find the same goes with the night heater on my FH. It certainly isn’t the quietest when it’s on full tilt but it’s a constant. What cheeses me off is drivers who insist on shouting at each other (meant to be talking) outside one’s motor (always the one next to your own) until midnight discussing how many days they were waiting to tip at Argos or whatever, completely oblivious to the fact that some of us are trying to sleep and have to be away at 5am etc. The other one is drivers starting their wagons (no problem with that nor the ticking over engine noise) and insist on revving the [zb] off them for half an hour for no apparent reason. In fact, had one do that Friday morning in the truck park at Paisley which I got so peed off with I wound the window down and shouted at him, “either switch off or [zb] off” . He pulled a face but got the message and set off
I used to pull fridges and found the constant drone of the engine soothing and got to sleep without any difficulty. However I can understand the disruption to others who are not used to the noise. I used to have sleep alot in the day as I delivered meat at night and found other drivers so inconsiderate in the daytime by talking and shouting in the viscinity of my truck. Its obvious that if curtains are drawn the driver is trying to get some well earned shut eye, even when empty I would leave the fridge engine running to block out the conversations of other drivers outside my truck.
No problem Martin just get out of bed and switch the bloody thing off, open the back doors and make sure the [zb] thing gets refused then the ignorant fatherless person might realise he,s done something to upset other drivers.
Well jammy lets just hope your wife didnt buy any of the refrozen food that could have kill your kids
I try to avoid lorry parks these days, i’m a light sleeper at the best of times and always ended up being a fridge magnet!! so if i do use a lorry park i try and park as far away as possible from all the hussle and bussle. I don’t mind walking a few hundred yards to use the facilities because my doctor says i need the exercise !!!. But then again when i doze off i am woken by the sounds of incandesant laughter as some gang of blokes are on their way back to their wagons (truckworld for instance!!) Maybe i should get some earplugs!!
I too have been an outcast for many years simply because I pulled a fridge.
I always parked away from other trucks if at all possible.
But I have been parked in some places where I was there before any other trucks and have had drivers pull in and park next to,or near me and then they have the audacity to ask me whether I’m going to have that ****** running all night!!
With stuff like ice-cream you have to run it constantly.
As for sleeping with the motor running behind the cab,it doesn’t bother me.
The only time I wake up is if the thing hasn’t started up for a while.
I allways find that if I end up parked somewhere noisy, the best solution is to start the engine up on the truck. The noise of a big diesel idling can be quite soothing (especially if its a ■■■■■■■■■ and drowns out the rest of the noise.
Running fridges used to realy annoy me back in the UK but there was a few sites with plug ins for fridges, Swindon and Thurrock were just two I remember, others had separate areas for them.
Ofcourse now I live here and if you park at a truckstop anywhere it’s hard to find a truck engine not running all night let alone a fridge.
. i personnaly try to show a little consideration as i now what its like. try and sleep around montpellier area in france with all the spanish fridges blaring! not big and not clever 
and it shuts out other annoying intermittent noises; it’s a constant. I find the same goes with the night heater on my FH. It certainly isn’t the quietest when it’s on full tilt but it’s a constant. What cheeses me off is drivers who insist on shouting at each other (meant to be talking) outside one’s motor (always the one next to your own) until midnight discussing how many days they were waiting to tip at Argos or whatever, completely oblivious to the fact that some of us are trying to sleep and have to be away at 5am etc. The other one is drivers starting their wagons (no problem with that nor the ticking over engine noise) and insist on revving the [zb] off them for half an hour for no apparent reason. In fact, had one do that Friday morning in the truck park at Paisley which I got so peed off with I wound the window down and shouted at him, “either switch off or [zb] off” 
