Night heater not working worth a VOR or not?

[biggusdickusgb]

Quinny:
Unusually,I did a night out about 4 weeks ago,in an 08 plate Volvo FE,down London way,and as it was a reasonably warm day,I never checked the night heater before i set out
The point I’m trying to make here,is that a good company will look after you when the need arises,and this was a global logistics company,whereas some smaller ones with one gaffer,won’t give 2 [zb] if you sleep in a cold cab,as they will be warm in their 1/2 million pound house,with the central heating on,and the hot tub running.

Ken.

1 why on earth wouldn’t you check it as part of your start routine, if a working night heater is so important to you.
2 so what you’re saying is a massive company that can just get you in and have a job done at virtually no extra cost because the buy hundreds of trucks at a time and all the r&m comes with it, means thats a good firm.
but joe bloggs running 6 motors, not neccessarily on a shoestring but cant get it in to be done because he aint got the clout is a ■■■■ firm.
cant agree with your logic there, but hey we’re all allowed our own opinion

[quinny]

biggusdickusgb:
1 why on earth wouldn’t you check it as part of your start routine, if a working night heater is so important to you.
2 so what you’re saying is a massive company that can just get you in and have a job done at virtually no extra cost because the buy hundreds of trucks at a time and all the r&m comes with it, means thats a good firm.
but joe bloggs running 6 motors, not neccessarily on a shoestring but cant get it in to be done because he aint got the clout is a [zb] firm.
cant agree with your logic there, but hey we’re all allowed our own opinion

1.When a vehicle is less than 6 months old,you wouldn’t expect a night heater not to be working,so checking it,would not normally be needed at this age.

2.This company,like hundreds of others,doesn’t buy or own any trucks.They’re all leased on R&M packages with main dealers,so the dealers will be kept on their toes,if the work is to be kept by them,and not gone to a rival.

Ken.

[jimti]

I would argue that if you would call an emergency electrician to your house in the middle of the night because the heating has stopped working and pay all the extra, then it wouldn’t be surprising for you to put the vehicle off the road because you have no heating,
but if like most people you would wait until the morning and call an electrician who will come and fix it in a day or two when he can fit you in at a sensible price I would not expect you to VOR the truck, but report the problem expecting it to be fixed when the chance arises.
I like my night heater and use it lots, it has broken down before in the middle of winter in Austria at -15, I used the 12 litre night heater before I went to bed, then wrapped up until the morning when the Engine was started again, no problem…I had it fixed in Germany 2 days later when I had the chance.

If it got too cold and I had no chance to fix it I would have booked into a cheep hotel.
Yes we live in the 21st Century where we have far better than we had in the dark ages, but we are still not in utopia so sometimes thing still break and we should all be prepared for that.

[globby_480]

LOL, after all this pee taking my driver has just rung and said is n/heater is just blowing cold air out NOW!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh,aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh, just my frigging luck that aint it, i should keep my big mouth shut, but he is ok as he dont use it at night etc just when he is sat waiting to tip etc, so he is ok for it to be repaired at the w/end, i carnt ever have a weekend of

[rob_k]

Reef:
I lost count of the amount of times i woke during the last two nights due to it being bloody cold (-3 to -5) i was in my sleeping bag (and not a cheap nasty nylon one) zipped up like a bloody caterpiller i cant sleep with clothes on (except boxers) and most annoyingly i couldn’t even leave the engine running (which i would have done in a heartbeat) as its got that annoying Volvo feature of cutting the engine if it idles for more than 2 mins or so.

If the truck has cruise control then it isn’t a problem. All you do is hold in the rocker switch for ‘increase speed’ and the idle revs will increase. You only need to increase it about 100rpm and the engine management thinks you’re driving then and won’t shut off the engine.

[reef]

Rob K:

Reef:
I lost count of the amount of times i woke during the last two nights due to it being bloody cold (-3 to -5) i was in my sleeping bag (and not a cheap nasty nylon one) zipped up like a bloody caterpiller i cant sleep with clothes on (except boxers) and most annoyingly i couldn’t even leave the engine running (which i would have done in a heartbeat) as its got that annoying Volvo feature of cutting the engine if it idles for more than 2 mins or so.

If the truck has cruise control then it isn’t a problem. All you do is hold in the rocker switch for ‘increase speed’ and the idle revs will increase. You only need to increase it about 100rpm and the engine management thinks you’re driving then and won’t shut off the engine.

Funnily enough Rob i tried that (in the morning 2am) but it still cut off, perhaps i didn’t increase it enough. (still have a bit of a conscience about neighbouring residents)
All i know now is that the night heater will be the 1st thing that goes on when i start my 1st shift and if it doesn’t work i will create BEFORE i even leave the yard…Consider it lesson learnt… (Geez this lorryist lark is hard…so much to remember)

[stevieboy308]

biggusdickusgb:

stevieboy308:
just to clarify, if i park up on a night and it doesn’t work, i wouldn’t ring anyone up, next day i’d let the boss know and expect it sorted as soon as reasonabley possible. can’t see any reason this would be longer than the begining of the next week. if the boss then turns round and said its not going to get fixed at all, then that’s when i’d say i wont be nighting out in it.

biggusdickusgb:
you’d be sacked you div, what else would happen

yes i’d get sacked, if i then proceeded with a tribunal, whilst i’m not saying id 100% win i’d be pretty confident. yes judge i was happy to do day runs, take my truck to be fixed, swap gear into another truck or kip in a travel lodge and as its the middle of winter i wasn’t prepared to sleep in a truck with a defective night heater that i’d been told wouldn’t be fixed. i think thats pretty reasonable, now lets hear your defense?

you’d go to court, your boss will ask why you dont have contingencies in your cab for such an event, ie you’ve got all the toys but dont even carry a spare sleeping bag with you.
he’ll tell the court it was a one off but couldn’t be fixed until the weekend although he tried, he’ll back that up with paperwork from whoever sorts his electricals out.
he’ll tell the court there was a 420hp night heater under the bed that you could’ve used.
then he’ll tell the court how your actions put the company and the other 5 drivers jobs in jeapordy and if it wasnt for himself having to leave other vital aspects of the business and drive that vehicle until weekend the business could’ve folded
what was your defence again

biggusdickusgb:
you cant be an operator then, only a person who hasn’t done it would come out with that statement, you employ people to do what you’d do yourself.

do you live in a cave? come on fella, i’m inviting you to join me in the now!!!
stevie

i’ll stay in my cave here thanks, as although i think we would agree on quite a bit, we are a million miles apart in attitude

dude, a spare sleeping bag what incase i break the zip or the …zip might stop working and oh no what if the …zip fails, ffs you’ve got me looking stupid in front of the beak now

right your “one off, fixed at the weekend” argument holds water aswel as a something that doesn’t hold water if you’d of read my thread/defence then you would of spotted i was reasonable about allowing time to get it fixed, only once told it wouldn’t be getting fixed would i start to refuse to night out in it.

420 bhp heater, so if someone rocks up outside your bedroom window and leaves the engine running all night you wouldn’t have something to say? most would, why? because it disturbs there sleep which has the same outcome as no night heater, as in a tired driver the next day. maybe i’m a light sleeper i don’t know but when ever i’ve done fridges i’ve dropped the trl and parked at the back of it, otherwise i couldn’t get a good nights sleep. thats why i’m not going to do the ice road trucker thing either!

now for your best bit, your putting profit / employment in front of road saftey, this is how the bewigged fella is going to look at i would of thought. its better to have no job as opposed no life or take someone else’s. although my actions would of made little difference to the profit and organising of runs etc, as don’t forget i was happy to kip in a travel lodge, so i still could do the lands end to john o groats run! so that way you could kept your superman pants in the draw and stayed at the helm of what is sounding like a failing business.

i’m still not saying i’ll 100% win but you have made me alot more confident

if that means i have a bad attitude, then a bad attitude i have

stevie

[bugcos]

Dare I say it, its all fixed now just had it on for the last hour, am now that hot have have had to open the door for a while!!!

[quinny]

Wuss.

Ken.