Winter is nearly upon us and the cold nights are drawing in. It’s that time of year we all switch our night heaters on for a good nights sleep. I get called out at all ghastly times of day and night for faulty night heaters, normally cutting out or smoking out the service stations.
Night heaters are machines and need to be run from time to time to keep in working order so give it a half hour blast to keep things running smooth. You wouldn’t leave your wagon or car all summer without firing it up would you■■?
So befor you get caught out for a cold night in the bunk give it a go, the last thing I like is getting dragged out of my warm bed to pull some old socks out of an intake, change a glow plug or a filter. All of which are very inexpensive jobs.
I hear these horror story’s of my dad and grandfather spending nights out in day cabs and waking up with frost on the inside , it’s the 21st century there’s no shame in having cold feet.
I hope this gets you thinking have a productive winter and be safe.
If your a mechanic/fitter, and your on standby, then thats your job matey, you get paid to do a job, so do it, and if a driver is cold, then he needs warming up, so get out of bed, make the journey, and get his night heater working, at least his company is considerate by being prepared to pay over the top rates to satisfy his needs. What should be happening is a check of the heater when its up for mot, servicing etc there are many parts of a truck that add to a drivers comfort, but are not checked via an mot or servicing, heaters, seats, electric mirrors etc, and my grumble is, if its fitted, it should work.
We get lots of o/d operators who carry out a lot of own service work and overlook things like night heaters during the summer months. I have posted this as advice from my experiences hence “new drivers and wannabe” board. Lets face it no one like getting woken up for a mind numbing task of removing a crusty sock from an intake.
I like to get woken up for something a little more taxing and exciting. I’m just trying to save some people time and money something we all desire…
ahhhh frost on the inside , by eck them was the days lol
done all that being cold crap and shivering a nights sleep , well prepaired these days nice n cozy with or without the night heater but i have been running the night heater daily for a week now just to make sure its working constantly and ready for the nice cozy winter nights ahead
Snap-on Harry:
We get lots of o/d operators who carry out a lot of own service work and overlook things like night heaters during the summer months. I have posted this as advice from my experiences hence “new drivers and wannabe” board. Lets face it no one like getting woken up for a mind numbing task of removing a crusty sock from an intake.
I like to get woken up for something a little more taxing and exciting. I’m just trying to save some people time and money something we all desire…
If I got paid your wage I certainly wouldn’t mind getting out of bed.
I can’t believe this, I would call out a fitter if my truck broke down, but I wouldn’t dream of doing an out-of-hours call out for a faulty night heater.
I had not used my heater for at least 6 months and when I turned it on it cut out and said there was an error
It took a couple of days of switching it on and off before it finally started working properly - So lesson learnt for me which is just run it up every now and again
Quite often, if a night heater won’t work properly at the beginning of winter, particularly if it will run but not fire up, it can be battered into submission by repeatedly trying again. I’m no fitter so I’ll stand to be corrected, but I’ve always assumed that this is diesel has managed to run back down the feed pipe under gravity if it hasn’t been used for a while and it needs coaxing up again.
ma feet are permanantly cold av had ma night heater on in the summer, but i agree with snap on harry theres nothing worse than getting parked up, fed and watered ready for a cosy night only to find the night heater kaput, sometimes its as simple as clearing all the fluff off the air intake, av got a spare glow plug just in case, its only a 5 min job to change it.
wigan:
ahhhh frost on the inside , by eck them was the days lol
I had a few old motors at the start of my driving career, A & B series ERF’s, Atkinson Borderer, and the odd Leyland or two, the frost usually did end up on the inside as well. Often gone to bed (blow up lilo across the engine cover and seats)fully dressed in the thickest sleeping bag that could be bought, and a couple of candles on the dashboard to keep the frost off the inside of the screen!
Fast forward a few years and night heaters became more common, but often fitted without a thought as to where the heat would go! My old boss had a gas heater installed in one of the B series I had. This after I nearly died of hypothermia on Sandbach South one winters night. It ran off a gas bottle parked in a mount on the back of the cab. The matrix was high up on the middle panel of the rear of the cab and would warm the roof up lovely I was often too scared to use it in case the bloody cab caught fire when asleep.
Then a Webasto night heater was fitted, but the outlet for the warm air was right down in the passenger footwell and most of the heat went straight out of the poorly fitting door seals so the cab was still freezing cold. It wasnt till I got given a Magirus Duetz that I had a decent night heater for the first time! Even the F88 I drove never had one, but I didnt really get very cold in that either way. As you say, happy days!
I remember tipping on Raynesway, Derby, back in the eighties and there was a ERF A series parked on the roadside surrounded with Police. Appears that the driver had died of Hypothermia during the night, he had taped all around the passenger door frame to try and keep the draught out but alas it had got to him in the end. Never had one myself but I guess that running the heater periodically through the year will help to keep the cobwebs out, it’s like your home heating which we expect to work in October etc when it hasn’t been run since spring and we get upset when it malfunctions!
I was often too scared to use it in case the bloody cab caught fire when asleep.