Just wondered how you lot that didnt have night heaters years ago use to keep warm, must of been bloody freezing some nights!
Only asking because mines broken and its not even winter and im already cold lol.
Dont sleep in it…easy to get hypothermia…i slept in a tk bedford when i was 19 up in Newcastle it was around minus 5c …i had a ex army duck down sleeping bag a duvet and newspapers over me i didnt sleep properly …but did fall asleep eventualy…woke up ice on the inside not a nice place to be…never did it again .
Couple of beers down the local boozer,chip shop and on with the bedsocks 
Had one of those portable heaters that ran on some kind of meths for a while,warm as ■■■■ but suprised i didnt die of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Tried your best to get digs.
The bed consisted of two planks (if you must), laid end to end from each window ledge meeting in the middle on the bonnet, then laying your sleeping bag on the planks and balancing, no curtains so newspapers sellotaped up did the job.
Yes we were bloody bonkers, however we got paid a hell of a lot more than the blokes driving the state of the art lorries of the day which were just coming on stream.
My first sleeper was a day cabbed Scania 110 with a ‘cushette’…theres posh for you, still no night heater.
Spent me life avoiding nights out like the plague, still don’t want to know, a mans place to sleep is in a warm bed holding his fine woman.
Suedehead:
Couple of beers down the local boozer,chip shop and on with the bedsocks
Had one of those portable heaters that ran on some kind of meths for a while,warm as [zb] but suprised i didnt die of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Lucky man…have you ever seen the silent night wag and drags…? sleeper pod on roof , a place i worked for we did beds and bedroom stuff…this guy from silent night used to come upto our place twice a week sometimes overnight outside the warehouse we alllways gave him a knock…this particular morning knocked no answer this went on for about an hour tried his door locked …thought ah well he must have gone for his breakfast…2 hours later still no show rang his company they rang his cab phone didnt answer…rang the police…they broke in his cab … poor soul was dead in his bed he had a small gas cooker which he left on perhaps to keep warm it killed him monoxide poisening…no night heater bollox to them get it fixed or get b+b.
When I started driving trucks plenty had night heaters, but there were still a fair employes who thought they were a bit of a luxury and did have them or would fix them when they went wrong.
It not the sleeping thats the problem without a night heater, if you have a proper sleeping bag you can get quite toasty and plenty of people spent night in tents or even just a bivvy bag in some pretty cold weather for recreation and they don’t have a problem and I know plenty of drivers that only use the night heater before they go to bed and just before they get up. Of course like everything else quality cost money. Of course getting up in the mornings when the cab is basically an ice block is another matter.
I can’t leave mine on overnight - end up waking up with what feels like a hangover. Usually reach over 30 mins before I get up and give it a blast to warm the cab up.
kjw21:
I can’t leave mine on overnight - end up waking up with what feels like a hangover. Usually reach over 30 mins before I get up and give it a blast to warm the cab up.
Crack your sunroof open a tad and let the air circulate … They have the same effect on me .
I’m currently parked in a truckstop in Florida. Two days ago all the trucks were idling all night to keep warm up in the frozen north. Now they’re all idling all night to keep the air con on because its so hot. Many Canadian trucks have night heaters but very few Americans do, they just run the bloody engine 24/7. Thats all I can hear right now, idling engines.
My little night heater has packed up, so I’m using the big 15ltr one 
Had a few lorries without night heaters, some without bunks too 
I’ve always ran the engine if heat is required, if the boss has a problem with that, I have no problem checking in at a motel…or getting another job 
many years ago parked at the Jus-Rol factory in Berwick on Tweed, in an old A series ERF with 180 Gardiner,(no night heaters them days), ready on the loading dock for when they started in the morning… Well, morning came , minus 23c, yes you heard right, the windscreen not only frozen on the outside but the same inside, reached out of my sleeping bag, turned the key,
she just gave a little grunt & didn’t even offer to turn over…(typical female) I got tipped ok, they also had a nice warm canteen to thaw out in, it was one of them days when every hgv mechanic was run off their feet, i ended up with an agricultural mechanic who knew his stuff anyway, but it still took the 2 of us til after 4pm to persuade Mrs Gardiner to come to life with a 45 gallon barrel with broken pallets burning beside the diesel tank and a lump of steel bar with burning diesel soaked rags waving around the filters and pipes, and jump leads on the batteries… So then I rang our office in Carlisle to tell them I was mobile again,
they said “What do you want to do ? park up for the night or come home ?”
It was a crap journey home, but I was not staying there another night for a repeat performance…
2 sleeping bags a hat a pair of thick socks, that was 20 years ago I have managed to avoid nights out ever since horrible.
During the war … 
When men were men it wasn’t unusual to wake up in the morning with half an inch of ice stuck to the back of your eye lids and even thicker on the inside of your windscreen …
Man up you great big tarts …
HTH …
We didn’t have them so we didn’t miss them. My first night heater was in 1986.
If it was cold we had an extra blanket or a spare sleeping bag. I had a Transcon with a ■■■■■■■ which do run cold, you can get more heat off the fuel tank then you can from the cab heater
I think I remember my coldest night was in Czech at the Zinnwald border. I woke up and wound my window down for a ■■■, my first thought was ■■■■, the winders bust, it was only when I put my hand on it and realised I had a new window, made of Ice, this was on the inside of the glass 
The border had a parking place at the top of a hill. The customs then allowed so many down to the border using traffic lights. I recall walking down to the bottom to get a coffee and talking to a German guard, he had worked there for over 20 years and he doesn’t remember it ever been so cold as that.
I had a 113 In which the night heater never worked, in winter I slept in a bivvy bag with duvet over the top, and many a time the inside of the windscreen was froze and the curtains could’ve been broken into bits! But that’s all part of how the jobs changed then it was tough luck it’s broken, now drivers wouldn’t put up with that.
bowser:
During the war …When men were men it wasn’t unusual to wake up in the morning with half an inch of ice stuck to the back of your eye lids and even thicker on the inside of your windscreen …
Man up you great big tarts …
HTH …
Your just quoting then ? been there done it…bet you have the night heater on now or your cab heaters on…■■■■■, 
shytalk:
bowser:
During the war …When men were men it wasn’t unusual to wake up in the morning with half an inch of ice stuck to the back of your eye lids and even thicker on the inside of your windscreen …
Man up you great big tarts …
HTH …Your just quoting then ? been there done it…bet you have the night heater on now or your cab heaters on…■■■■■,
AHHH see i’m not that daft i’m sat in my dining room with a coffee and my central heating on afterburn …
Ah…see, not freezing ya ■■■■ off…
Some awesome stories, keep them coming! Ive had a few below zero freeze nights now and it isnt ideal , but thats not a touch on some of you guys so credit were where its due!
At home with the woodburner on.
Sometimes I think day cabs should have night heaters. 2 frosts so far this year, and I’m sick of waiting for the engine to warm up to demist the screen. 
WW3 if you ask for de-icer! 