AC not working, is there a DOT regulation about this?

The LAST thing we need is MORE government intervention. They have their noses in too many places where they don't belong already!

It is not a safety issue. To have the FMCSA deem it as such would sideline many perfectly safe and operational trucks. Who the #### are you to tell me I have to fix the air conditioner that I wouldn't even use if it DID work? Yeah, that's right...I don't use it. When I was running wreckers, I had the boss ask me if the AC worked in the truck, and I told him "I don't know...haven't tried it". Funny thing was, I'd clean up a wreck and be ready to go...everybody else running around with their AC cranked? They were drenched with sweat and ready to pass out BEFORE THE JOB WAS DONE. If you've got to get out and do physical work, it is MORE of a safety hazard for your body to be acclimated to the cold interior of the truck than if you just suck it up and allow yourself to become acclimated to whatever the weather is doing.

I'd be willing to bet air conditioning has played a large role in the obesity problem as well. Prior to air conditioning (and my own personal experience not running mine), you may as well go out and enjoy the day. If I'm going to be hot and sweaty, I may as well get some work done outside. When that air conditioner is on, though, the thought of going outside to do anything gets to be less and less likely...so people sit around in front of the TV getting fat instead of going outside and mowing the yard, wrenching on a car, walking through the woods, playing ball, etc. People were a lot healthier in the days before everybody had air conditioning.

Fact is, the body has mechanisms to regulate its temperature. Allowing those mechanisms to work burns calories and keeps everything working the way it should. When you get lazy and use external means to regulate the temperature, the body doesn't have to work as hard, calories aren't burned, and the systems in place that would ordinarily work to keep your body temperature where it needs to be slack off and may not work properly if the need should arise.

Like you have to get out and do some physical work somewhere. If you're used to having that AC cranked, it just might kill you. That seems like a safety issue to me. Perhaps the feds ought to BAN air conditioning in vehicles! Hell, add in the environmental harm generated by the release of the refrigerants when vehicles collide and we have EVEN MORE reason to ban AC in vehicles.

The feds have no business regulating either way on the issue. If you'd rather spend your money fixing a system that does more harm than good, that's your right. If I feel it is a useless system and remove it altogether instead of spending the money to fix it, that's my right to do that as well. The sooner people STOP relying on the government to dictate what they should or shouldn't be doing with their own money, the better off we'll all be.

You like air conditioning. That's fine. I don't. In a free society, that ought to be just as fine. You, however, want to turn me into an outlaw just because I don't like air conditioning. That doesn't sit well with me. Just as MY right to wildly swing my fists ends at the tip of your nose, YOUR right to decide what luxuries must be installed and functioning in a vehicle is limited to the vehicles YOU pay to purchase and maintain.

 

It was 32C outside today. I've seen it hit 40-42C before.

 

how come they're not allowed to argue but @Hurst and I ARE???

 

I think you might be confusing me with someone else. I have not, in this thread, voiced any opinion that a company driver should tough it out, and deal without it, nor have I said that as an owner I would not fix a broken a/c. I have said repeatedly that the a/c should not be considered a safety device that would require a truck to be put out of service if it is defective. Pedegree has clearly articulated that he never uses it. When driving my own truck, I have lived without it. The suggestion that it should be safety means that I have to fix it, even when I am the the driver, even if I don't need to use it. OOS is CSA points. A defective safety device is CSA points. Who needs it?

 

No need to jump and down about it .... You drive your truck and I'll drive mine !
If my ac needs to be fixed it is fixed , if you're ac needs to be fixed , oh well you don't need ac anyway right?

 

Not a big deal ....

 

What gets me ticked off are idiots calling for nanny government to step in and mandate a luxury item...something completely irrelevant to the safe operation of a truck...be fixed because they don't have the cojones to tell their boss to "fix it or find another driver". Either that or they aren't a good enough driver to be able to say that without hearing "Don't let the door hit you on the way out" in response to their demand for "comfort". If you don't want to drive without it, that's fine...only thing potentially hurting is your own wallet. Don't go crying to the government until a bureaucrat decides I can't drive without it. That cuts into MY bottom line.

 

The way I see is...
The trucking industry is so messed up now, drivers like you have to worry about fixing anything at ALL on your equipment
While we have corperate scum bags leaching off our government
.... Lying, cheating, stealing and any other dishonest gain they can get away with !
What's wrong with this picture?
This kind of thing is NOT the reason why we kept that flying through the night of cannon fire, I would say
.... I don't live in my truck but Alot of others do and I know I couldn't sleep in a hot truck , so without getting the sleep I need I wouldn't be a safe driver