The bunk heater

A bunk heater is a small diesel-fired heater that heats the interior of the truck (see picture below). The market is dominated by two manufacturers, Espar and Webasto (both from Germany). The heaters come in two styles, air and hydronic. The air versions are for interior heat and the hydronic ones warm the engine.

Many trucks have a bunk heater because they use a mere fraction of the fuel consumed by the engine for the same purpose. In colder climates trucks will be equipped with two heaters; one for the interior and one for the engine.

 

If you hear a tiny, miniature "jet engine" sound coming from rear/under a sleeper, you're probably hearing a bunk heater in operation. They tend to smoke a little when they first fire up and until they get hot and can burn the fuel most efficiently.

I persoanlly, never liked the idea of having a fire burning under my mattress but they seem to work well most times, and are pretty bullet-proof. I haven't dealt with one in several years since leaving the last company. But actually for heat, these work far better then full APU's using electric heat/blower

 

Ok thanks guys.

Yeah idk it sounds a little sketchy. I guess I'd just prefer to idle as long as my boss doesn't care. I've seen trucks gel up and kill here in high idle over night. We run all the trucks over night when it's real cold and run a 70% #1 blend in the winter. Haven't had any problems since.

 

I like the ones that heat the water, on a Prostar they could keep the motor warm and the inside of the cab as warm as you wanted,
I hate the under bunk air type, my pillow would fall on the floor in front of the vent and be super hot before I noticed it fell down.
I got lucky it never caught on fire

 

Above 10,000 ft, multiple areas of Colorado got 3" to 10" of snow. It melted within a few hours, but it's expected to happen again before the week is over.

 

Yeah unfortunately I do!

 

Things I learned last winter:
1) keep an emergency way to warm up. My bunk heater quit working in Wyoming twice. I used a cigarette lighter tiny heater to keep the ambient heat above freezing while shut down. If the APU still runs, use electric heat.
2) be careful after driving all day and coming to a stop at truck stop on ice. Let the tires cool off by driving slow for a bit. Those hot tires can melt ice and it refreezes anchoring all your tires in ice! No moving in the morning.
3) no load is worth stressing out when there is ice. Slow down. If there is a backup, it happens.

 

Make sure you're parked on concrete and not mud someone plowed. You'll come back in the morning and be ####ed.

 

I would really have no idea what to do in that situation ^ - example, no amount of urinating onto those tires could begin to melt that.

 

lol I don't recall pissing on the tires.

I turned the cross lock on and dug my tires in more, thought about dropping the trailer but realized that would get me no where and I'd end up rolling it considering the tank was full.

Ended up calling a wrecker for a winch out. First dude snapped two cables then he called a heavy wrecker and he got me out in two minutes.

I don't know why they sent out a little tow truck I told them I was 80k and stuck good.