Comments By SouthernJourneyman

I use a Cobra 29 LTD Classic. Very happy with it and does everything you need. Love's had the on sale usually. Got mine it was on sale plus a $20 mail in rebate that I need to send off.

Something to keep in mind. All CB radios are limited to 4 watts. So you're only paying for better features and better components when you get a more expensive radio. And some of those features do come in handy like being able to control RF gain and such.

1- yes I have APU. And I love it. Having the APU allows for a refrigerator instead of an electric cooler. All trucks also have the 1500w inverter. So I can cook and stuff without running the engine. Not sure that I would go with a company OTR and not have APU.

2- Melton really pushes for us to idle as little as possible. Also the trucks shut down after a bit. I think it may be 5 minutes of idle before it shuts down. Which only applies if you are in neutral and brakes are set. But if your APU is broke down you can idle if needed. I believe as long as you don't set the truck brake it will run longer. Not to sure about that though.

3- Our MPG is calculated on a 90-day average. So you have to do pretty bad before you are penalized. I'm not sure exactly what the penalty is though. Apparently I left the paper at home. I do know we are supposed to keep mileage above 6.0mpg average. So you'd have to do pretty bad to be lower this that over 90 days. For keeping it at 6.8 and higher we do get a mileage bonus. Starting at 6.8 you get $0.01 with another cent for each tenth.

I can't remember how much fuel the APU saves but it is a significant amount. I'll give an example. When I took my home time for Christmas I parked the truck Thursday night. It stayed parked until Sunday morning the following week. So 10 day with the APU cycling on and off. When I parked the fuel gauge showed just barely touching the 1/2 mark. When I left it was sitting pretty much on the mark.

Probably would have used less if I had turned the climate control off, then it only turns on to keep the batteries charges. But my kids wanted to camp out in the truck every night.

Thank you G-Town. Completely agree with your post. While skipping a gear may be necessary at times, there is a reason for 1-1 downshifting. Remember you are using the engine to slow the truck down. I barely use my breaks until coming to a complete stop. Slowing down enough to skip several gears at once puts a lot of wear on the brakes and you have very little engine torque to help.

You ain't kidding. Thought I-94 was gonna send me off the road earlier today. These roads are rough even for a former log hauler.

Andrew- you may want to start your own thread with your question. May get a faster answer instead of resurrecting a 2 year old thread.

I find that in the 2015-16 freightliner cascadia, it downshifts best around 1500 rpm

You sure about that? Cascadia I drove was limited and would barely hit 1500. Should be downshifting closer to 1000-1200 at the most.

I'm sure it would be ok. They make electric skillets and lunchbox heaters that will hit 300* to plug into the 12v outlet. Can't imagine an air purifier drawing more power than those.

Just do whatever you do to relax. Stay positive. You've got this. In a few months you'll be wondering what all the fuss was about.

As a Melton driver I have to call BS on this one. I have not seen this type of behavior from anyone at the company and all drivers I have spoken with love it here with one exception. And he's one of those that got into trucking without any knowledge of how the industry works, such as home time and all that. When I went through orientation the instructors were very professional. Yes they were conducting and 8 day interview and watching everything, but they were trying to help us succeed. Even had one guy they sent home because of falsified info. The guy left cussing and yelling acting like an idiot but they still extended professional courtesy. One guy voluntarily left, said he would fail the drug test. Guess what, they bought his bus ticket back home. In fact everyone that was sent home was provided a bus ticket on Melton's dime. When we were on the yard learning securement and tarping the instructors were very professional when they pointed out mistakes. They didn't criticize anyone or point fingers and laugh. And if anyone had trouble with anything, such as lifting a tarp up on the trailer they were good about showing us ways to get it up there, like rolling it up a v-board. Sounds like this guy probably went in with a serious attitude problem or something else and got sent home. Now he's all butthurt about it and wants to blame it all on Melton. Just like all the haters we get from Swift or Werner or any other company.

While I haven't used this one in particular I can comment on features that I do not like about it just from watching the video. Yes it does have a loop that allows it to hang on the rub rail, but without a screw to tighten it down it is going to move around while winding, I don't like that. I want it to be good and stable. The other thing is that I don't have to take my strap winder apart to pull the strap off. I wind it up and pull the strap right of the prongs, no problem. Also the cost. Even full price mine would have been right around $25. It's a fairly heavy gauge steel and unless I throw it down and start stomping on it I should have no trouble, or tighten it down to the point that that screw or nut strips out. But I don't do those things. I tend to take care of my equipment.