there are trucks with lights for overnight parking. usually an LED on each top corner at the front of the cab and one on each rear corner of the trailer. tanker drivers seem to be getting them more than anyone else but i have seen a couple of flatbeds with them too
toby1234abc:
Why does`nt a boffin invent a system where you can park up at night without running the power from the battery, the Police used to enforce the parking at night, lights on rule, but not so much nowadays.
Solar panels on the cab or trailer
I think I may have spotted a flaw in the plan.
mazzer:
Tarrman:
A good few years ago a bloke from my work (didnt know him) rode a moped into the back of an unlit lorry. I think there should be a simple circuit set up, all you need is a light in each corner. You could always buy some LED bike lights. I don’t know how good the reflectors are on the rear of a truck, maybe give em a clean before bed? The roadwork lights are a good idea but are open to theft. I imagine them handy to have in the cab incase of a late night break down.lol might have helped if he had put his headlight on and opened his eyes
The poor fella died. I have no idea what weather conditions were like although it was in winter.
I’m with Marlow on this, led bike lights from the pound shop, one in window and one on trailer offside. Don’t put them on flashing as you may get unwanted male attention.
Harry Monk:
toby1234abc:
Why does`nt a boffin invent a system where you can park up at night without running the power from the battery, the Police used to enforce the parking at night, lights on rule, but not so much nowadays.
Solar panels on the cab or trailerI think I may have spotted a flaw in the plan.
Not necessarily.
Solar panels are used on boats sometimes. And the idea is they ‘collect’ the energy during the day and then store it so you can use it anytime. Not much collected at night of course. 
I’ve fitted solar panels on trailers with their own batteries to power the internal lift without a tractor unit attached. The panels are to stop the batteries getting ruined if the trailers left for a few weeks - they charge from a split charge system from the unit when hooked up.
The panels have to be installed very carefully as if they sit proud of the roof they’ll get destroyed by trees branches
I think some sort of magnetic/suction lights you could charge from the lighter socket in the cab would be a good idea but I think technically you’d need the marker lights not just front and back to avoid getting done.
Truckulent:
Harry Monk:
toby1234abc:
Why does`nt a boffin invent a system where you can park up at night without running the power from the battery, the Police used to enforce the parking at night, lights on rule, but not so much nowadays.
Solar panels on the cab or trailerI think I may have spotted a flaw in the plan.
Not necessarily.
Solar panels are used on boats sometimes. And the idea is they ‘collect’ the energy during the day and then store it so you can use it anytime. Not much collected at night of course.
But a truck that’s parked up at the roadside overnight (which is what we are talking about) will have been charging the batteries during the day anyway. The boat ones are intended to keep the batteries topped up while moored for several days without running the engine, which is a different situation altogether.
toby1234abc:
Why does`nt a boffin invent a system where you can park up at night without running the power from the battery, the Police used to enforce the parking at night, lights on rule, but not so much nowadays.
Solar panels on the cab or trailer, or an independant power supply, Dragons Den anyone?
Yeah, good idea. Solar panels would be much help at night 
Truckulent:
Solar panels are used on boats sometimes. And the idea is they ‘collect’ the energy during the day and then store it so you can use it anytime. Not much collected at night of course.
And where exactly they store that electricity if not in batteries? In a bucket in passenger’s footwell? 
orys:
toby1234abc:
Why does`nt a boffin invent a system where you can park up at night without running the power from the battery, the Police used to enforce the parking at night, lights on rule, but not so much nowadays.
Solar panels on the cab or trailer, or an independant power supply, Dragons Den anyone?Yeah, good idea. Solar panels would be much help at night
It’s OK they’re Polish solar panels. Much harder working than British ones and they don’t even need sun 
grumpybum:
On most cars, if you put an indicator on with the ignition off you get a front and rear ‘parking light’. I’ve never tried, but I assume that we don’t have that on Lorries - maybe that would be the answer?
Actually that’s a German cars feature. On most car you have parking lights (these small bulbs, but unlike like in German style, all four of them) if you leave the swith in mid position - that position that is known amongst some car and truck drivers here as “heavy-shower-in-a-foggy-night-running-lights” 
billybigrig:
It’s OK they’re Polish solar panels. Much harder working than British ones and they don’t even need sun
I am glad that you improved your opinion on Poland, but unfortunately laws of physics apply even there
I have it on my x reg focus, also had it on a 51 plate vectra.
back in the 70`s it used to be a legal requirement to have a “parking light” at night .my mates dad used a parrafin road lamp hooked to the window when it ran out of parrafin he simply swapped it at the nearest roadworks. proper ones with a white lens to the front and a red lens to the rear were available and they hooked over the window and were connected to the battery via a 2pin plug and socket. i still have a couple somewhere in the cellar.
Mate woke up to a parking ticket from the cops in Manchester (I think) reason for the ticket . Yes you guessed it no side lights left on overnight !
Three of them got them that night BUT there was a German boy there who didn’t get it !
When enquiring at police station as to why was told to much hastle to chase up foreigners !
He appealed it on the grounds they ALL should have been charged and won
i’v got a set of those flashing led bicycle lights that i use if parked in laybys for the night
I`m going for the Halfords bike light set too, seems a good idea, it may stop a drunk driver going up the back end of the trailer one night.
wildfire:
dew:
I quite often see some parked up at nights and the only lights on are the two at the very top of the cab, what’s that all about?i think its only on hazard tankers but i may be wrong, one of the tanker boys should be able to give the full answer
The lights stay on to let you know the master switch is switched on. This enables pencil heads in refinerys to shout at you for not isolating your vehicle prior to loading.
It also enables a Portugese crewman to rouse you from your cabin at 3am 'cos “the capteen, he can no see because of your lights” when your truck is parked on the deck. Quite why he didn’t realise this 9 hours before when it first got dark is beyond me! 
billybigrig:
orys:
toby1234abc:
Why does`nt a boffin invent a system where you can park up at night without running the power from the battery, the Police used to enforce the parking at night, lights on rule, but not so much nowadays.
Solar panels on the cab or trailer, or an independant power supply, Dragons Den anyone?Yeah, good idea. Solar panels would be much help at night
It’s OK they’re Polish solar panels. Much harder working than British ones and they don’t even need sun
Many years ago I “obtained” a pair of roadworks lamps. In those days they were powered by paraffin! I hung one on the unit’s door handle & the other on the rear light bracket of the trailer. This worked quite well until someone relieved me of both of them in a similar manner to that which I had aquired them in the first place!
The Mark 11 version of 1960’s parking light technology invpolved the use of a pair of cycle lamps fitted with 2.5-watt bulbs (instrument panel bulbs) and 50 feet of doorbell wire.
A pair of crocodile clips fastened the lamps to the vehicle and the batteries never let me down once.