Get yourself a powerful inverter 2000/3000 one then do like me,I have a 240v microwave which you can get from tescos or other supermarkets for about 40 quid,240v kettle which takes seconds to boil rather than those crappy 24v ones which take an age.
A sandwich toaster too which cost about a tenner similar to a breville and with a extension lead with a 4 way plug on it can charge both your own phone and the works one and numerous other devices which you own,I.e iPad etc
Run your engine though if using the more powerful rated applicances as your boss won’t be happy if you have dead batteries in the morning.
Thanks, glad you liked it. I left to work in aviation. I’ve recently started driving again on the side to keep my hand in as decided it was a good idea to have as a back up after a few lay offs in the unstable airline world. I’ve not tried tramping again rather just shift work. Enjoy it, it’s an adventure even if you only do it for a bit. Good luck!
Forgot to add in the UK whenever I was pulling fridges on tramping, finding overnight parking in the services could be a bind in order to keep away from other trucks (noise!). Some MSA parking warden Himmlers begrudgingly agreed to let you use the coach area. I could sleep all night with a fridge going especially if it was on continuous not cycle sentry. The non fridge guys wouldnt appreciate it though. I guess it’s like air biscuits: most people don’t mind the smell of their own .
bonnie lass:
For the trucks without fridges you can get a cooler box of decent size to use in the cigarette lighter plug in, mine cost me £ 39.00 two years ago & still working brilliant. Or a small mini fridge that plugs into the lighter socket for approx £30 is good too.
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My cigarette lighter only works when the ignition is switched on (charge phone), don’t you have that problem?
By the time it’s been on for most of the day it seems to stay cold enough as long as you don’t keep opening it every five minutes. And if you put some frozen chops / vegetables in it , that will help it along as well as provide your dinner
bonnie lass:
For the trucks without fridges you can get a cooler box of decent size to use in the cigarette lighter plug in, mine cost me £ 39.00 two years ago & still working brilliant. Or a small mini fridge that plugs into the lighter socket for approx £30 is good too.
.
My cigarette lighter only works when the ignition is switched on (charge phone), don’t you have that problem?
I drive a stralis and everything electrical still works with no keys in the ignition. Not sure if it’s meant to be that way but im not complaning
We’ve got old scania’s at work the cigarette lights work with no keys in the ignition but we’ve got some newer ones and they don’t! which is a bit rubbish
Well the newer scanias are a bit rubbish so I wouldn’t expect any better from them.
Well when I say newer they’re 6 years old! what don’t you like about them?
They seem to be held in high regard but after driving a few of them I can’t work out what it is that makes them better than any other manufacturer and for the money they cost you would expect them to be something special. In my opinion Volvo are a far superior lorry apart from the cab being a bit smaller but the new ones look to have much more space inside.
Thanks, glad you liked it. I left to work in aviation. I’ve recently started driving again on the side to keep my hand in as decided it was a good idea to have as a back up after a few lay offs in the unstable airline world. I’ve not tried tramping again rather just shift work. Enjoy it, it’s an adventure even if you only do it for a bit. Good luck!
Forgot to add in the UK whenever I was pulling fridges on tramping, finding overnight parking in the services could be a bind in order to keep away from other trucks (noise!). Some MSA parking warden Himmlers begrudgingly agreed to let you use the coach area. I could sleep all night with a fridge going especially if it was on continuous not cycle sentry. The non fridge guys wouldnt appreciate it though. I guess it’s like air biscuits: most people don’t mind the smell of their own .
Agency work then I take it? I drive a fridge lorry everyday, only done a handful of nights out but I think I’d struggle to sleep with the fridge on all night! it does block out all the outside noise though.
bonnie lass:
For the trucks without fridges you can get a cooler box of decent size to use in the cigarette lighter plug in, mine cost me £ 39.00 two years ago & still working brilliant. Or a small mini fridge that plugs into the lighter socket for approx £30 is good too.
.
My cigarette lighter only works when the ignition is switched on (charge phone), don’t you have that problem?
By the time it’s been on for most of the day it seems to stay cold enough as long as you don’t keep opening it every five minutes. And if you put some frozen chops / vegetables in it , that will help it along as well as provide your dinner
Ha fair play! you could always try buying those bags of ice from supermarkets? and stuffing them in the fridge during heatwaves etc
bonnie lass:
For the trucks without fridges you can get a cooler box of decent size to use in the cigarette lighter plug in, mine cost me £ 39.00 two years ago & still working brilliant. Or a small mini fridge that plugs into the lighter socket for approx £30 is good too.
.
My cigarette lighter only works when the ignition is switched on (charge phone), don’t you have that problem?
I drive a stralis and everything electrical still works with no keys in the ignition. Not sure if it’s meant to be that way but im not complaning
We’ve got old scania’s at work the cigarette lights work with no keys in the ignition but we’ve got some newer ones and they don’t! which is a bit rubbish
Well the newer scanias are a bit rubbish so I wouldn’t expect any better from them.
Well when I say newer they’re 6 years old! what don’t you like about them?
They seem to be held in high regard but after driving a few of them I can’t work out what it is that makes them better than any other manufacturer and for the money they cost you would expect them to be something special. In my opinion Volvo are a far superior lorry apart from the cab being a bit smaller but the new ones look to have much more space inside.
I’ve never driven a Volvo before! quite like daf’s, nice comfortable seats. My Scania is a bit cramped inside but it is a rigid and the seats are rock hard.
Its just a case of seeing what you’ve been given to work with, then adding the accessories that make it convenient for you to live in…
As long as you got the tools to work with then cooking health food should be no issue what so ever…
Cant see many drivers eating out i.e. starting the day out with a full road side fry up, then lunching on motorway baguette, crisps and cake and dinning on a pub lunch in the evening… for one its to expensive and for the other certainly would punish the waste line…
Plenty of product even if you need to kit yourself out…just don’t leave it behind for others to abuse
As Luke commented on earlier, eating healthy is the key and cooking in the cab is simple enough…even if you wasn’t a boy scout…
Truck has a nuking machine, plenty of ready cooked meals you can buy and throw in…done in a flash
Personally Id look forward to tramping, being away from the wife and the kids…getting paid to see places, doing your own thing as such sounds like heaven
Make a big pan of a hearty soup or stew on a Sunday. Divide into 4 containers. Freeze two and chill others. Use chilled ones on first two nights and frozen after that. The frozen ones keep longer in your fridge and also help chill the fridge.
You can either microwave or pan heat this type of meal.
happysack:
Make a big pan of a hearty soup or stew on a Sunday. Divide into 4 containers. Freeze two and chill others. Use chilled ones on first two nights and frozen after that. The frozen ones keep longer in your fridge and also help chill the fridge.
You can either microwave or pan heat this type of meal.
Variety isn’t the spice of life after all each to there own but stew or curry or whatever 4 nights on trot would get to me.
happysack:
Make a big pan of a hearty soup or stew on a Sunday. Divide into 4 containers. Freeze two and chill others. Use chilled ones on first two nights and frozen after that. The frozen ones keep longer in your fridge and also help chill the fridge.
You can either microwave or pan heat this type of meal.
Variety isn’t the spice of life after all each to there own but stew or curry or whatever 4 nights on trot would get to me.
doesn’t bother me. Years ago I was a skint gamekeeper. I made a big pan of stew, vegetable, stock and a couple of rabbits. After a few days I’d add more to it, a pigeon, pheasant or another rabbit and more veg and stock.
I would eat this stew 2 or 3 times a day, hot or cold. After a week or so the leftovers were mixed into the dogs food. Then the process started again!
Most of the veg was free from some of the older gardeners on the estate. All of the meat was free, perk of the job! All I bought was odd bit of veg and stick cubes.
The dog food I bought usually cost as much as what I spent on my own food!
So 4 days of the same meal doesn’t bother me at all!
happysack:
Make a big pan of a hearty soup or stew on a Sunday. Divide into 4 containers. Freeze two and chill others. Use chilled ones on first two nights and frozen after that. The frozen ones keep longer in your fridge and also help chill the fridge.
You can either microwave or pan heat this type of meal.
Variety isn’t the spice of life after all each to there own but stew or curry or whatever 4 nights on trot would get to me.
doesn’t bother me. Years ago I was a skint gamekeeper. I made a big pan of stew, vegetable, stock and a couple of rabbits. After a few days I’d add more to it, a pigeon, pheasant or another rabbit and more veg and stock.
I would eat this stew 2 or 3 times a day, hot or cold. After a week or so the leftovers were mixed into the dogs food. Then the process started again!
Most of the veg was free from some of the older gardeners on the estate. All of the meat was free, perk of the job! All I bought was odd bit of veg and stick cubes.
The dog food I bought usually cost as much as what I spent on my own food!
So 4 days of the same meal doesn’t bother me at all!
Well it isn’t the same food is it ya can’t start with a rabbit stew then add a pigeon 2 days later that makes it different!! Having said that if ya making one that sounds tasty!! I’ll bring me spoon
happysack:
Make a big pan of a hearty soup or stew on a Sunday. Divide into 4 containers. Freeze two and chill others. Use chilled ones on first two nights and frozen after that. The frozen ones keep longer in your fridge and also help chill the fridge.
You can either microwave or pan heat this type of meal.
This^^^
You can also do this with pasta salads too,not frozen obviously,red salmon and prawns with a seafood sauce is really tasty with some wilted spinach in it as a treat.Very nice.
Making your meals beforehand is the way to go and stopping at a pub “sometimes” in the week and having another treat is good fun too.
I never spend more than two nights out a week but I love chopped fruit, melon, strawberries, grapes, pineapple, blueberries all chilled in a tub.
I take this in every day and it cures a sugar/sweetooth craving and I double it up for a night out so a good load of fruit Tupperware tubs and a chopping board and a parring knive
I did it for a couple of years, novelty soon wore off and I hated it with a passion, I hated living in a tiny tin box, with an uncomfortable bed in some urine stinking layby/services, or if i was lucky on some industrial estate, at the mercy of anyone who fancied having a look in my trailer, so I no longer do nights out apart from the occasional one off to help the office out, which I don’t mind doing as they have been accommodating by finding work for me to do that’s day run.
I really found the trying to have a life as well as doing nights out difficult, we couldnt plan anything for in the week as we didnt know if I would be home, so I missed out on so many things that happened.
I purchased my own fridge, which I still use, but mainly just to store cold drinks in now until I get moved to one of our newer motors that all have built in fridges, I still have the same truck as when I was away all week, which is nice as I like my truck as I have had it from new. I struggled with the cooking and making hot drinks as the DAF CFs really arent designed well for living in.
I love being home every night now and sleeping in my own bed again, I enjoy driving it just turns out that being away from home was never for me, I gave it a good go but could never really enjoy it.
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each to there own but stew or curry or whatever 4 nights on trot would get to me.
and I double it up for a night out so a good load of fruit Tupperware tubs and a chopping board and a parring knive 
