Lifestyle: The Truck

I've been getting a lot of questions about life on the truck. How big is it, is it very cramped, what is day to day life like inside? Well, I hope to answer most of those for you today!
First, let's take you for a little tour of the place, starting with the outside!

Here's the trailer, obviously. I think the logo is pretty darn classy.  The only company with a coat  of arms from what I've seen. 

Standard length of these trailers is 53', and you'll notice at the front is this black and white device. That's the refrigeration unit, called "the reefer." Still makes me giggle. This particular trailer has a plastic "skirt" on the bottom which helps in air flow and also aids fuel efficiency.

Here we have the cab, where the living and driving happens. This picture has a better view of the reefer (giggle). 

You might want to refer back to this picture as the tour continues. The inside will look bigger than you would think, much like the Tardis :P

Here's the view of front area taken from the top bunk. James is busy with paperwork. 

The Qualcomm system, hub of all trucker activity. All the trips, logs, and communication between trucker and company are made through this thing. The newer models more closely resemble a standard netbook. 

First off, the captain's chair. So many controls...

Now, for the living area. There is a heavy duty curtain between the front and back that can be velcroed shut for total black out for sleeping in the middle of the day. 

The bunks. James' truck has four porthole type windows  allowing for  a lot of light during the day.  There are  heavy duty covers that snap over the windows for total black out. 

Now you'll notice this net thing hanging on the back wall. That is the safety net which is essentially a human cargo net. Obviously safety is top priority in a rig so while someone is driving, if the other person wants to take a nap, they can snap themselves in just in case the driver has to slam on brakes. James told me it has happened that one time a driver slammed on brakes and the dude taking a nap woke up under his feet!

Oh, also the top bunk can fold up and snap onto the back wall and the bottom bunk lifts up for tons of storage underneath! Last, but not least, the back wall is padded, which kept me from beating myself up in my sleep :P

Now, there are cubby areas between the drive area and the bunks for various things. 

Here's our closet area. Everything is well secured.We tend to keep enough clothes for 7-10 days on hand. Located behind the driver's seat.  

Located underneath the closet is...

Our desk area and cubby for food. The grey handle you see pulls out to reveal a small desk, perfect for my little netbook as well as making a quick snack or sandwich. The black plastic edge with textured knobs is actually a foot hold to help you climb up into the top bunk. I got pretty good at it too. Also, if you look on the left side you'll get a glimpse of all the air, light and sound controls for the back area.

The cubby area opposite this one contains open areas for a refrigerator, tv and more storage. However, I did not take a picture because we do not have a fridge or a tv and instead have a cooler and are using the tv area for storage at the moment. 

Now, for the top bunk...This is my area! Note, Stanley, my bear peeking out on the right. Yes...I have a bear. There is plenty of head room up there, as you can probably tell and also there are massive speakers in the top corners. If you notice, there is part of a black handle visible on the right, which was one of the three major points of contact necessary to getting up there. Somehow I managed to never fall out or down from the bunk. One of my favorite things about being up there is that there is a small cubby for a tiny bit of personal storage. It became my personal library :P

The bunks themselves are quite comfy and are standard extra long twins. 

Now that you have gotten almost the full tour (minus a couple of other nooks and crannys), I can see how you would wonder about living in such a small space. Most of the time James is driving (and hopefully I will be too, soon) so I get to move about the space as I please, as long as it is done safely and obviously no getting on the top bunk. 

Heating and cooling. The back area has a separate system for heating called the Webasto. It's great for those cold nights, just not so good with the cooling. In fact, cooling became a problem, especially when we hit Texas and found out the hard way that our AC was broken(not the best news when in southern Texas). Fortunately, we were able to get it fixed while in Laredo and then we discovered the IdleAir system. 

Some truck stops offer it in their parking lots as complete support systems for truck life overnight.

On the outside it looks like this...

When you first sign up for the service, you get a free "adapter" which is actually this hard plastic piece that fits in your passenger side window for the device to slide and lock into. 

This is what it looks like on the inside...

IS THAT NOT THE COOLEST THING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN?

My apologies for the caps, but I seriously geeked out when I saw this. On the left is a touchscreen for all your controls and couple of ports, USB and telephone. On the right side is the main vent for the air conditioning, wired internet, more USB and AC/DC plugs! Is that not cool?!?! For 1.25/hour we were able to charge all of our electronics and keep the cab nice and chilly all night! Plus we got to keep our adapter for the next time we use one of these things. Honestly, one of the smartest inventions I've seen for truckers and believe me, there's a whole market out there for them. 

Well, that's about it for the tour. Living on the truck is similar to the thinking of living on an RV or in a tiny house. Keep light on the belongings, stay organized and all is well. Being in this environment really makes you reassess what you consider necessary for living. 

Hope you enjoyed it and if you have any questions, be sure to comment at the bottom!