Long-haul owner drivers appreciate the sort of kit that transforms
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a humble cab into a mobile home or office. Here we review some of those little extras, including a stereo that knows the way home and a fridge that heats chips...
Along-distance truck driver spends more time in the cab than at home, and has every right to expect at least some of the creature comforts. Aside from any other consideration, a contented driver is a more efficient driver.
We're not talking about jacnnis or power showers here. What we're referring to is the ability to keep drinks cool, food hot, and make a cup of tea or coffee. We're also talking about a decent sound system, a TV/video to stave off boredom during rest periods, and maybe air conditioning to prevent melt-down during sticky trips down to the Med. Truck manufacturers recognise the demand for some of these extras, and many modern cabs, like Daf's new Super Space Cab, have more than enough room for a small microwave oven, a fridge, and so on.
Although the entertainment systems, and the air conditioning units, bear familiar brand-names, the surprising thing is that few mainstream manufacturers of electrical kitchen equipment cater specifically for this market. Maybe they should reconsider their strategy After all, British industry depends on road transport, and there are plenty of hungry and thirsty owner-drivers out there with cash in their pockets.
• Sound systems
The big news on the in-cab-entertainment front is the launch of Blaupunkt's sophisticated Berlin. It combines a radio, tape deck, and CD player with a navigation system (see Vehicle News Extra, page 20).
The navigation package won't appear in the UK before the end of next year because CD-ROM digitised maps of the UK have yet to be completed, says Blaupunkt, but the rest of the system is available now To navigate you key in your destination before starting your journey, and a synthesised voice will tell you to turn left, turn right, and so on. Blaupunkt says it can be programmed to take into account height, weight, and entry restrictions.
The Berlin also has the traffic information gathering service Radio Data Service (RDS) and Enhanced Other Networks (EON). This automatically seeks stronger alternative frequencies for whichever station you happen to be listening to as you travel along, and tunes into them whenever reception grows weak.
It even interrupts national radio broadcasts (and whichever tape or CD you happen to be playing) with traffic news updates. Four separate tuners are said to give an exceptionally high quality of reception.
You also get a TIM (Traffic Information Memo) function which can record traffic news for up to an hour and a half before you climb into the cab for an immediate briefing when you start off. You don't need to leave the ignition turned on for it to operate.
At some point TIM will be linked to the navigation system which will then be able to re-route you away from roads blocked due to accidents or congestion.
Now for the painful bit. The Berlin will set you back £3,500 plus another 41,500 for the navigation package, plus the price (yet to be announced) of the CD ROM map disc for each West European country Just as we were all getting used to CDs, pre-recorded music is appearing in other guises. Sony has introduced MiniDisc which, as its name suggests, uses tiny compact discs. The quality of sound is high, the equipment and discs take up very little space and like a conventional CD, you can leap from one favourite track to the next easily and quickly. But unlike a conventional CD, you can record onto them.
Once again, state-of-the-art technology doesn't come cheap.The MDX-10ORDS has a recommended price of £949.99, although this does include an FM/MW/LW radio with 40 presets and RDS.
If money is no object you might go for the MDX-400RDS complete with an in-dash MiniDisc autochanger, which will hold four discs. It comes with RDS EON for £1,199.99. Aside from the price, the trouble with both these products is that they won't play your conventional CDs.
The big advantage of Philips' rival, tapebased, Digital Compact Cassette unit is that it will play your old cassettes as well as the new DCCs. At £499 the Philips DC811 is cheaper than MiniDisc and will also select your favourite tracks, albeit at a slower speed. It includes an RDS EON radio as well as a tape deck.
Security is a major consideration for drivers and operators nowadays, so it is good to see so many manufacturers moving to detachable front panels which you can slip into your pocket. The panel includes all the switches and the visual display, and without it the unit is useless.
This feature is found on two new midrange radio/tape players from Philips: the DC532 and the DC522. Both incorporate a new RDS search capability called PTY NEWS which allows the units to find the latest news bulletins. It can interrupt the tape or current station for their duration. The DC532 and DC522 are priced at £279.99 and £249.99 respectively; at the budget end of the scale Philips has introduced the DC352 at £179, and the DC342 at £149.
Both have 36 station pre-sets and an "Autostore" system which allows the six strongest stations on each band to be automatically stored.
Fax machines
Busy owner-drivers rarely enjoy sitting down to catch up on the paperwork. When you've finished a hard week on the road, catching up on invoicing and the like can seem a real chore so while a fax is hardly entertaining, it could give you more leisure time by allowing paperwork to be handled and transmitted during breaks.
NEC offers a suitable unit: the NEC 1300 costs around £1,000, measures 300x210x35mm, weighs less than 2kg including battery pack and paper, and also works as a photocopier. If you run out of paper the machine can store up to 12 pages of data. It will work through an in-cab phone and can be powered from a 24V or 12V system, as long as the voltage is stable. For details of NEC dealers phone 081-993 8111.
Ricoh also offers a portable fax, the PF2, at £895. It's available via CBA Telecom; contact (0276) 691811.
Many cabs are now fitted with computers and printers which can receive/transmit data as well as fulfilling other functions such as load tracking and navigation but this equipment costs far more than a basic fax and phone set-up.
Televisions
If you are happy with black and white (remember black and white?) you can always lash out .C75 on the cheap and cheerful Roadstar. It has a 7in screen, VHF radio, and a built-in telescopic antenna.
Moving a little upmarket, Alba produces a 10in colour TV at around £199; an Alba video cassette recorder to match it will set you back some £169.
Sony is tackling this market too with its compact KVM 1120 1 lin colour, complete with infra-red remote control, at £499.99.
Its larger brother, the KVM 1400, has a 14in screen, and costs £199.99. The 14in KVM 1401, at £249.99, comes with Fastext which gives you access to the Teletext information service.
But if you're looking for the ultimate in portables you could go for the incredible Sharp 6M-10S. It measures 171x56x153mm; weighs just 820g and has a 5.6in screen. LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) technology produces high definition images and it can be used virtually anywhere in the world—most TVs sold in the UK are not compatible with the broadcasting systems used on the Continent. Mind you, it does cost nearly £1,000. Packages which will pick up satellite TV transmissions should be available in Britain towards the end of the year. Most of the hi-fl and TV equipment mentioned here is available from high-street stockists.
Cooking
All Ride introduced a portable electric oven at the start of this year. It is compact, weighs around 2kg and comes with two billy cans. Price? A modest £39.95.
Coffee-holics may be drawn to All Ride's Petite-Cafe coffee maker. It has a five-cup capacity, a slide-in filter cone, and the carafe holding the coffee sits on a hot plate.
Both these products are available through CDC Anglia—phone (0284) 810680. CDC also supplies microwave ovens (,£450), single-slice toasters (£23.95), 12/24V 1,5-litre kettle jugs (£26.95), and a selection of cooling fans at .00.95-C15.95).
Fridges
Kool Mate has produced a refrigerator which will keep your fish and chips warm too! Made in the USA, it is fed by an electrical current split by a series of semi-conductors. Depending on the current flow, the split either cools or heats a metal element.
An internal fan blows air across this cold or hot metal, and thus cools or heats the 0,36m3 compartment. 'The maker claims that it cools to 400F below the ambient temperature, and warms to at least 1400F.
The Kool Mate weighs 7kg, and costs around £165.
If that's more than you really want to pay, you can always opt for the Cool Box SC720 at £65.00, which will keep the heat out of two dozen or so small cans of drink. Both products are available from CDC Anglia.
Air conditioning Anybody who spends most of their working live hauling goods down to sunny southern Europe could find that air-conditioning is a wise investment. It's possible to retrofit air conditioning to a truck, often using a condenser and evaporator in a roof-mounted pod. There's a weight penalty—typically 2540kg—and the system demands about 5hp of the engine output.
Alpinair—phone 081.204 9633-is one of the best-known names in the sector. It points out that air conditioning will improve the quality of the air in your cab as well as keeping you cool.
The compressor has to be mounted in line with the crankshaft pulley, so there will have to be enough space in the engine bay to accommodate it.
A package from Alpinair will set you back some £1,250, and you'll have to take your truck off the road for three days while it is installed at one of Alpinair's three depots, in London, Manchester. or Gloucester.
0 by Steve Banner