Ok so let’s talk opt idles…

I found my 2024 Cascadia is very good at cooling as long as it ain't in this year's record breaking Texas heat wave. I had that shit maxed out and was still cooking if it wasn't running. If it ain't cooling you off to the temps listed, there might be an issue. My first few trucks were FUBAR and needed everything from new batteries and cables to new opti idle systems. First truck had legit no opti idle cooling and heating. Don't know how the fuck the driver survived winter. These were new trucks too, a 50k mile 2022 and a 450k mile 2019. They gunk up fast apparently. I'm a caffeine freak so I got a debuff in hot weather and need some hardcore A/C pretty much all the time, plus I live in my truck and take my off days also in my truck, meaning I gotta avoid pissing off my company by idling too much (company driver) so I had to refine my means of staying cool with minimal opti idle time. Some tips I've learned during extreme heat especially for keeping idle time low: \-This one's most important imho: Buy a custom reflective sun visor for the truck you have. I got a Chinesium one from Amazon for 40 bucks and it's fucking insane how much heat it actually keeps out, it can cover all of the windows perfectly and combined with the curtains it's by far the best thing to retain cool air. I'm surprised the Cascadia doesn't just have reflective shit on the back of the privacy curtains if their whole thing is "fuel savings", it makes a radical difference where I thought it'd be modest at best. As a flatbedder I always turn on opti idle when I gotta load/unload, and I toss that visor in the front window or a sunny side window real fast and tuck my sleeper curtains behind the seat so the cab cooler can cool the whole truck. The visor gets very hot but the cab stays very pleasant. \-Keep your fans on very high and max A/C while driving (in the sleeper), when you park it'll last a bit longer. \-My dispatch said there's a way to open the hood and get the opti idle to still work, I got it working once but the theory is that the engine heat dissipates away from the cab instead of soak into it at least during the first hour after parking \-Tell maintenance or whoever you'd go to that your opti idle ain't working right, I kept telling mine and they said "oh yeah they just don't work good is all, buy a heater." Well after waking up with numb hands and feet a few times cause it's -20 outside and all my winter layers weren't enough, I said fuck you and did the paperwork that legally obligates them to look at it. I hate to do that shit but as a company driver you're the one making the money for the mechanics, it's their job to support you. We got a high as fuck attrition rate in OTR so being comfortable is like the bare minimum they can do to keep us willing to work here. Anyways, they found the diesel heater lines were clogged with soot and the temp sensor was broken, so the mechanic bossman ain't always right.