Truck Topics

Product Spotlight

Breezeway Screens

Walt Clavier’s wife and co-driver was the divine inspiration behind his cab window screens. She knew that idling their engine was not cost effective, and she was sick of the engine vibrations when she was trying to sleep.

“She told me if I didn’t make a homemade screen she wouldn’t go out [on the road] with me anymore,” says Clavier, a Delaware driver for North American Van Lines. “I took a weekend and made a crude one. Lots of truckers commented on it, so I sat down one weekend and made a drawing.”

The drawing evolved and in 1988 Clavier got a patent for $9,000. The molds to make the screens, however, were much more expensive.

“We put about $105,000 in the project without making any money,” he says. “Now we’ve sold 500,000 of the screens.”

Since idling wastes a gallon of fuel an hour, Clavier says the screens will save drivers money. “They sell for $33 a set and will pay for themselves overnight,” he says. “Most people don’t think about it, but when you’re idling, you’re polluting. In New England, you can’t idle more than five minutes. In L.A. and some port cities you can’t idle more than a half hour. Just walk through a truckstop — that’s a lot of pollution. The screens shut that down.”

The 69-year-old inventor recently decided to sell his idea to Patented Products, a company that also sells bunk warmers. Clavier still gets a royalty for the screens, which are available in many truckstops.

For more information call 800-548-4013 or visit http://www.breezewayscreens.com/.

Introducing Hi-Tach Fleet Sweetâ„¢ Odor Control

Life on the road is tough. Cramped, close quarters and nasty odors from smoke, perspiration, food, diesel exhaust, or your pet along for the ride. 

So you hang one of those pineapple or watermelon smelling things on your rearview mirror.  Unfortunately, the smell is worse than the odor you're trying to eliminate.

Fleet Sweetâ„¢ is different.

Hi-Tach Oil Company of Kannapolis, North Carolina is the distributor of Fleet Sweetâ„¢, an odor neutralizer that the company says removes unpleasant odors from your vehicle, shop, home or office.  It accomplishes this with no smelly perfumes or masking agents. 

Hi-Tach states that their product totally neutralizes odors - on surfaces, in the air, or anywhere.

Company advertising also says that FleetSweetâ„¢ is:

Environmentally safe - contains no harmful ingredients, is non-toxic and biodegradable. Composed of all natural ingredients - made from natural oils and plant extracts, but no chemicals. Easy to use - just spray in the air or directly onto surfaces, seats and carpets.  Spray into air conditioner inlet for complete interior odor neutralization.  When Fleet Sweet'sâ„¢ fresh natural fragrance is gone, so are all offensive odors. Three convenient sizes - 8 fl. oz. pump spray, 22 fl. oz. trigger spray; gallon for refill or industrial use.

Take total control of offensive odors!  Use Fleet Sweetâ„¢ full strength or dilute according to strength of odor.  Dilute with water to solve virtually any odor problem.  For use in Truck Cabs, Automobiles, Buses, Boats, Airplanes, Shops, Offices, Hospitals, Homes Laundry, Plant Buildings, wherever odors are a problem.

Fleet Sweetâ„¢ is available at a number of auto parts stores and is also available at http://www.hi-tach.com/.

Back it Up!

It's not an extra set of eyes behind your truck, but it's close. The Forewarn® Back-Up Aid by Delphi is a radar-based system that detects both moving and stationary objects as far as 16.4 feet away.

The Forewarn can also be used in tight parking situations, and uses a series of slow beeps when an obstacle is first detected increasing to a continuous tone when an obstacle comes close enough to cause danger.

The system has a retail price of $299 and is distributed by Pana-Pacific. It comes in a permanently mounted rear bumper model, or a removable sensor that attaches to a class-2 trailer hitch.

For more information, call (800) 726-2636.

State-by-State Driver’s Guide

Don and Debbe Morrow were driving through Nevada three years ago when they ran into a problem. Their atlas said trucks were not allowed on a road where they could see trucks. The Morrows didn’t know if they were allowed to continue driving or not.

Debbe hit the phones, but says she was passed from office to office and found no one who knew about local truck rules. Her frustrations mounted, and she knew that other truckers must experience these same problems.

The Morrows’ solution? They published "For the Long Haul," a state-by-state guide for professional drivers.

The couple spent two and a half years and more than 2,000 hours on the phone and Internet tracking down information from their home in Eau Claire, Wis.

The 92-page book includes detailed maps and state routes. It contains up-to-date information on access policies, road classifications, permit and lighting requirements, chain laws and weigh station procedures. It also includes phone numbers for the “right people to call.”

“There are 11 states with chain laws, and none of them are the same,” Debbe said. “There are unique signs in each state. Certain states let you park for eight hours in truckstops; some don’t. This book can help a trucker plan his route so that he can plan times.”

The book, which costs $14.95, can be purchased from Donde Publishing Inc., at http://www.dondepublishing.com/, or by calling 715 874-6584.