Winter is one of the most dangerous time for a truck driver. You can get stuck in the snow in the middle of no were, your truck could break down no were near a city or town. Don’t be afraid, with the right supplies you will be fin, the first thing you need is a sleeping bag. Sleeping bags come in many shapes and sizes. The type of sleeping bag, you need is a -20 below bag, that is big enough to cover your whole body including your head. There are Sleeping bag that come in XXL, so even a big guy like me can find one to cover my body. Sleeping bags are filled with down or synthetic materials, the down bags will keep you warm if they get wet but the synthetic will not do as well if wet.

Synthetic do not last as long but there cheaper. You can get a synthetic bag that has a nylon outer cover, this is the bag I have, the nylon is waterproof. I paid one hundred dollars for my bag and it’s -20 below XXl bag. Make sure to outer covering of your sleeping bag is water proof or at least water resistant, you don’t want a cup of coffee to spill on your bag and you get to freeze all night. The main thing to remember is that you need to have a sleeping bag rated -20, water proof or water resistant. Here’s link to a great sleeping bag below.

TETON Sports Celsius XL -25-Degree Flannel Lined Sleeping Bag

When you switch out clothes for the colder months, make sure you dress in layers, this will keep you able to wear a t-shirt and jeans in the south and later up north a thick hoodie. Wool socks are important, you need to wear the socks when you sleep. It takes one second in real cold weather to lose a toe because you kicked your foot out, remember to make sure any wool socks you get are made for out doors. A hoodie has to actually be warm, check for hoodies made out of some thing like fleece or wool. Don’t just buy some name and think that it going to be able to deal with below zero weather.  Basically all the cloths you bring for winter should be made for out doors and made out of warm materials like wool or fleece, a coat should be filled with down or at least rated for zero degree weather.

Boots are one of the most important things in the world in the winter. Diesel mixed with ice will make a extremely slippery surface. Boots need to be wide and have a hard sole that is flex-able. Water proof or water resistant, if you can’t get that at least get wool socks because they will keep your feet warmer than wet sweat socks. At truck stops it takes a second to step in a hole in the parking lot that’s deep enough to get to your knee and full of water. So the more water proof stuff you have the better.

Tech like flash lights, phones and computers will lose batters power fast in the cold. Keep them charging when you are driving. When stopped for the night don’t charge unless you a generator or apu. The truck batters have enough of a problem dealing with the cold, Don’t make it harder. If you got the cash you could buy a solar panel charger, encase of emergency. For flash lights I use hand crack types that you charge with your hand, that way you never have to wary about beginning out of power.

Flash lights with batteries  will die in the winter cold. Computer, ipods and cameras usually lose there power at night, some times I will put my ipod and flip in my pocket when I sleep, that way there ready mourning but you may crush your tech. Also frost is dangerous to all tech, pay attention if your tech has frost on it don’t start it up or just shut it down and don’t use it until it has fully dried. I usually wait until I am at home in a warm room for a day or two before I start some thing up. Don’t let this scare you, if you think about this stuff ahead of time you will not end up losing a toe or tech.  Thanks for reading stay safe and here are some links to all the stuff I talked about below.

Solio Classic Hybrid Solar Charger (new)
Sorel Men’s Conquest Boot
FURY BAT-FORCE Squeeze Flashlight with Dual Head LED’s – Black (No Batteries Needed)