It would be great if you could keep going, and going, and never stop to eat, wouldn‘t it? You‘d certainly get to your destination with your load well on schedule. But, alas, eating is important. Yet sometimes, even if you wanted to pull over at the nearest exit to grab some grub, that’s not just possible. You might be out in the middle of no where with no convenience stores or “fast casual” restaurants around. So what can you do?

In these cases, having an APU, or auxiliary power unit, on board comes in handy. APU’s allow truckers to fire up crockpots, hotplates, and microwaves ¾ even small fridges ¾ in the comfort of their cab. Another reason APU’s are helpful devices: anti-idling laws in force in many states make it impractical, or illegal in some areas, to use your engine to power up these kind of appliances for long periods of time.

The kind of APU you’ll need for these purposes must be a little more “sophisticated” than your basic APU; you’ll need one that has “a generator powered by a diesel engine, a compressor, an alternator and an inverter/charger,” says Fleet Equipment Magazine. This same system can also be used for heating and cooling the sleeper cab when your engine is turned off.

APU’s that use external shore power instead of fuel is another means by which to power up. While many truck plaza’s and rest stops have shore power, not all rigs are equipped for that type of connection, like the Jubitz Travel Center in Northeast Portland is experiencing. That’s not stopping the Department of Energy from making shore power more available; the DOE is spending $22.2 million dollars to install 30 electrified spaces, $6,000 apiece, at 50 truck stops across the U.S.

Fleet Equipment Magazine has a comprehensive list of companies that sell APU’s here.