Why do long haul truckers warm up their engine for 30 minutes before leaving?
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Cold parts behave differently than warm parts. Most things expand as they get warmer. Some things like belts and hoses are stiffer when cold and get more pliable as they warm up.
That means if there’s a problem with a part, that problem might not become apparent until it’s been sufficiently warmed up. For example, a belt might be tight enough when cool but as it gets more pliable it starts to slip. Or a hose might have a tiny leak that becomes more apparent when it’s warm.
Truckers also have a lot more gauges than normal cars for things like oil pressure and several different fluid temperatures. It can take a while for those things to stabilize, and they want to see where the numbers stabilize before they get going.
That’s because odds are if the engine’s been off for a while they’re at a truck stop or some other place where it’s relatively convenient to stay put and get some maintenance done. If they YOLO and hit the road and find out in 20 minutes they’re overheating, there may not be anywhere safe or convenient to stop and it will be much more difficult for them to get it fixed.
It’s also possible some of those systems just won’t work well until everything’s stabilized. Letting the engine idle while they get prepared for the trip helps eliminate a lot of aggravating issues, or at least helps make sure aggravating issues happen before they’re more difficult to address.
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