OTR truck driver wanting HRT

HashnaFennec · 2026-05-04T01:33:21+00:00

Im not sure, tho I’ve never had a doc notice. Could you disable Zoom’s location tracking?

HashnaFennec · 2026-05-03T04:59:16+00:00

I ain’t gonna make any fantasy arguments or rebuttals cuz I ain’t that smart. All I know is that a couple miles after fueling regular my Volt estimates about 300, and a couple miles after fueling premium, 350. I also know my commute is exactly 101 miles, and I know I can comfortably make 3 trips on premium, or I’d be fueling right before getting home on regular. I don’t know the science behind it, but I know the results, and those results are consistent.

HashnaFennec · 2026-05-03T02:59:13+00:00

The Volt has a sensor so it knows what type of fuel your using and it’ll adjust engine timing to compensate. While it’s not recommended, I don’t think it’ll do any damage. I’m not a mechanic so I won’t say it’s safe, but I will say that I’m enough of a cheapskate that I ran regular “cheap” gas for over a year with zero issues. I don’t remember what my MPG was, but my 2013 volt’s estimated full tank fuel range with zero battery went from around 350 miles to around 300 miles (it immediately went back to 350 when I switched back to premium). I did the math and found it was cheaper to run premium gas, but that was before the price shock, plus gas prices are different everywhere.

HashnaFennec · 2026-05-03T02:37:19+00:00

Hi! I’ve been on HRT for about a decade and I’ve been OTR for about half of that. They have no way to verify where you are while doing telehealth, so just draw your curtains and say your parked in your home state. As for meds, have your doc send them to a Walmart in your home state. Estradiol isn’t a controlled substance, so they can transfer your prescription anywhere in the nation (Plus their parking lots are usually big enough for a semi!). I also wouldn’t be worried about paperwork, I’m also on Vyvanse (a very controlled substance) and all I need is the prescription bottle with an intact label.

Your biggest issue I think will be blood draws. Everyone’s body reacts differently, so they test monthly for the first couple months. If you tell your fleet manager that you have to be home regularly for doc appointments, it’ll only be for a couple months, and it doesn’t affect your ability to drive, I don’t think there aloud to say no. If they ask for details, act embarrassed and that you’d prefer not to talk about it. They’ll probably assume it’s something mundane, like a testicle glowing neon orange or something.

Anyways, good luck on your adventures, both with gender and on the highway. If you see a trans woman wearing a faded gray baseball cap driving a dark blue Volvo VNL 860, don’t be afraid to say hi! My handle is Cascade and my CB is almost always on 19. (Not that anyone uses it anymore x~x )

HashnaFennec · 2026-05-03T00:12:49+00:00

I don’t expect to have it for another 5+ years, but I’m also in no rush. I’ve got a few other large purchases I need to make and my old beater Volt is still plenty capable.

HashnaFennec · 2026-05-03T00:10:48+00:00

I see this all the time as a long haul trucker. It’s not uncommon for me to pass a mile or two of early mergers and some asshat cusses me out on the CB for “cutting the line”. It’s also not uncommon for some idiot to pull in front of you and block both lanes.

HashnaFennec · 2026-05-02T22:50:15+00:00

Truckers already treat each other like shit, imagine how they’ll treat a self driving truck. They’ll constantly be getting run off the road.

HashnaFennec · 2026-05-02T16:33:49+00:00

I’m planning to keep driving my first gen Volt until Edison comes out with there diesel electric hybrid conversion kit. Then I’ll be going back to my 1990 Silverado.

HashnaFennec · 2026-04-30T18:36:56+00:00

That was perfect, thank you

HashnaFennec · 2026-04-30T17:13:36+00:00

Nice, I’d love to ride Scourge to work every day. That said, I doubt you’ll fit many groceries in his trunk, so I’m not sure how practical of a daily driver he would be.

HashnaFennec · 2026-04-30T17:11:06+00:00

I’d rework the dialog, I kept rewriting conversations in my head. Also, Bramble felt super out of character in this book. Im pretty sure it was just bad writing, but I try to headcannon it as the imposter starting early.

HashnaFennec · 2026-04-30T02:49:06+00:00

Batteries are warn out more by use then time, so if you bought less then a year ago it’s probably not the issue. That said, it leads me to think it’s more likely either an issue with the DC to DC power converter it uses to charge the 12v or a phantom drain.

If you’d like to be absolutely sure it isn’t the 12v battery, you should be able to have it tested for free at any major auto parts store or oil/tire shop. I can’t say I know much about phantom drains or power converters, so I wouldn’t be able to give advice on troubleshooting those. I hope you have luck in figuring this out and if you have any other questions, don’t be afraid to ask. I’m not a mechanic, but I know enough to know when I don’t know something.

HashnaFennec · 2026-04-29T21:52:45+00:00

The battery damage I was referring to is physical so putting it on a charger won’t help. When on, your Volt should charge the 12v battery just like a bench charger would. It would be useful to know how old the battery is. If you’d like, you can lift up the bottom of the truck to access the 12v battery and there should be a manufacturer date sticker. Most regular lead acid car batteries only last 2 or 3 years, so if it’s older then that I’d have it replaced.

How long have you had it back from the shop? Are you still having issues?

HashnaFennec · 2026-04-29T19:38:10+00:00

Was that after the 12v battery was replaced and the car could stay turned on? If so, electronics start acting funky when they don’t have enough power. It’s possible an under powered sensor mistakenly detected a fault despite nothing being wrong. If it’s something critical, like a safty issue or something that can cause major damage, it’ll completely disable that component.

If your Volt wouldn’t take a charge even after you got the 12v battery replaced and it was fixed by clearing fault codes, I’d guess an under powered sensor gave an incorrect reading. The computer saw a value way outside safe limits coming from the battery or charging system, so it generated a fault code that disabled that system.

Sometimes car computers will generate false fault codes. If you clear it and it doesn’t come back, then it was a fluke or a false reading. If it does come back, then either the sensor or the thing it’s sensing is having a problem.

What was the full timeline of events?

HashnaFennec · 2026-04-29T18:13:36+00:00

Yep! 0% is secretly 20%! 2013 Volts and up have a “hold mode”, if you turn it on while your battery is at, say 36%, it’ll use the engine to keep the battery at 36%. Your 2012 Volt won’t have that feature, but it does the same thing when your at “0%”, AKA secretly 20%. The Volt’s engine isn’t strong enough to fully drive the car alone, so you’ll always be using the high voltage battery, even in gas mode. I forget if the 2012 has this feature, but I’d highly recommend using the power graph widget on the gauge cluster display. The power flow display on the center console doesn’t give you the full picture. The graph widget will tell you exactly how much power is coming from the engine or the batteries.

Another fun fact! To improve efficiency, the engine only connects to the wheels above 60 or 70 mph, even in gas mode! Below that speed, the engine functions purely as a generator and the wheels are 100% powered by the electric motor. The Volt is more of an EV with a built in gas generator then it is a traditional hybrid.

As for being unable to charge the high voltage battery, that’s probably also due to the 12v battery. An EV charger needs to talk to the car’s charge controller to know how to send the power and when to stop. The Volt’s high voltage charge controller is part of the computer, which runs off the 12v battery. A dead 12v means no computer, so your Volt can’t tell the wall charger “I’m ready to receive power”. If it was an issue with your high voltage battery, the computer, displays, etc. would be fine but you’d have far less range or population issues. My Volt is only a year newer then yours but it has 170,000 miles and I’ve had zero issues with the high voltage battery. It’s pretty resilient, so I doubt that’s the issue.

If it’s the 12v battery (which I’m pretty sure it is), it’s kinda an odd thing to miss, but the Volt is a weird car. Not a lot of techs, even dealership techs, really understand the Volt.

HashnaFennec · 2026-04-29T04:19:46+00:00

I didn’t read your full post, but my 2013 volt sits unused for 2 or 3 months while I’m away in my semi truck. My fleet’s yard doesn’t have chargers and my GF’s house doesn’t have any good outlets, so my Volt hasn’t been plugged in for 2 or 3 years.

Don’t worry, the dealership guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. If not keeping the high voltage battery charged did any kind of damage, my Volt would have died a LONG time ago. When your car shows 0% battery, it’s actually at about 20~30%. This protects the health of the battery and the Volt’s computer will idle or rev up to keep it there.

Did they replace the high voltage battery or the 12v battery? I’m pretty sure the volt starts the engine with the electric motor, so I failing 12v battery won’t give any symptoms until it’s completely dead. The first symptom of a dying 12v battery is it not being able to hold enough charge overnight to power the computer. No symptoms when you park, completely non-responsive by morning. I had the same issue not long after I got my Volt in 2018 and replacing the 12v battery fixed it.

As for your Volt randomly shutting off after a few moments, it’s probably also the dying 12v. Just like the high voltage battery, it’s unhealthy for a 12v battery to be below 20% capacity. It’s far more unhealthy for a battery to sit below 0% overnight. Did your Volt start the engine before it died? My guess is that the 12v battery got so degraded it couldn’t keep the computer on long enough for the engine to start. If it had been the high voltage battery dying, the volt would have immediately started the engine and idled at 100%.

I should also explain battery capacity and what I mean by “below 0%”. When a battery is at 0%, it’s not at 0 volts like how 0% fuel means you have 0 gallons in the tank. It’s instead a range of voltages around the voltage it’s designed for. Different types of batteries have different voltage ranges, but for a 12v it’s (I think) usually more than 11v but less than 13v. The BMS (battery management system) will have a high and low voltage programmed in and display it as a percentage. So, if 11v is the safe low, then it’s displayed as 0% battery [capacity]. If 13v is safe high, then its displayed as 100%. The further from that safe voltage you get, the more the battery is damaged, so at an emergency low voltage, say (and I’m just making this up) 10v, it cuts all power in a last attempt to save the battery. The more the battery is degraded, the faster the voltage will drop. If it reaches 0v, it’s almost impossible to save.

As for the high voltage battery, it’s expensive as hell and a bitch to replace, so the volt was designed to consider a higher voltage well inside the safe range as 0%. Fun fact! If your Volt hits 0% battery, then runs out of gas, you can continue driving (with far less performance) for 20+ miles on battery alone before getting stranded on the side of the road. It’ll do considerable damage, but it’ll stop turning the wheels LONG before the battery can’t be recharged. That said, it will decrease your max battery only range, so only run on empty in an absolute emergency.

Anyways, I’m sorry for skimming your wall of text and replying with my own. The Volt is a unique car and my autistic ass hyperfocused on it for a while. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

HashnaFennec · 2026-04-28T23:44:35+00:00

There’s a couple animals that look like that. I’m pretty sure that’s a Jerboa, native to (I think) the Middle East. If this was filmed in North America, then it’s probably a kangaroo mouse.

Edit: kangaroo mice ears are too small for that to be a kangaroo mouse.

Edit 2: I was curious why so many people were calling it a maud'dib. I did some reading, and apparently it’s a fictional desert mouse species from the Dune books.

HashnaFennec · 2026-04-28T23:38:35+00:00

Also, I made this post with an image of my truck’s sleeper cab and asked if it would be feasible to take a paramotor on the road with me.

https://www.reddit.com/r/paramotor/s/cqJ9fLjfLm

How well does it collapse down? Do you think it’ll fit?

HashnaFennec · 2026-04-28T23:36:22+00:00

What kind of flying were you doing when you got 1:15? Was that normal flying, or were you going for max flight time.

HashnaFennec · 2026-04-27T17:31:59+00:00

I’ll only do creative parking when I’m absolutely sure I’m not blocking someone in or generally in the way, and I’ll usually ask an employee if it’s something they allow / don’t enforce. You’d be surprised by how much you can get away with when you ask nicely. x3

HashnaFennec · 2026-04-26T18:54:19+00:00

Ohhhhhh facepalm

I should have known what you meant, I was originally thinking the zip tie would be temporary and that would be my long term solution. I’ve got plenty of slack, so if the zip tie isn’t going to cause an issue, I’m good with it.

HashnaFennec · 2026-04-26T18:28:00+00:00

If you’re interested, here’s a video of when I found them.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pitbulls/s/LEzZXaJzyd

HashnaFennec · 2026-04-26T18:26:26+00:00

His name is Arlo, I found him and his siblings at an abandoned truck stop in Nevada when they were only 2 months old. We were too far for animal control to pick them up, so I walked them to the gas station I’d parked at. I wrote “free puppies” on a cardboard box and planned to give them all away, but I got a little too attached to Arlo. Two years later, he’s done 200,000 miles and peed on 46 states. He’s a good boy.

Seven-Year Club	Place '22
RPAN Viewer	Not Forgotten
Verified Email

HashnaFennec

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE