Finally, somewhere to put your drink in the cab.
4.9 from 119 Steadi reviewsA flexible-finned base that holds your coffee, energy drink, or 40 oz tumbler steady on the dash, the doghouse, or the bunk — built for the grade and the jake brake. Nothing to clamp or drill in — it just sits where you set it.
Get one for the cab — from $14.95Ships free. 90 days to prove it on your own dash — no forms, just an email.
Will it fit the dash, the doghouse, or the bunk? A sticky note answers it — the test is below ↓
The status quo
The cup holders came with the truck. They were never built for what you drink.
Where the coffee goes on a shift isn't really a choice — it's whatever flat spot is open between the seats, and every one of those spots was built to hold something else, or nothing at all.
Drivers trade the same joke about the newer Peterbilts: a cup holder no container ever made will actually fit. The honest exception in that same thread is a 20 oz Gatorade bottle — the 40 oz tumbler you actually fill at the fuel island doesn't come close.
The hard hump over the engine between the seats has held road coffee for generations of drivers. It's also crowned, so anything set on it walks downhill on its own, and the constant engine vibration finishes the job before the next exit.
Deep, flat, and one of the biggest surfaces in the cab — which is exactly why a cup ends up there when the holder's full or too far from the wheel. It's also glass-smooth, sun-baked plastic sloped toward the driver, so it grips nothing and slides in every curve.
Air-ride seats bounce on their own suspension, separate from the cab's. A drink balanced on the cushion or wedged between the knees is answering two different kinds of motion at once, and the lid usually loses.
The mandatory 10-hour break turns the cab into a bedroom, and most sleepers don't have a nightstand within reach of the pillow. The night's water bottle stands on the mattress or the humming fridge top instead, with nothing to keep it from going over into the bedding.
None of it stops the truck. It's just the same small workaround, cab after cab, mile after mile — and most drivers stopped noticing they were solving it wrong a long time ago.
It's happened to you
Ask any driver — they've lived at least one of these.
The engine brake grabs in hard pulses and the coffee riding the doghouse walks, tips, and lets go. It's common enough that drivers trade real versions of this story — forums carry accounts of near-misses, and one totaled Peterbilt that started with hot coffee.
The one holder that half-fits anything is already holding the 40 oz tumbler, so the fresh coffee from the truck stop rides the dash instead — and starts sliding before you're even out of the lot.
The water bottle for the night stands on the mattress or the fridge top because a 72-inch sleeper doesn't have a nightstand. One roll-over or an hour of idle vibration and it's in the bedding — the only bed for the next few weeks out.
The seat bounces on its own air spring while the cab pitches on another. The drink between your legs or set on the seat edge is answering both motions at once, and the lid gives first.
A loose bottle on the floor mat rolls with every turn. One driver's lesson-learned post on TruckersReport describes a water bottle that nearly wedged under the brake pedal — the version of this story that stops being about the mess.
Fit verdicts
The bottom inch decides what rides along.
The rule doesn't change cab to cab: a container base 2 to 3 inches across settles in. Run the drinks you actually carry through it below.
- 40 oz Stanley Quencher-style tumbler fits
- Classic Stanley steel vacuum bottle, 1.1 qt too wide
- Philmore 20 oz truck-stop mug, handled handle in the way
- Bubba Keg, up to 52 oz too wide
- Truck-stop refill coffee cup, 20-24 oz fits
- 16 oz energy drink can fits
- 16.9 oz plastic water bottle fits
- Gallon water jug too wide
There's a floor as well as a ceiling — under 2 inches the base sits too loose. The Philmore mug's handle is the honest exception: the base itself fits, but the handle lands where a fin needs to grip. The classic Stanley bottle, the Bubba Keg, and the gallon jug are the honest misses on the other end — all three run wider than the note.
The full fit database — Stanley, Red Bull, Yeti, and 30 more, with sourced base measurements →
The fit test
Stick a sticky note to the dash — that's the whole fit test.
lands in here
A square sticky note: 3 inches, exactly — same as the ceiling of what fits on the dash.
The classic square is exactly 3 inches on a side. That's a fact about sticky notes, and it happens to land right at the ceiling of what fits.
Stand it on the note on the dash or the doghouse — not balanced on the rim. A tapered truck-stop cup or a flared lid lies about its true size; the base is the only measurement that counts.
Base sits inside the square? It fits. Hangs over the edge? Too wide. A tiny puck lost in the middle — under 2 inches? Too narrow.
No calipers, no spec sheet, no guessing at the fuel island. One sticky note on the dash, one glance, with the cup you actually carry out of the truck stop.
Function
Built to take the grade, the brake, the bounce.
A crowned doghouse or a sloped dash gives a narrow base almost nothing to stand on. The wide, low base lies flat across it instead, hard plastic or vinyl alike.
Flexible fins hold the drink from the sides, so the steady hum of engine vibration can't walk it toward the edge between here and the next exit.
A jake brake pull, a pothole, a seat bouncing on its own air spring — the low, wide base rocks with the knock and brings the drink back level instead of leaving it to ride out the motion alone.
The value
Three reasons it earns a seat in the cab.
Grips through the grade and the jake brake
The wide, low base spreads across whatever's underneath instead of standing on one point — the doghouse, the dash, the console. Engine vibration, a downhill pull, or a hard stop nudges it off level, and it settles back instead of walking toward the edge.
Holds what actually rides in the cab
The 40 oz tumbler, the fuel-island refill, the tallboy, the water bottle for the sleeper. Cans and bottles slide right on; cups and tumblers drop through the fins and get held by the bottom inch — no tape wrapped around the base, no adapter wedged into a holder it was never sized for.
Works everywhere the factory holder doesn't
One base that sits on the doghouse, the dash, the console, or the bunk — including the passenger side of a Cascadia, which never got a cup holder at all. Nothing bolts to the frame or clips to a drawer lip, so it moves wherever the drink actually needs to be that mile.
Other routes
Compared to what's already taped to the dash.
| A cup-holder expander | The Semi Truck Cup Holder | |
|---|---|---|
| Fits a non-round dash holder | Reviewers report fitment fails on angled or recessed cavities | No holder shape needed — sits on anything flat |
| A full tumbler through the jake brake | Adds a collar, raises it higher — more leverage to tip | Grips the bottom inch — resists tipping |
| No cup holder on the passenger side | Nothing to expand into — no cavity to widen | Sits on the seat or console instead |
| The doghouse, with no holder on it | Nothing to expand into on a bare hump | Wide base spreads across it, fins grip low |
| Moving to the bunk for the break | Stays fitted in the dash holder | Same base rides along to the mattress or fridge top |
| Once it's seated and it fits | Wedged in tight — doesn't slide around the cab | Not clipped in — it's a loose piece to track |
| Cost | Another purchase to justify | One small piece, covers every spot in the cab |
Real workarounds drivers have posted: tape wrapped around a bottle until it wedges into the factory holder, a duct-tape roll set on the floor with the cup standing in the cardboard core. Their existence is the complaint — nothing sold to drivers worked, so they engineered around it. A tape spacer fits exactly one bottle, and the floor puts the drink at ankle level in a bouncing cab.
Built for car consoles, not truck dashes. Even the roundup reviews admit fitment fails on non-round, angled, or recessed holders — which describes most semi dash holders — and an expander inherits the factory holder's bad location, just with a taller, heavier lever arm swaying in it.
Window hooks, glove-box clamps, even a motorcycle handlebar mount clipped to the grab bar — a real workaround from the Cascadia forums. Every cab needs a different mount point, so it's drilling, taping, or borrowing hardware from another vehicle category, and drivers tape the glove-box version shut just to keep it from falling off.
They add a flat, hard surface, which was never the missing ingredient. A smooth tray on a vibrating, decelerating dash still lets the cup slide — it just gives it a defined runway to do it on.
Why more than one
Two identical tumblers. Same cab, two drivers.
Team drivers share one cab, and more often than not, the same 40 oz tumbler off the same truck-stop rack. Two identical cups riding the dash means neither driver can tell theirs from the other's without picking both up. Color's the only thing that settles it without anyone writing a name on a cup.
Build your set
Give everyone their own.
Pick a pack, then give each one a color — so nobody has to ask which drink is theirs.
Q & A
Asked from the driver's seat, answered here.
Does it actually hold up against engine vibration and the doghouse?
That's exactly what it's built for. The wide base spreads across the doghouse or the dash instead of standing on one point, and the fins keep the drink from walking as the vibration runs through it. A jake-brake pull can nudge it, and it settles back instead of going over.
Will my 40 oz tumbler fit?
Measure the bottom, not the rim. A base of 2 to 3 inches across settles in — the 40 oz Stanley does. The Philmore truck-stop mug doesn't; the handle sits right where a fin needs to grip.
What about a hard stop or the jake brake on a grade?
That's the everyday case it's built around. The low, wide base rocks and resettles the drink when the truck decelerates hard — it resists tipping, not a dead-stop collision, but the pulses of a jake brake on a downhill grade are exactly what it's built to shrug off.
Does it clamp to the dash or the grab bar?
No. Nothing hooks to the window, clips to the grab bar, or screws into the dash. It sits on top of whatever surface is closest — the doghouse, the dash, the console — and moves with you.
My cab has no cup holder on the passenger side — does it work there too?
Yes, and that's really the point. It doesn't need a factory holder to sit in — it works on the console, the dash, or the seat itself, which is exactly what a passenger-side Cascadia with no built-in holder needs.
Can I use it in the sleeper during my 10-hour break?
Yes — soft, uneven surfaces are what it's built around. It holds steady on the bunk mattress or the fridge top, settling back through the idle hum and a roll-over instead of tipping into the bedding.
What about a Bubba Keg or a big steel thermos?
Honestly, the oversized ones run wider than the fit range — a classic Stanley vacuum bottle and a full-size Bubba Keg both sit outside the roughly 2-to-3-inch base this is built around. The 40 oz tumbler and the truck-stop refill cup are the sweet spot.
How do I clean it?
Rinse it, or wipe it down back at the yard, or put it in the dishwasher. It's one piece of flexible material with nothing to trap coffee grounds or come apart.
Who makes it, and where do I buy one?
It's called the Steadi, molded in small runs in Orange, California by Steadi Labs — veteran-founded and patent pending. Every order ships free from steadilabs.com, with 90 days to send it back if it doesn't earn a spot in your cab.
Provenance
Molded closer than your next fuel stop.
The maker is Steadi Labs, a small veteran-founded company in Orange, California. It's injection molded in small runs, and nothing about it travels far to get made — the mold, the material, and the color runs all sit within about three and a half miles of the shop. The people who make it read hello@steadilabs.com themselves, usually before the first load of the day rolls out.
Ninety days on the road.
Run it for a month. If it doesn't do what this page says — on the dash, in the cab — email hello@steadilabs.com and it gets made right. No forms, no fight.
Veteran-founded · Patent pending · Made in Orange, California
From the reviews
What buyers say.
Recent reviews of the Steadi, from every room and rig it lives in.
I have a tendency to spill my drinks and have two cats. This is one of the best things I’ve ever impulse bought. It works. It actually works. It’s a heavy, wide enough base that it is actually stable. My “spot” in the living room is near a somewhat-cushioned fabric ottoman, which is where I usually put my drinks. It’s
Dixie · 2026-08-30I love mine. I just wish the price was more appropriate. $15 seems a lot for a small plastic item. Reduce it to $9.99 and free shipping and I'll buy a few more!
Carolyn G. · 2026-08-27Excellent!
Brian S. · 2026-08-27Thank you for your service!
Brian S. · 2026-08-27It’s great love it
gilbert a. · 2026-08-24I never knock over my water at night anymore!
Customer · 2026-08-21All 119 reviews are for the drink base itself, collected across every place people use it.
A place for the coffee that isn't the doghouse.
The coffee rides the dash through the grade, holds through the jake brake, and stands on the bunk through the break — steady from the first fuel island to the last mile of the shift.
Order yours — ships freeCheckout is on steadilabs.com — Steadi Labs is the company that makes it.