Parksmart, good, bad ???

[KANSAS TRANSIT]

Searched but nothing comes up. Looking at some cascadias with this system factory installed, any opinions???

Thanks Stan

[highflight1985]

Forgive me, but I googled ParkSmart and could not come up with any truck related sites. What is this ParkSmart you speak of?

[childerscarl1]

Parksmart is the brand name of the all electric heating
And cooling system on the cascadia. Supposed to last 10 to 12
Hours depending on how much accessories you use ( tv , computer,phone)

[Pablo-UA]

look, like in EU mercedes put auxially diesel heater in truck (not air heater only, but coolant heater to warm engine up). In Europe truckes use 24V battery pack of 200-280 AH. In USA 12V system needs more current to start engine so one cold night w/o idling and you have to find someone for jump starting)))) LOL. Auxially A/C uses more power, so to have a big battery pack is a nice idea. This system is separated from truck batteries becouse batteries are designed to collect more power, but not ready for starting.

[ZippyNH]

It must be just one of their option...
they also instal wabesco heaters and opti-idle on trucks with dd13/15 motors.

[KANSAS TRANSIT]

Just got back in from Fl. swing, yes, all electric A/C with espar/wab diesel fired heated plumbing into cooling system.

Self contained with aux batteries just for HVAC and hotel loads. I'll find out soon, just sent the dealer down money on 10 units.

Thanks for the input,

Stan

[truckersrstupid]

Stay away from the parksmart. It's not very effective in terms of cooling and It's extremely expensive to work on. Very few parts to the system are servicable so the unit will eventually need to be replaced. The system takes the place of the standard bunk HVAC system and it's standalone. It's a self contained unit that relies on the dash A/C to cool the cab and bunk down. Once the bunk is cool, the parksmart unit is designed to maintain temperature. Also, the parksmart equipped units require special insulated curtains to seal the bunk from the cab in an attempt to maintain temperature. The driver's will/do hate it and you will hate hearing their complaints and paying BIG money to replace a unit that doesn't work that well to begin with when it goes down. Let's not forget the second full set of batteries that are required to run this thing and the switching relays used to connect the parksmart batteries to the truck for charging and disconnect them when the unit is off to keep the rest of the truck from draining the batteries. It's a nightmare.

[Beer Runner]

Parksmart is no good. The tuck I have had this past week has this system in it and it keeps nothing cool. All my other trucks had APU's and worked just fine. I had 0% idle time, until now. I ran this truck every night this week trying to stay comfortable. I guess my idle time this week is 50%. I'm going to see if I can have my old truck back.

[KANSAS TRANSIT]

Well since I started this thread I will give you some feedback, we only bought 8 of the trucks with parksmart, we as of right now only have FOUR of them running, still converting the other four for use.

On OUR particular trucks (that is 60" MIDROOF) even in this HOT weather they seem to do well, I CAN see a problem if you where trying to cool a 72" condo.

The biggest thing as far as keeping cool is to make sure that you have the truck as cool as you can stand it before you park it, the cab/sleeper does seem to be VERY well insulated.

HOWEVER, this is where my praise changes to a rant, one of the trucks, ( I bought them used with around 170,000 avg. has a unit that does not work.

Dealer is telling me that to replace the stand alone unit IF it can not be fixed is about 8,000 NOT including batteries, that is unacceptable. I am checking into WHO ACTUALLY builds the P/S system for Freightliner, I believe it is a variant of the Bergstrom NITE system.

I will try and contact them and see what they say, or see if they have a service facility somewhere that is up to speed on repairing these units, as I have NOT been overly impressed with the knowledge of quality of work that I have gotten from my Freightliner dealer so far.

This may be a learning curve for me as we have been exclusively Pete and KW for over a decade. I did NOT buy the trucks FOR the Parksmart, I bought the trucks because they perfectly fit the platform that we were looking for without having to buy new.

As far as the "TRUCK" is concerned, I think they will do fine. The cabs and doors are tight, the sleepers are layed out as well as any in this size that I have ever looked at, they are 2010 Cascadia S/A tractors.

Motors are DD13's rated at 410/450 they DO NOT get as good of mileage as my trusty Cummins ISM's but they seem to pull well and we are working on getting better mileage, they are avg, right at 8.3 MPG for the four trucks on the road, remember we are light, we never exceed 52,000 gross for rig and load.

[toughnight]

Hmmm....In 2007, I added four batteries and wired them in parallel with the other four batteries on my 1998 International condo cabover (ex-Schneider truck). I used deep cycle/starting dual purpose batteries. I added a 2000 watt inverter and an 8,000 BTU portable room air conditioner with an insulated exhaust hose attached to the window adapter that was cut to fit in the passenger-side window. With the curtains closed I get 8-10hrs of cooling until the low voltage cut-out circuit in the inverter shuts the system down. I've ALWAYS had plenty of power to start my engine after the inverter has powered my aircon for 8-10hrs and I NEVER have to worry about dead or low batteries because the inverter cuts out before they get too low to start the engine. The cost of my ENTIRE system was $900 for the eight new batteries, $300 for the portable room aircon unit, $300 for a 165 amp alternator (which fully charges the low batteries in 5hrs) and about $500 for the extra battery box/addtional wiring. Total cost of my A/C system was about $2,000. Add $75 for a 1200 BTU Mr. Heater unit, $50 for a BBQ propane tank and $25 for a CO detector and it comes to $2,150. Add another $850 to replace all of the batteries this year, 2012, and it comes to $3,000 for a "ParkSmart"-like system that I designed five years ago that is now good for another five years of dollar-free use (except for the occassional Rhino-Propane tank exchange for $20 at Walmart or Pilot). I guess I should have patented this system years ago; and my system ACTUALLY works. Email me for additional info, if you need it. God bless all of us truckers.



PS. A 2,000 watt portable gas generator ($400) bungee'd to the back platform or a cheap motel room gets me through the long breaks I occassionally take during the months of June/July/August.