No Idle A/C

No experience with that,.. but seriously doubt that little thing would keep a semi and sleeper cool in anything over 75f. There was no mention of how many BTU it is. My guess would be under 1000.

My solution was to buy a portable generator, mount it like an APU, bought a 8500 BTU GE window air conditioner and hang it in my driver side window. I store it up on my top bunk when not in use. I just got the thing,.. so I have no pictures yet. For winter I plan to use a radiator for heat.

The generator is a Yamaha 3000 with remote electric start. I was originally going to buy the Honda EU3000, but I found a deal on the Yamaha for $800 less then the Honda. I spent $450 to have the box made and mounted to my frame. I wired up an outlet on my passenger side cabinet inside. The generator will run for 20 hours on a full tank.

In all I spent $2400 for everything. In early march I spent a couple weeks not idling or minimal idling and then compared my fuel usage and costs compared to when I idle almost 24/7. With this set up I expect to save $200 - $300 a week in fuel not used for idling. You can do the math to estimate how soon this will pay for itself.

Yeah its kinda redneck to put that window in there and I imagine other drivers with full APU's will look at me strangely. But for what it costs to refurbish an APU,.. I can just buy another generator. 10 gallons of 87 octane is all I should use per week. The generator also has a 12v charging cord for my batteries so I can keep the truck charged if I decide to camp out somewhere for a few days. This alone should NET me roughly $9,000 annually from fuel not spent idling.

Hurst

 

Don't even think about it...

 

With that price I rather buy a bucket, fill it with ice and a fan

 

Be likely better off with 1 of these or their smaller model http://www.culer.com/culer-home/ac200

 

In Australia they have swamp coolers that mount to the sleeper compartment for those that run in the dry desert.

 

Your company won't let you idle ?

 

The directions say, "fill with ice and water".

That's just fine an dandy in a hot DRY area like Arizona, New Mexico, California, and there is NO humidity.

Go out to Louisiana, or Floridah, or up here in New England, and you will drown in the already ever present high humidity, then the humidity that thing will serve up to you as well.

So if you do buy it,. and I suggest a resounding NO, then buy a snorkel and goggles as well.

 

I've seen ice water units that pumped the ice water through a heat exchanger and it worked like a crude chilled water refrigeration system, which would give some relief from humidity.

 

I am not familiar with that type, and for what it can do, how much money needs to be spent on buying one.

Idling an engine from what I thought I had read regarding restrictions due to state and local laws, allows for driver comfort. So in high heat, I say just idle the freaking truck