OTR truck, batteries and inverters.

March I went back to regional truck driving a company truck.

APU's are big now. For ac, heat etc. All to keep from idling the truck. At a gallon an hour and for $4 fuel, adds up. Can add up to $40 per night.

The cheap inverters from the truck stops aren't the best. APU's are $5-10K for one, new vs used.

I am also in the process of buying my own truck.

My thoughts.

I want to install a second set of truck batteries. $300
install a power inverter as one would for a house. (Yes, lots more money). $1200-2500.
http://www.solar-electric.com/maensiwainac.html
http://www.solar-electric.com/hardwiredunits.html

I am thinking the 3000W unit in the second link would be sufficient.

Remove the ac compressor from the engine.
add a 110v refrigerator compressor to run the ac system on the truck cooling system. When you turn the dash on, you are turning this on instead of the belt driven pump. The clutch wire would go to a relay to turn on the pump.

In addition to all this since the truck is sitting and the AC condenser would be working. I'd remove the actual engine fan from the motor and eliminate the fan hub.

In it's place, I'd install up to 4 electric fans. The air signal to the hub would signal an air switch that would turn on all 4 fans. The AC would kick on two of the fans to draw air through the AC condenser core.

To help with keeping the batteries charged, install a small water cooled yanmar 2 cylinder diesel. This would provide engine heat except in the dead of winter when the webasto is needed. I have a local place that has one of these for like $600.

The apu would also have a delco 10SI or 12SI alternator for charging the batteries during the times the big engine is shut down down if needed. (These are REALLY common 60 to 160 AMP GM alternators you can readily find cheap)

There would also be a small 1100W microwave and dorm size fridge in the truck using the power inverter.

With 4 batteries running a 3000w or 4000w power inverter, unless you are shut down for long periods of time, you won't have to even run the apu really. If you are down 10 and running 14, the engine would be doing the majority of the recharging just doing your normal driving for 11 hours.

Install a webasto coolant heater to warm the engine and provide heat in the winter for the cab when shut down. This wouldn't actually get installed unless it's found that the Yanmar would not handle keeping the engine warm. $1800
http://www.webasto.us/general/en/html/8245.html
http://caravanservices.com.au/Thermo-Top-C

If that is not needed but not enough heat for the cab, I'd just install a small cab heater. Coolant like from an old school bus or a webasto, not sure.

I don't want the APU to "save money on fuel" per say. At $4 fuel and burning a gallon an hour, that's about $40 per night. It would take about 200 nights of running this though to pay itself back. (you still would have system operating costs to pay for too.)

For me, it would be the savings of NOT running an engine at idle and the wear that idling a truck for long periods causes. I also just don't like to see a truck wet stacked.

I can see additional power/fuel savings by removing both the fan and the AC compressor pumps from the engine and running them off electric power.

 

Thats what I was thinking too.

It would also be very modular in that i add to it what i need, when i need it.

This summer, the fans/compressor/batteries.

 

I looked today and a small 5000 btu ac is about 1650 watts.

Refrigerator requirements should be similar.

So knowing that, 4000 w inverter minimum.