Parked AC solution - I have an out of box idea

My Honda EU3000is is a total of $3k, including a rooftop AC that will freeze your butt out of the truck if left unchecked, a small heater for winter, and a battery charger.
Runs 12hrs on 2 gallons of gas, has a 3.6 gallon tank built in. Anywhere sells gas, and I carry a few extra gas cans.
Quieter than any APU, and can run for days on end.
No insulated curtains needed.....

Martin

 

I've seen those Honda generators, usually mounted to the catwalk. Generally nice and quiet, though it doesn't hook into the existing HVAC equipment, can be a blessing or curse.

 

Blessing or curse? Blessing 110%.
I firmly believe in redundant systems. AC clutch goes out on the truck, fire the generator up and carry on in Arizona, in August.
Heater motor quits, heater core leaks, and so on, fire the generator up and run the electric heater.
So on and so forth

Martin

 

What good would it do if it did hook into the existing equipment? If you're not cycling engine coolant and heating it, you won't get heat out of the heater, which relies on heated coolant cycling through the core... that can work with an APU which connects to the existing cooling system, but not feasible for what he's talking about. And the AC system... even with APUs, AC is a standalone thing, separate from the truck HVAC system... first, with a belt driven AC compressor mounted to the engine, how would you even drive the compressor, let alone ensure enough air flow through the evaporator to allow for the heat exchange to take place from the refrigerant to the ambient air properly? It could work if you had an electric fan and AC compressor, but you'd have to have some serious output from your APU.
Now if they'd run tank heaters, and perhaps incorporate a small pump and an additional crossover to circulate fuel through the system so that the stuff in the lines and filters can't gel in the Winter months, that would be pretty fly.

 

I've seen a generator mounted inside an under-trailer equipment box on a flatbed. I thought that was pretty slick since you have some security for it there, as well as distance from the cab for noise mitigation. Out of sight, out of mind, with a key lock!

 

Personally, I've been looking into building a battery apu using an 8000btu portable a/c, 2-3k inverter, and 4-5 agm batteries. 8k btu might be overkill, but it might also be more efficient. Upside is that i wouldn't have to worry about harmful emissions, noise (other than a/c), or buying fuel (which gets expensive over time). No major alterations for setup either. Carrying weight would be less than or comparable to a diesel apu but definitely heavier than running a genset. The downside is that you'd have to charge the batteries before each use, which shouldn't be a problem during a regular day of driving. You're also limited by the amount of operation hours before you'd have to charge batts. So if your breaks are longer than 10hrs, then this might not be a feasible alternative.

Also unknown is how effective this would be during winter operation. A typical block heater uses 1500-1800 watts. That coupled with a cabin heater might decrease operational hours. Haven't done the calculation for that so I'm just guessing. Or just buy a heavy duty sleeping bag, some down comforters, and bear the cold....which actually isn't bad in 30 degree temps. lol