APU: Tripac or Carrier?

tripac !
after 3-4 years carrier apu will look like rusty #######. plus it's full of electronics, generator is very expensive to rebuild, noisy.

 

My first apu was a carrier on my second truck I'm getting a rigmaster. carrier a/c is 12kbtu and thats not close to being enough when it's 80+. Rigmaster is 24k. Carrier a/c is electric powered and doesn't work as good as the car style ac. Rigmaster can also come with a generator. Rigmaster is a self contained unit no drilling into the cab for the condenser. The carrier dealers around me are incompetent they had me spend over 2k changing parts on a reefer when the problem was a failing battery.

 

I drove a company truck once that had a rigmaster on it ...total boat anchor .
I've own both carrier and thermo king and while neither is perfect they both have theyre plusses and minuses.
As far as rust goes with my current 6 year old carrier it hasn't been an issue as I get my truck washed when it gets dirty and every few months I wash out the engine housing .
At 16000 hours on my carrier and other than a wire harness issue , alternater, starter, water pump and the dreaded generator failure at 15500 hours that I knew was coming its been a good unit .
Those kubota engines are known to go well past 30000 hours with good maintenance.
It's mostly about how you take care of it and alot of people run them until they choke to death .
I have a friend with tri pak pushing 35000 hours that's been well cared for .

 

Tripac 120%. Every carrier ive used is junk, wont cool the truck even the ones 1/3rd the size of my 579 worth a ####, break constantly, and in one memorable case caught fire.

To be fair i own my tripac while the carriers were fleet owned. So the level of maintaince and my being absolutely anal about things i own are very diffrent animals.

 

I don't know how many hours were on Caspers TriPac. 10 to 14K be my guess. It still works, but I put thousands into it as well.

Blackie's is at like 4800 hours, so far, so good.

Don't get an electric one whatever you do.

 

The bottom pan will rust out on your tripac. That ####er is like $260. Mine bit the dust on Casper when I finished off those two mule deer on 84 a few winters ago.

 

Yeah mine came with an electric apu ...what a pos !
I dont care what anyone here says between carrier and tk ...its a Toss up .

 

Try one of those windshield reflectors to keep the sun out. It's surprising how much of a difference they can make.

 

That is really good advice. All that glass up there is a huge liability if the sun is shining and out west its enough to heat the cab in winter if its a sunny day

 

Yup i got one of those cheap $3 walmart specials and its amazing how much of a diffrence it makes. The actual air temp doesnt drop much but the dash doesnt turn into a heating element either, which allows the APU to keep up much easier. I also got a second $3 screen and cut it in half to go over my passenger windows which helped even more.

Also acts as begger and lizard repelant. Hard to beg from what you cant see.