TriPac APU & Sleeper Heat?

Sho

Shouldnt be an Espar and Tripac in the same truck. What your suggesting is your truck has two diesel fired heaters under the bunk, I doubt that’s actually the case, as there is no room for both. The tripac air conditioner and diesel fired heater takes up all the room in the centre compartment. So I think your mistaken, first you need to figure out what equipment you actually have? A functional tripac heater will put you out of the truck set on high in 15 minutes even when it’s -30 out.

 

Perhaps you are the one who needs to figure out what equipment you actually have. If you look closely at your 'Tripac diesel fired heater' you will find that it is indeed an Espar.

 

I wish I had a bunk heater. My new truck came equipped without one.

A few messages came in telling me to get it to a shop because it was on the maintenance schedule to have one installed.
I requested it during my last service and was told they don't stock them.
It turns out, no terminal in the country has any.

 

In response to posters saying that a person does not need to visit Thermo King to have their Tripac set to start automatically to heat the truck engine (coolant) under cold conditions, you certainly do. It's an option called the "Arctic Package", and it requires one or maybe two extra sensors be installed as well as some updates being done on the controller to make it all work. And of course you also need to have your Tripac plumbed into the trucks coolant system itself, which is not always the case in every installation.

Next, the "Espar" brand diesel fired bunk heater is what Thermo King itself uses for a heater in its full install package. This is standard. And yes, this thing roasts me, too. I suspect that while it has many different fan speeds, it only has one internal heat setting - either on or off. So if you are getting too hot and turn the thermostat way down, it may end up actually shutting itself off and then restarting a few times on you over the night. And the problem with this? The Espar may draw a small amount a power once it gets going, but apparently it needs a big jolt of electricity to get itself started. So this in turn triggers the APU to start up every time the cycle happens. OP, if you're turning the knob to heat > the Espar fan is spooling up > your APU is probably then also starting up at this time > and you're not quickly getting a big blast of heat, I think you've got a problem that is going to require service. Sorry.

Lastly, if anyone would like to do a bit of tinkering with their Evolution's internal settings, read error codes etc., this software - while apparently outdated - still works. I just used it to change my "Start - low battery volts" and "Stop - at set minimum charging amps" settings after installing some new AGM type batteries in my truck (which have slightly different specs than my old flooded cell batteries). If you do give this site your email address to obtain the software, you won't have to wait for them to send it to you. The page will then just immediately open a link afterward for you to download it for free. The catch? You are going to need a tablet or a computer that is running Windows to make any changes with.

Thermo King TriPac Evolution Diagnostic Tool (controller adjusting software)

BTW - what happens as your batteries charge is that the amount of juice they can accept (in amps) starts to drop. The default "off" setting from TK is 20 amps (way too high), the setting my local Thermo King dealer programmed in was 11 amps, and the setting my new batteries are fully charged at according to a manufacturer chart is 4.05 amps (this varies with different batteries). The setting that after testing seemed to work best for me? 7 amps.

 

Yep, you probably noticed this thread is way old and recently revived. Personally, I've learned a ton since then. I have meaning to find the newer Tripac software you linked. Thanks for that.

I got tired of my APU being tied to my Espar so I recently removed the Espar pigtail from the TriPac board and wired my Espar directly to a Digimax D1000 controller which I mounted in a better place than the Tripac 3 knob since the Digimax has a thermostat in it. The problem with an Espar tied to the Tripac is if, like me, you have an old semi reliable Tripac any time it throws a code for some reason you then have no heat. Espars are pretty simple though. With their own controller they work much better.

 

I know this is an older post but I’ve got a similar question. I just bought a truck that has a tripac evo and the espar bunk heater. When I want to run the heat do I need to turn on the tripac? I turned it over to heat and it just runs, no heat even after 30 mins or so. The espar has a separate controller and it does come on and gets hot. Not sure the combo I need to run these two, if together even at all for heating. Seems maybe I should just have tripac in standby mode while running the heater? Also, the espar controller has “maintenance required” message on the screen- is this something I can remedy myself? My first truck ever with an apu so thanks for any additional insight.

 

You can control your Espar heater from either it's own controller (preferred) or the Tripac 3 knob controller (not as simple). I don't remember how it's done with that controller since I separated the two on my Tripac.

In other words, just use the Espar controller and be warnm and happy. Don't fool with the Tripac controller.

As for the maintenance required message, have you tried to just reboot the controller? That usually makes codes go away on mine. If it works then just use it.

 

How do you reboot the controller?

 

Unplug the power from the heater should do it. There are usually accessible plugs on the side of it. One goes to battery or APU control board if it's connected to the APU, the other goes to the wall control. Just unplug everything for a few seconds and plug it back in and see if it goes away.

 

Did it work?