BEST A.P.U.

Call Robert at APU Center in MO. They sell em and he's a straight shooter. He can tell you the positives and negatives. Like all diesel APU's, just be prepared for ongoing scheduled maintenance. Kinda like owning a sports car, its not just about what you pay upfront its what its going to cost to keep it going...as you probably know from your TK, service is $100hr. As mentioned above, we like our Road Chill battery powered system. No scheduled maintenance or fuel costs...5 year warranty...for us it just made more sense. They are based in FL too. Let us know what u decide.

 

Really??
My Tripak is a pain in the rear. Constantly blowing the 50 amp fuse and nobody seems to know why.
AC5 error codes have been a way of life since I got it with the truck 5 years ago. Again, nobody can fix it.
Taken it into numerous shops and they are clueless except for charging money. They are redhot on that!! The prices TK charge are through the roof!!
In desperation I paid about $1200 for a replacement espar heater at the Salt Lake City robbers den, sorry service center. It works great - when the darn APU works for more than 5 minutes! Unfortunately I had already spent $650 to have the old espar 'serviced' at the Wichita TK.
Useless.
My friend has a Carrier and he has given up. He has gone over to a portable AC unit and running off the inverter. That piece of dung has basic design errors that the TK does not.
The idea behind the Thermoking Tripac is good but it is unreliable and excruciatingly expensive. You will NEVER go into a TK service place spend less than $1000 and not start walking funny.
So TriPac Dude let's just get a little closer to the truth shall we?
Unreliable and horribly expensive.
I see a trip to Home Depot in my future. A 5k gas generator ($400), portable AC unit ($150), separate freestanding Espar heater ($300) and a hole saw will be going into a shopping cart.
All of 'em can stick their $8 to $13,000 where the sun don't shine.

 

$9300 installed at APU Center. Got one about six months ago. LOVE IT. Not one problem so far.

 

Ok. So at the beginning of this thread I was almost convinced that the TK was the way to go and the HP2000 was a huge POS. But those entries are 7 years old. Now I'm seeing a mix of the 2. I know absolutely NOTHING about APU's and just bought my truck. What's the latest on great units out there? I need COLD A/C because my husband rides with me and we both run hot in our sleep. Help a new girl out, would ya.

 

The blowing of the 50 amp fuse constantly was an intermittent alternator + 2 bad batteries. I bypassed with a 50 amp reset. No more expensive fuse changes.
That previous sentence turned into a giant merry go round but I am almost at the end of it. What a pain.
The AC5 error code continues.
Thermo King - an expensive overly complex nuisance.

 

There's alot of new technical service bulletins out recently including the 50 amp fuse holders and alternator issues. The ACS code is more than likely a chaffed wire under the bunk around the frame.

 

I was told by a Thermo King tech that it is always the fan mounted behind the sleeper. Personally not convinced because I know 2 guys who were told the same thing, changed the fan and achieved absolutely nothing. However, I bought a second hand one at a junk yard and am awaiting a shut down and having the energy to whip out there and change it. Was told that if it gives an AC5 error to put my hand on the hub of the fan and see if it is warm or maybe try spinning the fan with my fingers and see if it is jammed. Like I said not terribly convinced.
Had that alternator rebuilt for $65 and it is now working like crazy. No further problems but early days yet lol.

 

Regarding the 50 amp fuse. I really like the reset I installed. I am not quite finished with it but I really think it was a better idea than the fuse.

 

The high pressure cut out switch will throw the ACS, the reason why they say it's the fan is because they haven't hung gauges and waited or checked the harness to the pressure switch. Some old units used to have a binary switch but have now gone to a high pressure cut out. When's the last time the condenser was washed out?