Solar panel

Carrier

 

Look into Battleborn lithium batteries. Lightweight compared to agm batteries and they can be depleted to about 95%, especially if your going the solar route. Expensive but I think it would be worth it.

 

Here's how I look at it. A diesel Apu uses around .8 gallon an hour or so. Let's say at $1.90 a gallon I have spent $4560 in diesel just on the Apu. Not counting repairs and maintenance. If I can go full solar and not worry about nothing and spend money on decent batteries then I could save so much money lol.

 

That's the brand I wanna go with. Just trying to get everything figured out first. I think it would be nice to have a auto start and stop on the truck to idle to charge up if needed.

 

Do you have a picture of where the coolant temp sensor is? How much are they?

Edit... NM I thought you had a Dynasys... thats why I wanted to see pictures... but just read you have carrier

 

I don't have one right now but they are on the top by the exhaust manifold. They are about $50 a pop.

 

I edited my post

 

Where did you get those fuel consumption numbers?
I have a tripac and it burns roughly .25 per hour.
I have a E model cat and idled up it’s about 1.25 a hour.
FE Mail Bag: Clarifying loads on APU fuel usage

 

I just double checked it's .20 so I was wrong on the numbers on that. So that's only $1100 in fuel which still isn't bad. But if you base that on several years plus maintenance cost and what not still cheaper to roll solar which is pretty much maintenance free. Cost really isn't that high.
I'm working towards getting enough solar to push ,600-700 watts and add a battery bank of 4 batteries which will cost $4,000 but is a very good brand with 10 year warranty. Then spend the $900 on a mini split and run it that way.
All in cost will probably be about $6,000 if you do this urself.
My carrier it's rare it runs 2-3 months without something stupid going wrong. If I could go 1 year without maintenance it would pay for itself lol

 

Find yourself a used Tripac. I like your solar idea but it's no substitute for an APU. When you're broken down and you need power, heat and air to the max there is no substitute. I like solar only as a trickle charge option while parked for days.

I've done 2 things to my Tripac in 2.5 years of heavy use. One oil change and one fuel line leak where a fitting rattled loose (30 second fix with a wrench).