Cab Comfort

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So you want to hot-shot? (Will be updated/edited frequently)
Some of the posts in that thread address the question of comfort and sleeping in a pickup cab.

 

just get gen set and window unit

 

I know guys that idle winter or summer. I don’t go very far out now but when I did carried a generator with a portable a/c unit. I took the passenger seat and the backseat out and had mattress running front to backseat area. I know guy who said he never turns his off until he gets back home. I would not recommend that.

 

IMO a window unit will be better than an RV roof unit. Besides the cost, the RV roof units are just plain crap. They are little more than re packaged window units and are too big. The smallest one is 9KBTU. You need at most 5K BTU in a truck cab. I'd consider making some sort of insert that replaces the back window and houses the window unit behind the driver side and has an RV window next to it on the PAX side so you can still see your blind spot. If and when the window unit craps out, $200 or less for a new on on sale at the end of summer. A 5K will run and start with a Honda EU2000i and some will even run on a 1000i, but I'd get the 2000. That would be about $1k for the genny, $200 for the AC, and a hundred or so for the panel and window. Get an RV window as it has the right type of safety glass and they open and have a screen.

Some window units are also heat pumps, But I'd get a small space heater with a fan for winters. Something around 1000W or less (50% load on the genny so it stays quiet.)

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Espar or Webasto setup is not very expensive in the long run and keeps the cab warm.

 

It's hard on any diesel to idle them. All these guys that think it's ok to idle diesel because they see big rigs do it.. well it's hard on big rigs too even before DEF. The old motors would still go a million miles even if they idled them so no one cared. You're not getting a million miles out of a hotshot truck that still costs 3/4 the price of a semi. That's why I run old trucks not $70-80k new trucks.

 

There are actually Chinese clones of the Webasto you can get for under $200 and they are actually good. I know them from my time doing van life. A lot of people run them. You get them off Amazon or ebay.