parksmart aux A/C unit

Discussion in 'Ask An Owner Operator' started by shatteredsquare, Jun 28, 2022.

  1. shatteredsquare

    shatteredsquare Road Train Member

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    is the parksmart aux AC unit robust enough for long term, days on end use? Interested in the ac system itself, not so much worried about the opti-idle truck behavior.

    with opti-idle the truck engine runs for two hours at a time to maintain battery voltage, that's the perfect wet stack interval to cake up the 1-box and glaze the engine. to idle an emissions truck for two hours at a time is willful suicide, unless they did some lawyer contortions to only use two cylinders of a DD15 and exhaust directly to the atmosphere or something...

    but I seen the APU batteries are just a bank of four AGM batteries. I got two thermoking solar panels that keep the truck batteries at 13v all night in the dark just from parking lot lights, 13.8v in the sun light. given two more solar panels hooked up to the AGM bank...you could theoretically have infinite AC, with zero diesel. that would be ideal from all angles

    only thing missing from the tripac at that point is block heat. I bet they have some battery powered solution for block heat.


    just curious about the actual AC unit used in parksmart, if it's designed well enough to keep the cab cold af even in arizona 110 F ambient. tripac evaporator and condenser is pretty big under the bunk and the fan is brutally powerful, but it looks like they crammed the whole unit of parksmart into the side cabinet, and integrated with the cabin AC duct work.

    all new SFI trucks come with parksmart now, no more diesel tripacs, that's kind of a deal breaker for me to be required to idle an emissions truck as the only means of power generation, but given you could power the parksmart AGM bank on thermoking solar that would actually be highly preferable to a 500lb marine 2-cylinder diesel unit
     
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  3. Brandt

    Brandt Road Train Member

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    Freightliner is using 8 batteries to power the park smart system. My truck has 8 batteries to get 8-10 hours of electric a/c. It been a while since I sat in sunlight to test the system. It could cool sleeper with the sleeper curtains closed maybe up to 90f. Optimize Idle has Interior Comfort Mode, that setting will idle the engine basically all day or stop and start engine all day. It will start the engine when the electric a/c can't keep up with the summer heat.

    The system will do automatic parked Regen also after 6 hours of idle time on the engine. I can't say it would be very good in Arizona at 100+f. It works good if you sleep at night. Not sure if SFI is only getting 4 battery setup but our had 4 more batteries behind the sleeper between the frame rails. If anyone remember the freightliner Century truck had their 4 battery back there. It's actually the same plastic box freightliner used back then
     
  4. armo

    armo Light Load Member

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    When outside is 100F plus parksmart will not keep cold inside. i have tested 2 days ago. My new truck has Parksmart.
     
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2022
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  5. shatteredsquare

    shatteredsquare Road Train Member

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    i didn't think so... is your truck pretty new or is it a few years old? my few-years-old tripac won't barely cool in 100 F ambient either but it's been oozing schmoo for a couple years so it probably needs a charge
     
  6. MOBee

    MOBee Road Train Member

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    I like the Parksmart until it was 117 in Phoenix, then it could not keep up. I also did not have any problems with it. With that said, there will be others who only had problems with it.
     
  7. armo

    armo Light Load Member

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    i have 2019 cascadia now. previous truck was 2012 with old tripac that was working very well...
     
  8. armo

    armo Light Load Member

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    wash condenser, keep proper charge of r134a inside, replace receiver dryer if its old... i was ok with tripac summertime in NV and AZ...
     
  9. armo

    armo Light Load Member

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    i am in Indy now. Outside is 89f. parksmart is working but not enough strong to keep inside cold.
    I opened battery bays today and i was shocked. there are 8 Oddisey agm batteries. ####! thats $450 each of them. when they will get bad i will not buy them. $4000 for batteries ??
    Honestly this system is expesive ####! Tripac+ Espar is much better ...unless you live in MN or WI or somewhere north
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2022
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  10. armo

    armo Light Load Member

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    look at thr batteries... #### it. expensive to replace them

    20220705_073819.jpg 20220705_073916.jpg 20220705_073832.jpg 20220705_073827.jpg
     
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  11. RedForeman

    RedForeman Momentum Conservationist

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    I got news for you: Odyssey and Northstar are superior to every other AGM battery on the market and worth the price of admission. Batteries Plus X2Power brand is a relabeled Northstar, and comes with a 4 year free replacement warranty. They will discount some if you set up a business account with them, or use one of the many discount codes they offer.

    I've bought two sets over recent years and they are the only batteries I've ever run in a truck that lasted longer than 2.5 years. I put the last set in my '22 Mack last month. They were in a '07 387 for 2 years before I traded it, then sat on my garage floor almost another 2 years before I got around to using them. Right now they have 25% more capacity than the barely year old Mack AGM's that came out, and run good as new. I ran another set in the KW T600 I no longer have. Those had been in it, untouched, for almost 4 years and still spinning that C15 like the first day I installed them. I let those go with the truck, as it had a tight, heat prone battery box and I felt I'd gotten most of the life out of them.
     
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