parksmart aux A/C unit

You must be new to shopping parts at Thermo King dealers.

LOL really?

I have a 9000 btu mini split in mine that will freeze me out on a 100º sunny day with the curtains wide open and the sun blazing in through the windshield. The btu ratings are advertising fluff, and meaningless on their own. Airflow and efficiency also matter a lot to how comfortable your cab gets, as does the insulation or lack of, and outside paint color. If you have a dark colored truck with the typical make believe fiber-fill insulation, even the diesel Tri Pac won't keep up.

That said, the evap and fan arrangement on Tri Pacs is also less than ideal. They're designed for a hidden neat install, not efficiency and airflow. If an 8000 btu unit isn't getting it done, you need to check to see if the ventilation tubing is not kinked or torn somewhere, and that it's installed correctly. That's really a huge achilles heel for Tri Pacs, even the diesel ones. Let that intake filter in the evap case clog up, or duct tubes get out of whack, and they will fail to cool adequately every time.

 

dear Redforeman i am not new in this forum , not new in trucking... you need atleast 13000 btu to keep cold inside of semi truck.... calculations show that...9000btu will not keep cold inside in CA Az Nv

 

I didn't say you were new to trucking. You clearly either have not shopped the gold plated parts at Thermo King, or place no value on your own labor and downtime doing repairs and maintenance on a Tri Pac. Once it gets over about 5000 hours, you'll get to know its guts really well. I've run three of them up into the 30k hour range, so not just making it up.

I don't know where your calculations are coming from, I'm speaking from first hand experience. Seems you're just rationalizing your own decision at this point, so you do you.

 

I had 4 or 5 diesel Tripacs on company trucks. Older and evolution. Very well maintained. They all struggled when I was in the south with the curtains pulled blocking off the front of cab. Should have used a blanket to block off the upper bunk and maybe it would have been ok.

 

I was in a T600 with the last one, so the smaller cab helped I'm sure. I only had to shut the bunk curtains once, parking in Dallas on 110º day. Other than that extreme, I had some of those cheap, shiny window shades from walmart cut to fit the side and front glass that got the job done ok most times.

Which kind of underscores my point: btus ain't the whole solution. All these things tend to be a compromise somewhere. Remember the rigmaster ads in the truck magazines? 30k btu or something? Yeah you could hang meat in there and still leave the windows down, if you could put up with the noise and if it stayed running a week in a row.

 

Mine were all Cascadia full sleepers. I had window shades too but didn’t help.

Rigmaster LOL. It was the best worst APU all in one.

 

if you see tripac is not performing well in south you need to check presures of ac system. Very often debries in system clog expansion valve and it stops producing cold. Cleaning or replacing expansion valve solves issue. If tripac is in normal working condition there must be about 50 degries difference between ambient and blowing from evoporator temperatures..
if your tripac burns alternators or voltage regulators than the alternator is very close to muffler. Change the belt, keep alternator far from muffler..

 

my conclusions/calculations come from driving and sleeping in AZ, NV or CA.
I really dont know how many btu is this parksmart. It must be similar to battery powered thermo king apu . When outside is 95-100it you better turn this battery powered apu off and idle the engine. The tripac wich was 2008 model year with 26k hours on it on my sold truck was able to keep inside 75f when outside was 115f ( eith closed front curtains).. I had purchased alternator at $225, condenser $ 220 at tk dealers. Not cheap but not very expensive . ebay is full of high quality aftermarket parts for tripac.. I did the maitenance and was not expensive to keep it up in good shape..

 

Put it this way I had more down time than the thing was worth. It was used when I got it. Went through 3 alternator and all was under warranty.

I have dealer do almost all work my work. I like to take time off when home and enjoy it. I could work on it myself if I was broke and could not afford it. I change enough to let someone else do the dirty work.

If I want to work during that time I find higher paying jobs to off set the cost. I get all my loads do all The paperwork and taxes. So I do plenty already.