Apu questions

none of them are good deals but the tri-pacs seem to be about as solid as any of them. I know one guy here who has t=on of them and two rig masters and he says he'd only buy the tri-pac again

 

Hey There, If I am not mistaken, thr TRI PAC are sold and installed at all Thermo King centers.

From what I hear, they are the best

Larry

 

The Volvo Dealer in Bangor says 6 grand to buy, 2 grand more to install.

 

Last FleetOwner article said many will never recover the cost. Savings are based on 100% idle year round and 1 gallon per hour. My CAT uses .6 gph based on nearly 7000 hrs. I think many engines are the same or even less dependent on the load.


Lots of fuzzy sales promotion math with these APU's.

 

I'm not a big fan of adding weight and future problems to a truck. If it were up to me, this thing would have crank-up windows and a mechanical motor. Let's throw universal parts in the wish list - what's the big deal about making a one size fits all fuel filter - for example.

The anti-idling laws popping up all over the place have got me interested too. As near as I can tell, my truck idles at well under a gallon of fuel an hour (Cummins ISX '05 w/ EGR). Personally, I still think it's better to let the truck idle through the rest periods - for the motor, weather conditions, and the comfort and safety of the driver. Unfortunately, all these insane idling rules take none of that into consideration - let alone the plight of the O/O trying to make it through a tough time with high fuel prices and ridiculously low freight rates.

To top it off, I just read an article the other day (think it was in Land Line) about Maverick getting a $600k grant from the feds to buy APUs - like they needed the help. Where's our help? We're having to struggle against these big corps, and try to make a buck while they fight the rates down even worse.

If you want a real dose of reality, check out the details on some of the new idling laws - some offer no exceptions at all! So I suppose you're supposed to try and outfit your truck with a -20F APU, and batteries strong enough to crank the engine over after sitting 10 hours? How about that APU hooked up to fuel heaters for the tanks? I don't get it and I guess I won't anytime soon - it makes no sense.

If anything, those Maverick APUs are going to keep their fuel costs down while they strand drivers all over the map - waiting to soak up any available freight at the lowest possible rate. By the time we're all broke and gone - I'd bet they'll throw in the towel and file bankruptcy - because they pushed the rates too low.

Here's the soap box back Thanks for the input on Tri-Paks - thinking about getting one myself this year before my arm twists off!

 

someone stated in one of these other threads that he used a small honda powered gas generator that was locked up inside a tool box out back ( with exhaust hole I believe) and went through a level 2 inspection and DOT didn't have a problem with it.
I guess one step better would be a small diesel generator with fuel line from your tank, exhausted out the tool box or frame mounted, electric start and wired with block heater, tank warmer, outlets in sleeper cab. How thats worth 8 grand when the generator starts out at under 2 grand baffles me

 

the tripacs supposedly sip 1 pint of diesel per hour under max load. Again this is based on info from the the afore mentioned dealer.