D.o.t. Wants a.p.u's in all trucks 2003 and newer

400lbs or 500 lbs, my tractor with full tanks, emissions bs and all my crap (less me) weighs 18,700 and I've got as much aluminum parts as they could possibly put on the truck, as well as lightweight other things.

Ive got several grain customers who I have to know a day ahead of time if I'm loading so I stay light on fuel otherwise I'm overweight. With a 40' hi-cube, 40' chassis and 1/2 tanks I'm 34,000 (without me), fully loaded I'm 80,300 before I get in the truck. Where would I put the extra 400 or 500 lbs of an APU?

 

I'm sorry Pony...just can't resist this one:

It shows 3 years in your trucker experience...2 tripacs in 3 years....hmmm, something says not so great!

 

I'm tempted to write something that will get me banned. So...

Tractor no. 1... put over 300,000 miles on it and 11,000 hours on the APU. Retired at 3-years in-service... like most Prime tractors are.

Tractor no. 2... have nearly 19,000 miles on it and 600 hours on the APU. So go sit on your "something" sideways!

Its a really great piece of equipment. Provides an excellent environment both summer and winter - and I'm not tied to a truckstop either. BTW... working on year no. 4, and I know what good, reliable equipment is.

 

Sounds about right.. 2003 and later trucks are supposed to be more smog friendly.. It makes alot of sense to require APU's on those instead of older trucks.. Sounds like a plan for our tax dollars to be hard at work funding kickbacks and buying APU's for more big fleets..

 

The rumour stated in the OP is bull. Atleast the dates are. Like i said before, a rule like that would have to have been made before 2003 for it to work! However, i could totally see them doing something like this.

But its ok to just burn crude oil in the ocean

 

You can't just compare total costs of an APU against fuel cost of a 6 cylinder 500 hp engine. The costs of wear and tear on your main engine must also be factored in. Idling away at 600 RPM hour after hour is extremely hard on a main engine.

 

Agreed. They're great for summer time(at least mine is). Even in winter, they're great, except for one thing. The company I'm at has an issue with the air dryer freezing up if we used the APU instead of idling up the engine in winter. So, come winter time, I don't shut this thing off. 1100RPM, here I come.

 

I think they would be considered a must if you drove solo and had to be parked for 10 hours a day but if you drive team, you really dont need one. For us, when its cool enough to not idle on the few times a month we have to sit somewhere overnight or all day, we have a charging cable that allows us to use the reefer battery as a trickle-charger to keep the truck batteries charged while we dont run the truck.

 

What ever happened to just allowing the guy buying the truck to choose what's on it? If you want one, buy one! But to make it "manditory" sounds like something the idiots from Kalifornia would come up with.

The last 3 sleeper trucks we've owned were almost never slept in. Were only ordered for the added room over a daycab. Seems only sensible to mandate those trucks have APU's

 

actually, California isn't friendly to APUs either. they emit exhaust. However, for the most part, they let them alone. (a couple of drivers in the company said they were ticketed for running their APU, but I don't know that for a fact)
California passed a law more than 10 years ago that requires any place that has truck parking to provide a 110v plug in so the truck can run an electric air conditioner. Of course that isn't enforced and I doubt you can find a half dozen places in the state that have the plug in.
Personally, I like APUs. but I don't think they should be mandatory.