APU exhaust

Hard to do either, when your parked at the truck stop & one pulls in beside you in the middle of the knight.

I woke up with a hell of a headache, but at least I woke up! His apu exhaust was pointed straight out towards the bottom of my sleeper. I got up, got some fresh air, then pulled out & turned my truck around so my sleeper was far away from his apu exhaust.

Now I carry a co detector in my truck, and it has woken me up a few times in the middle of the night from apu exhaust. When these things are installed the exhaust pipe should be run inline or inside the trucks exhaust stack.

 

The previous owner of my 377 had a bulkhead welded into the truck's exhaust at about the Y. The little Kubota diesel still has it's own muffler, just the exit from it goes into the truck's Y.

I think this can be done in most situations, but if I were the one doing the welding, I would be careful to put the bulkhead in a place that the truck's exhaust pressure does'nt push too hard into the apu exhaust. Sorta like an aspirator intake stack.

 

Cabon monoxide is poisoness to humans but I'm pretty sure that diesels dont produce enough carbon monoxide to kill you, carbon monxide is produced in a gas engine when there is not enough air for complete combustion (running rich) and instead of CO2 (carbon dioxide) you get CO (carbon monoxide), with diesels when you dont have enough air for compete combustion you get particulate matter (soot) instead of carbon monoxide, thats why the big push for diesel emission is based around soot and NOX (oxides of nitrogen) not carbon monoxide.
A diesel engine can however displace enough air (containing oxygen) with CO2 (carbon dioxide) to suffocate someone but its pretty unlikely to happen unless you are unconcious because you would normally notice yourself being suffocated, that said, it could very quickly and easily kill a baby or young child I guess.

 

Thats actually supposed to be very bad for your engine, when the APU is running and the engine is not exhaust gas is travelling back up your exhaust pipe into the main engine, since the main engine is not running and is cold the moisture in the exhaust cools and the NOX in the exhaust gas condences and combines with the water in exhaust gas to form acid (this is the same way acid rain forms), this can be very damaging to you engine. It may be unlikely to cause major damage to your main engine however when the main engine is running and the APU is not the problem runs in the opposite direction, the large amount of exhaust gas from your main engine could cause a lot of damage to you APU engine.

 

Yes it will.....
That's also why I think "Weed-Burners" should be banned as well...They do the same thing....Choke the driver parked next to them.....

 

Just today I had an idiot in a Prime truck pull in and park next to me...The weather was perfect a little overcast and cool but nowhere near cold, First thing the idiot does is start his APU and start blowing fumes into my truck through the open windows.

It should be illegal for a truck to be capable of sending any exhaust fumes into the truck parked next to it.

After a few minutes, I said something to the driver about it and requested that he shut it off....He said no because he liked the climate control in his truck...Sissy!

I made my request a little more firmly and he decided to shut it down...Maybe it was my personal charm that convinced him!

 

Ya know, I was wondering about that. I did not think about the condensing moisture, but the one cylinder (or more) that has an open exhaust valve would allow the exhaust of the other engine into it. If the cam were in the right position and the overlap of one cylinder were in position, it could allow exhaust all the way through into the air cleaner etc.

However, on some construction and agricultural equipment there is an air intake system that utilizes the exhaust gas flow to create a dust suction away from the incoming air. As I know it, it is called an "aspirator". I "think", but can not prove, that if this sort of design were used, it might work.

What do you think? Is something like that possible?

 

"but I'm pretty sure that diesels dont produce enough carbon monoxide to kill you"

Well, heck, because you said it, I feel better already!

Even if a situation doesn't produce instance death, it doesn't mean it can't make you sick as a dog and give you long-term effects - it was TWO MONTHS ago when I sucked in all that exhaust and I'm still sick.

 

My best friend here at Conway has a Prostar and a Tripac(Company truck),he was put out of service in Ca due to his Tripac muffler was bent and cracked(road debris hit it) when they replaced it($CHa-Ching) he had them add extra to it as he was experiancing lingering exhaust in his truck from it also.