Home-buit APU?

An early model Willis. The early Willis were good and then they couldn't stand the prosperity of having a trouble free unit and modified the design and had a lot of problems. I heard the recent ones are good again. I've been real happy with mine. I had to replace the starter (Honda) and the AC compressor (Toyota). I think that compressor was my fault from not starting the AC up fpr 8 months.

I've got a gas powered Onan on the motor home. It seems to be a good little unit.

 

I have a 3500 watt gas gennie I bought 'new' for $200.00 a space heater for $30.00 and a trickle charger that I already had. It takes less than ten minutes to set up, the only hassle is getting gas but that isn't that big a deal, I have a 4 gal. can in the tool box on the trailer. I'll add a window shaker this summer so my total investment will go up another $125.00 or so.

 

My son has been using his 5K Honda generator without any trouble for about 3 years.

Gas powered motorhomes have had these generators for 30 years... most have proven to be very reliable.

 

Looked at some portable diesel generators on eBay. Anyone with experience with portable diesel generators,as opposed to a gas generator?

And I have seen a thermoking dealer advertising used apu's starting at $2500 in truckpaper. Would it be practical to get just a tripac generator set,(without the accompanying HVAC equipment) and hook an RV a/c unit to it? I'm assuming that would save space and weight.

 

In doing that you loose all the control functions that provide much of the value of the APU. I am sure that you can get some of the features working but then you are re-enginering what has already been done. How much weight would you be saving by doing this? Most of my weight is in the generator. Would you save 20-30 lbs? Maybe.

 

I had a Honda EU3000IS quiet generator mounted on my frame on a custom aluminum bracket for over 2 years. It powered a Coleman Roughneck roof mounted RV A/C - heating unit. The sleeper was also wired for shore power, had 2 ac power outlets and a 2500 watt inverter. It also had a 12 amp trickle charger. It was quieter and more reliable than any APU unit I've ever known about. I had thousands of hours on that Honda without any failures or problems and it still runs well today. I even had polished diamond plate riveted to the outside of it. The shortcomings were that it needed to be gassed daily because it holds 3.4 gallons and that's not enough for 2 nights and I had to get out to start and stop it. I learned to look for gas pumps that I could pull up to and Flying J RV pumps are almost always accessible. The few places where you could plug in and use the shore power were excellent. There are many shore power locations planned. Florida turnpike service plazas are adding them now. Some truck stops in the north west have them. One last thing. Do not use a window unit or a low priced rooftop unit. The window units will expire in 6 months on average and the lower priced roof top units about a year. They can't survive the vibration and shock of OTR trucking. As far as I know only the Coleman Roughneck is built to take these vibrations. Also 3000 watts is about the minimum to run a 13,500 BTU unit and a TV or other small AC powered accessories at the same time.

 

I've been using a Honda 2000I generator for about 7-8 years now. Maint cost is a quart of oil every other month or so. I buy a new spark plug each spring (about $5), never changed the air filter (just take out and wash).

I use a 8000 btu portable ac unit. I took out the pass seat and it sits there. (I made my own window mount out of a piece of 1x6 for the hot air discharge) and it only draws 1000 watts of juice. Well under the 1600 watt "rated load" (it also leaves me plenty of juice for tv, sat reciever and computer). I even have a small space heater for winter.

I bought an extra 3 gal gas can with the hose so it now runs all night without me getting up every 4 hrs and refueling.

Gen is small enough to be kept in tool box while driving and set beside truck while in use.(with a chain and lock to attach to frame while parked).

My total investment about $1600. Paid for it self MANY MANY times over. Takes me about 10 min to set everything up (including sat dish), not including walking to gas pumps to refill gas tank for night.

 

Come on everybody, sing along- M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E ,
MICKEY MOUSE

 

Another song comes to mind...Money.

 

You can get a Tri-Fuel (natural gas, propane, gasoline) kit for Honda and Yamaha generators along with remote start kits from several places like US Carburetion

If it were me I would run propane and two 20# tanks (each 20# tank is equivalent to around 5 gallons of gasoline) with auto-switchover and run a 5000 BTU home air-conditioner mounted to the frame somewhere and either have a HVAC shop fabricate a duct, or use flexible readymade ducting to run to the cab.

Not a driver yet but people do use a setup like this in RV's and it seems cheap compared with 10k for an APU.