Battery Powered HVAC

they need an APU really......the packs were not designed for those of us who live in our trucks for weeks at a time....there is supposed to be a sensor that will let you idle your truck depending on what the temp is...I wanna say over 90 and below 40...but I am probably wrong on the temps...

 

Im on a hometime fleet and we just got a 2012 prostar and according to the other driver its smaller ( less room inside) than the 07 columbia freightshaker. Very little storage and it wont idle at all. I asked him what do we do when we are parked longer than ten hours and the electric heat batterys go dead. He said I guess we will find out ! Im all for a new truck , but now im thinking be carefull what you wish for.
that 06 freightshaker with the thermo king apu looks really good now !
So how about some feedback on the prostar also, and the new truck dosent have the auto start feature for battery recharging.

 

I have 2012 Prostar and it is way bigger than the 07 freightshakers, unless you had a condo unit. They don't run on electric heat, they have the same bunk heaters as the old units, but they are tied into the HVAC system and you can actually adjust the temp and it comes out of multiple vents for even heating, instead of full blast heat out of an underbunk vent that sweats you out after 15 minutes.
I don't know about the Freightliner battery systems, but the Prostars have an autostart feature that will recharge the batteries. I've had a Prostar since early October and have had to run AC down in Texas all night and heat up in Marshfield without a single battery problem. The autostart will start and idle the truck for up to 70 minutes if the charge on the batteries starts to get low. Sometimes it will idle for 10 minutes, sometimes 30 minutes, but it has never had to idle for the full 70 minutes. It will also autostart in cold weather if the oil temp gets too low, so the truck will start in the morning.
The battery units are way better than the APU because it is totally quiet and the autostart rarely kicks in unless you are sitting over 10 hours and/or running a lot of stuff in the truck. Really the only thing they don't provide with the battery systems is an inverter, which roehl will install at your cost.
Take note that like all the trucks in Roehl's fleet that have APUs I can not idle longer than 5 minutes either, unless it is on autostart and I have no control when the truck will start and idle or how long it will idle, that is all computer controlled by the truck.
I think the people who are b#tch about the systems are the old timers who can't comprehend that you can watch tv and run the hvac without having an engine running constantly, whether it is the big engine or the little one. I guess they can't get used to sleeping in a quiet truck? I bet these guys also b#tched when engine powered APUs came on the scene.

Oops I just saw you posted it does not have autostart. I didn't know they had units without autostart.

 

thanks for the info, of course im going off what the other driver is telling me.
Ive never seen the truck yet, its a white prostar with about 95 kj on it.
I guess maint went to show him how to set up the auto start, and the mechanic says, OH this trk dosent have it. Also from what im told this is one of those smaller trks that are built light weight, smaller sleeper, no storage. I know you have seen them Prime is running alot of these trks and they look funny, especially the cascadias. Also it has a all electric heater,dosent run on diesel. OK anybody got a jewel like this one!!!

 

I think those white ones are a lot different than the red or silver ones, they are smaller I know, I have been told by other drivers they are small. Can't really campare them to the new Prostars from what I have been told

 

I don't think I've seen any of the white Prostars around the yards, just the silver and red ones. Like I said mine has tons of room and storage, even the mattress is wider. I really enjoy my Prostar, too bad yours does not have the autostart. I wonder what they are going to do when drivers in these trucks start calling all the time for jumpstarts and loads are late while drivers are stuck with dead batteries?

 

exactly and at the east st louis drop yard there are no places to plug in and the trks sit out in the open, oh well I guess we will find out.

 

The white ones they picked up in April another company had ordered them and backed out Roehl grabbed them on the cheap....they have the small sleeper, figured they would go to regional drivers

 

Auto-start is nice, except when you have a malfunction and it starts 3 times in one night for some reason. Been to the dealer and malfunction is cleared up, but not sure I want to try the auto-start just yet. I can sleep with the heater alone all night, or just turn it on when I am cold. (I have plenty of blankets.)
This summer will be interesting with the AC. I did try it when I was hot in Atlanta last week. Kept the interior nice and cool. The question is for how long.