Mandatory APU's

It ain't rocket science boys.

Charlie

 

Was talking with my brother about the huge demand that I feel is coming for APU's. He has a shop that builds custom trailer conversions and used to build sleepers too. He said one of the major APU manufacturers offered him a dealership and his profit would be about $2500 per unit, including installation.

 

I agree with you in theory. It is expensive up front, it is not causing discomfort or money to fleet owners, so they have little to no motivation to buy them.

I just think that the states and maybe feds are going to provide the motivation by mandating sweeping no idle laws to reduce emissions, noise and fuel consumption. For example, here in Florida there will be no idling for more than 5 minutes (I think its 5 min) allowed after Sept 30th 2008. The states that already have idling laws are setting the standards for things to come.

What are drivers gonna do, sweat/freeze to death in their sleepers? What will happen to the industry if drivers are treated even worse than they are already? Without decent rest they accident rate will go up, then insurance... Eventually companies will see the benefit of the added upfront cost in lower fuel consumption and insurance rates. Just my 2 cents worth... I'm done opining.

 

Hey, I resemble that remark.

 

Yeah, I got a friend who mounted a dsl generator on his frame and put a small A/C unit where the window usta be in the back wall of his sleeper. It works, but he has to replace the A/C unit about every 6 months or so due to harmonic viberations causing it to quit working? They're not made to take the abuse of trucking. I don't know why he doesn't buy a roof mounted unit built for RV's... I think its the up front cost - he pays about 100 bucks for the little units, but its a pain in the ### to change, we pulled his headache rack to change it the other day.

 

could not c pics wondering if it's me

 

I did something like that on the M35, a military 6x6 with a 12x6 ft box in be bed. I put an 8000BTU window unit through a front hatch on the box where the military a/c would have gone (those are not available and usually are 400Hz-3 phase anyway). I added a second 12000 BTU one that I built from parts so the condenser was on the outside of the box and the evaporator and fan were on the inside. With both running It could get down to 65 in there in the sun with 105 degree heat, so with the door being opened and shut a lot, the temp would stay about 72. In the pic, the one on the left, facing, is the home made unit. Other is the store-bought.

This was not for cab cooling and was only used to cool the box interior when stopped for the night or summer camping. I am old and don't like the heat much any more.

The a/c's both eventually failed because of vibration of the compressor on its rubber mounts as the truck went down the road. It was an offroad truck but 99% driven on-road.

The compressor would jiggle around and crack the copper line at the compressor so it was ruined. This was the same breakage on both machines.

The fix was to bolt the new compressor in place to prevent the movement and tighten everything else in place too. The evaporator and condenser were held in place by plastic and foam mounts. I found places in them I could run sheet metal screws through from the bottom and then the top and did that (hard part was matching up the holes). The result was a slightly noisier a/c unit, but it beat 90-100 degrees for sleeping. Window a/c's are POS-constructed and not made for riding around but that one was still working fine after 3 years when I sold the truck, maybe after 15K miles. Not enough miles for a test for a commercial truck. It was only a Saturday job to mod it.

Next time he buys a new a/c unit, before installing it, take it apart and replace every rubber grommet or stand-off holding the motor or compressor in place with a metal piece. Bolt every loosely mounted item having to do with the plumbing securely in place.

I did not have any aluminum rod nor machine tools so I stacked up the right height of fender washers to replace the rubber stand-offs and where it was possible replaced the fastener with a grade 5 bolt and a cut-washer under the nut. Hope this suggestion helps.