Electric APUs?

Guys that is NOT HOW THE DUAL HOSE SYSTEM WORKS.

Read my post above.. the incoming air is 100% isolated from your inside air.

The incoming air is ONLY used in a sealed compartment to cool the unit so that it can make cold air for the room the unit is in.

Without using the incoming hose you are actually creating the very situation that you THINK you are preventing.

All that air that your pumping outside has to come from somewhere or else your truck cab would become an airless vacuum. So by not using the hoses properly your actually forcing " hot humid outside pee air" to be sucked into your truck. And unless you leave a window cracked to allow that air to flow freely into the cabin your also at least slightly decreasing the cooling ability of the unit by limiting the heat removing air flow to the "back side" of the unit.

I explained all of that in my post above. It is the fact that the air is isolated from the cabin and (used properly) DOES NOT bring in any outside air into the cabin that makes the 2 hose unit much preferable to the single hose unit. Assuming of course that you actually use it properly...

 

Oh gotcha. That actually makes much more sense. I take it all back

 

I ran a 2000iu Honda suitcase generator and a 7000 btu single hose stand up A/C for four years. In extreme heat say over 95 degrees, it didn't do much better than cooling down the cab to about 92 degrees.

The unit does really well when the air surrounding it is 85 or less. Of course on a sunny day the interior will get upwards of 120+ degrees as we all know. But at night that thing could freeze me out. In humid climates it produced a ton of water. I had a little hose and aimed it for the door jam and in the mornings there would be a river of water out the truck on the ground, I'm sure everyone thought I was draining my black tanks lol

 

Reading the post above about the condensate runoff reminds me, some of the dual hose units actually eliminate the disposal issue by vaporizing the water and blowing it out the discharge hose. Very convenient!

If your unit does not do that you could always drill a 1/2" hole in your floor and use a small hose to let it run outside.

 

Yep and same with Colorado Cheyenne is says up to 6 plus inches of snow by Friday and then back to 50 on Sunday

 

OP another option and one that I chose to run with was Idle smart. It is no an electric system, but has an extremely small footprint. The system monitors my batteries, and outside temps (sub freezing) automatically firing up the truck to charge the batteries and keep the motor warm during the most frigid of night. It also has the ability to start and stop the truck to maintain cabin temps. The first 2 things it does automatically anytime the truck is off and in neutral with parking brakes set. The last bit it does if I power the unit on while on my break. It is more costly than a small generator and dorm style ac but with no serviceable parts and does not take up space coupled with ease of use made it a decision I have been pleased with for the past 2 years.

 

PLEASE CORRECT Me IF I'M WRONG, but, that sounds like a computer that monitors outside temp, inside temp and battery voltage and then starts and stops the big motor as needed to allow the heater, A/C and alternator to operate as needed.

Assuming that is correct, it won't solve the OPs problem and, (as I understand it) that is how to cool the cabin without having to run the big motor.

 

YES YOU ARE CORRECT! His problem was not stated only a potential solution of using an electric apu. To that end I read his opening post about the potential of an electric apu as a viable solution to reduce idle time and save money/fuel. Thus the Idle Smart solution I use may be an option he might want to look into. Having typed all of this, I did go back and reread his opening post and I completely missed the fact that his bunk HVAC is inoperable so my solution would not have been much help until he fixes his hvac lol.