Apu questions

So far, everything I've heard about the ECM programming is timed in the minutes. I'm thinking about having my engine uprated (although 475HP really does just fine with what I'm doing), and I'll have to ask into that again. It had better take an awful lot of 9's (idle shutoff minutes: 99999 or better) to make any difference at all.

If I do wind up buying an APU, I'll have it plumbed to the cooling system for extreme cold weather. So far, the lowest bid I've gotten is $9,500! The TriPac does seem like the best option for service and performance, I just hope I can use the "write-off" this year .

Incidentally, with all this "green team" crap we're hearing about in goobermint grants, etc - where's a simple tax credit for truckers who choose to squander their own money on an apu? If I spend it, the last thing I want is to be taxed on it - after all, it's for the frekkin' emissions issues and the idling laws - my truck is just fine without one!

 

How did you mount the battery charger?

 

I bought a $1029 Honda 2000 watt quiet generator and a $300 portable A/C from Sears. A/C rides shotgun with a seatbelt. Has a removable hot air exhaust hose that hooks up to a piece that custom fits in the passenger window. This unit puts out 8000 BTU's of air conditioning and only pulls 760 watts. Generator runs a little over 4 hours per one gallon of gasoline and is very quiet. Fits on the floorboard in front of the passenger seat when not in use. I use a heavy duty bicycle cable lock and lock it to the leaf springs on the passenger side under the engine next to the tire then close the hood. Nobody messes with it but I get a lot of curious drivers looking at the setup and asking how much this all cost. My fuel economy went from the mid 6's to the low 8's now because I don't idle anymore. I was high idling per Rush truck center advice that it keeps the particulate trap pressure up as well as heat whereas low idling was putting dirty exhaust into the DPF and not hot enough or enough pressure to cook it out.I estimate I'm saving about $400 a week not idling, using that otherwise idled fuel to get down the road paid. Before was costing $50 -$60 bucks a day idling now just $7 bucks for 2 gallons of gasoline give or take.

 

For what it's worth I have a Carrier. I chose this because of the installed price and it was purchased where I park my truck, serviced there as well. Like any machine, check the oil, have it serviced and it'll work for a good while.

 

I had a A/C like that that would sit on the floor in front of the passanger seat but just found that the hot exhaust tube was to much sometimes for the A/C to overcome on really hot days. I have a window unit that fits in the passager window that works alot better on those 110 deg days in Az. A small house fan also makes a huge differance. You don't get any gas smell from the gen being inside the truck? I just made a platform to mount mine off of the frame and have a cable that lockes it there and a cover to keep the weather off of it.

 

If that's for me, I have a small black and decker charger hard wired to the batteries that is mounted in one of the cabinets in my sleeper. Its only a 2/4/6 amp hour charger. I have the charger just to help keep the batts from draining when sitting for a day off or doing a restart running the fridge ( havent done one of those in the truck in a long time) or to help keep the batties warm in really cold weather. I have the block heater also set up so when I run the gen I can plug it in about 4-5 hours before starting the truck on cold days or after a few days off.

 

Dang scottied67
I have to say that has be the best creative alternitive to a regular apu i have ever seen. although me personally i don't think i would like that a/c unit ridding on my jump seat. but then agian its not my truck, lol.
Seriously though that is a fantastic setup
As for reagular apu's really liked my carrier too had one for three years till i left that company. The only thing i didn't like is that big unit that goes under the bunk takes all the room in that section. I did get used to keep all my bags on the upper bunk though. Only problem i ever had with it besides a belt now an then was a fuse blew( one time)
in the unit under the bunk and you have to take in for repair. its not one that you can just pull out - put a new one in.

 

That would bother me too. I had one kinda like that that would sit on the floor in front of the seat. The window A/C I have now sat up to high on the pass seat for my liking also so I removed the seat cushion and put a peice of plywood for it to sit on

 

I have a Tripac, it was on the truck when I bought it, didn't pay any more for the truck as a result but so far so good w/ 9500 hrs on it. I made a couple changes to it. Swapped out the 65 amp alternator for a Checker auto 140 amp ($165 1996 SS Impala fits). Changed the loud lawn mower sized muffler, ran exhaust thru a 2 1/2" truck muffler and out just in front of the front drive axle w/ chrome tip ..... much better. This took me about 4 times as long as I originally thought .... had to fab all kinds of brackets and exhaust hangers. One problem with the thing in general, when the cab temperature reaches the set point, the fan doesn't shut off so all the moisture on the evaporator gets pumped back into the cabin.....makes it humid. TK needs to get the "auto" function working on the controller for the fan.

 

Nice setup. Very cheap and easy DIY. This is what I'm going to do next summer. Thanks!