Good, Cheap APU?

that's an "oxymoron" to say that in one sentence. (a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in "cruel kindness" or "to make haste slowly.")

you either want good....or cheap....

you get what you paid for..you cheap out, then it ain't so good now is it, when it breaks down on the coldest night of the year, or the hottest night of the year.....or shorts out and burns your electrical system out...

all a company driver can do is report on the system they have installed, but since they did not buy it themselves, they cannot realistically give a price, and given that trucking companies buy in bulk, they get some discounts, not usually passed onto the individual purchaser.

an o/o who HAS bought one, may not cheap out, as when his truck breaks down, he's down and out till repairs are made.

select on engine offered, accessories it can run, power output, fuel consumption, warranty, service, network of dealers, installation costs, interior control panels and their locations in the truck, and probably most of all, reputation of the company building them.

but pricing..??? go cheap....you'll be paying more for it in the long run.

 

I paid $8500.00 for a thermoking unit. Personally I think they are a pretty good unit. Keep in mind though it is another engine and two engines require twice the maintenance!

 

We had a Thermo-King also. It was great. The only complaint I had was you had to reset the thing every time you went from using the heater to the AC. And for me it was a pain in the butt. It was located under the bottom bunk. So I had to move stuff around in order to get to the reset switch. But other then that it was nice to have. It kept us nice and warm and nice and cool. It also will save you alot in fuel cost. It only burns a quart of fuel in 8 hours.

 

it is funny how back in the early 90's i was doing my homework to buy a rig. i was basically spec'ing out the plainest looking of trucks, as chrome, stainless steel does not impress me, nor do i wish to spend my FREE time cleaning and polishing all that glitter..

so instead, (back then) i was actually looking at what was commonly called back then "gen-sets" or pony packs"....

back then, fully installed was "about $3,000 to 5,000 dollars.....

guys were saying to me, "why would you want to spend THAT kind of money for a useless POS..???

i said, "because to me, all that glitters IS useless"......

"i'd rather spend money I KNOW i can get a return on, when MY engine is still going strong, and yours needed a rebuild or replacement".....

they would shake their heads and walk away....

i wonder how many of THOSE guys are still in business today...???

 

I used to run TK unit and loved it even though I hardly ever used it due to the fact it was in the in the winter. When I did it came in handy. It is better to use an apu than let an engine idle. As an employee, it is my responsibility to prevent the engine from excessive idling. The less wear and tear the engine has, the better off I will be if it goes down.

KH