How important is driver comfort (questions about APUs)?

If you want to reach peak market saturation, you need to meet the needs of as many driving situations as possible.

I have never had an APU - I ran team. And that's not to say that we didn't sit and overnight places - we did.

But after running the ROI on numbers for a team truck, I just couldn't get the numbers to jibe enough for me to drop 10k on an APU. The fuel savings would take longer than the life of a team truck to see a return on investment. So I'm left with selling it with the truck and plopping down another 10k. Or taking it out and trying to sell a truck with a hole in the cab. No thanks.

Ergo, the 'perfect' product would be clean, quiet, powerful AND affordable.

 

I don't mind a cold truck, I have blankets so it can be 10 degrees out and it's fine but a hot truck is dangerous and unbearable, if I didn't have an apu, I'd be idling, if I wasn't idling I'd be in a hotel, if the company wouldn't pay for the hotel id go work elsewhere simply as that.

An inverter is more important to me but usually they come hand in hand

 

Barry675- are you trying to find out what will make an apu sell? I'm not sure on numbers but I would assume most apu's are on company trucks. A company's main concern would be price and emisions compliance first and driver comfort issues second. Personally what I mainly care about on any idle reduction technology is does it do a good job keeping the bunk hot or cold. The fact it reduces emissions is a huge plus for me to. I like leaving as small a footprint on this planet as possible. Not all driversfeel this way. Some idle constantly just because they enjoy the rumble of the truck. Battery systems are ok as long as the truck will start up automatically to charge the battery. I had a bunk heater once that drained the battery after 6 hours. Used to get woken up by the bitter cold and have to start the truck and idle for 15 minutes and charge the battery back up