Snackbar is chillin'....at Shaffer

The biggest reason that Opti-Idle has to start so often is...OPTI-IDLE!!!

I have a 2018 Freightliner, and I was using Opti-Idle most of the time. The start-stop cycle was every 90 minutes or so. I use a CPAP and have a large refrigerator that runs all of the time. I stopped using Opti-Idle, and the batteries last at least 4 or 5 hours without the inverter shutting down. Maybe longer. The stupid thing about Opti-Idle is that the stupid ventilationfan runs, even on battery mode. That is the main reason that Opti-Idle has to start so often. My truck idles without shutting off, which I think is just a happy malfunction. I tend to idle for a few hours when I go to sleep, then the first time I wake up I shut the truck off. Extreme hot or cold alters this, but in moderate weather even with CPAP, refrigerator, and personal fan running, the truck goes for hours before hitting 12.1 volts, which I think is when the low voltage alarm goes off. I'm awake before that happens. Opti-Idle is a stupid system that causes the truck to idle far more than necessary just for battery purposes.

 

Wow, that is really bad. Something is definitely not right. Too bad the maintenance folks don't seem to care.

 

There is one big thing that will reduce your idle time that I have told several people at Crete, but as far as I have heard, it's never made it onto any official document with the company.

Your A/C thermostat has three 'range' settings to control the cooling of your sleeper. 4, 7, and 10 degrees.

The factory setting appears to be a 4 degree range. So, if you have the cooling thermostat set to 71 degrees, it will allow the sleeper to get to 75 degrees before turning on and dropping the temp back to 71. This leads to the truck turning on quite often in any sort of hot weather.

When I first came to Crete, I got nannygrams about my idle % as soon as warm weather hit. I dug around the settings of the thermostat, and set my thermostat range at 7 and target temp at 68 degrees so it would turn on at 75, and cool to 68. My idle % dropped about 8% immediately.

I tried it, but can't deal with the 10 degree shift. Going from 75 to 65 degrees in just a few minutes will wake me up regularly - it's not uncomfortable, it's just too big of a change and wakes me up. If you can deal with a range that large and stay comfortable (and asleep,) you can probably drop your idle % even more.

 

I feel for you guys that have to deal with this bs. I turn on my apu or idle the truck go to sleep and don’t deal with any of this. No calls griping at me about idling, no nanny cam bs, nothing beeping at me when I change lanes, etc.

 

I'm not sleeping in sweat .....because Crete thinks my idle time is too high...I will stay comfortable and idle ...much as needed

 

Wow. Crete going retro with the rheostats, eh?

There might still be a computer-controlled range for the temp setting. Might ask the next shop you are in a shop if there is a computer setting for sleeper thermostat activation range, if you feel like playing around with it.