no idle states

[greg334]

Don't know about a 40 gallon tank gasoline tank. From my understanding, if you have a gasoline tank over a certain size, you have to follow certain rules.

I have a 40 gallon DOT approved tank for gas. It is off a FL70 that used to have a Dodge V10 in it. The point is that the tanks that are DOT approved is.... well DOT approved. By the way I saw a 75 gallon gas tank on another FL70 with a V8 in it.

mjolnir131,
the engineers? Which one?

The engine suppliers have decided which engines will pass CARB requirements. The APU people, well they came up with refitting kits that will allow a user to bring the apu up to CARB standards. But remember that these units don't use electronic fuel systems yet, and that is a problem with these APUs. However I did see one possible use of a Blu-tec engine from VW which can be controlled better through electronics.

inkasnana
You will still need a generator, the solar panel thing is still a long way off to provide as a replacement for a generator. When they can make them work with an overcast sky, then it will work.

Actually the best system I have seen on the green side uses a fuel cell to charge up batteries. It is available in Europe right now and works well from what I have heard. I am trying to figure out how to get them over here.

 

[MentalGiant]

Well, we tried a truck with just the batteries, no soler panels. Its fine if you are just sitting for a few hours, other than that you have to idle to charge them back up and that takes awhile. The guy who has been pushing this ideal onto the owners, told me to go driving around for a few hours to charge them back up quicker. lol I told him he was nuts. Thats when I told the owner of the truck to put a APU back on the truck or I was done with his truck. Because not all the time, but there are times we would have to sit for 2 or 3 days. Most cases was on the weekends. And this same guy who talked the owner into the batteries, is trying to say the solar panels will do the job. Ya, I'm sure it will, if you don't use much of anything in the truck.

 

[greg334]

This all depends on yout consumption of power, what are you doing in the sleeper matters.

From the people who are working on this, BP solar, they say that the return on investment for a truck is not worth the investment. In addition they, like other manufactures may not warranted the panel if it is mounted on the truck regardless who puts it there. The problems that the BP engineer talked about had to do with the size of the panel, the recharge time and so on. He was clear that there are improvements, but without a generator on board, you have to run the truck.

Now the other thing that is not mentioned is the rate of the charge of these batteries, if you need a quick charge, then chances are they will have a short life. The one solution that is talked about is a super capacitor, quick to charge and holds a lot of energy.

 

[mjolnir131]

Why do i get the feeling that in the near future our trucks are going to start looking like Emmit Brown's Delorian

 

[inkasnana]

The refrigerator and freezer seem to use up the power the fastest. With our generator down again, we will turn off the lights and fan and open the windows, with just the fridge/freezer turned on, and after 2 to 3 hours the inverter starts beeping at us. Then we have to start the truck again.

It was worse when we were running the truck with just the battery set up. That was a major headache, not to mention the added weight that the batteries added to the truck.

Of course, if the people where we take our truck to be worked on had fixed the generator correctly in the first place, it would be working now. We didn't find out until it quit again and we were miles away that they had just taken a part off of another generator (a capacitor) and slapped it on ours, which worked for a short time but didn't last. Since the code that is flashing means an electrical problem, I guess it was too much trouble to go looking and find the real cause of the problem.

So all this means, no loads to CA for us until we can get back to the shop again and have the generator fixed, again.

EDIT: Hubby said I needed to make a correction, our inverter starts beeping at us after only 1 1/2 to 2 hours. And to clarify a point.. that we do NOT have the battery set up on this truck. We have a generator that isn't working. The battery set up was on a previous truck and we ended up having the owner remove that set up and put on a generator.

 

[layoutshooter]

You can find fuel cells for marine use, so they would work on a truck, at West Marine. I don't think they are cost effecient yet. They will be someday but they have a long way to go in my opinion. I don't see how the solar will work on it's own. I have been looking a wind generators but they are too big, produce too little energy to be of use. I like the gas generator idea. ANYTHING that, 1: gets rid of my apu and 2: defeats California's diesel nazis. Layoutshooter

 

[greg334]

inkasnana,
Do you have a generator or an APU?

I had the same problem with my batteries, but since my inverter kept going into a brown out stage (low input voltage), I burned up the fridge.

Who is working on the generator?

It seems anyone who knows what they are doing would be able to fix the problem without swapping parts. But again, I fixed a lot of them in my time so there isn't much that goes wrong with generators. APUs on the other hand are not idiot proof and after talking to a lot of 'service' techs, I found that they are like auto mechanics - just because they were trained, doesn't mean they were trained.

I was going to use my expensive honda generator to replace the one that was destroyed in January but I decided against it. Instead I am saving up for a good engine and just throwing together a 12 volt 150 amp setup to keep things charged for now. It will be simple, small and quiet.

 

[CharlesD]

With the freight levels lately, just about any place I sit is idle.

 

[MentalGiant]

inkasnana,
Do you have a generator or an APU?

I had the same problem with my batteries, but since my inverter kept going into a brown out stage (low input voltage), I burned up the fridge.

Who is working on the generator?

It seems anyone who knows what they are doing would be able to fix the problem without swapping parts. But again, I fixed a lot of them in my time so there isn't much that goes wrong with generators. APUs on the other hand are not idiot proof and after talking to a lot of 'service' techs, I found that they are like auto mechanics - just because they were trained, doesn't mean they were trained.

I was going to use my expensive honda generator to replace the one that was destroyed in January but I decided against it. Instead I am saving up for a good engine and just throwing together a 12 volt 150 amp setup to keep things charged for now. It will be simple, small and quiet.

This is inkasnana husband. We have a APU. The owner of the truck prefers us to go to a certain place. The APU has a cat engine in it, its a powerpac. The owner sends us to place where they work on cat engines. We have never had to go before, so I don't know what their knowledge is on the APU. But I'm guessing since the owner prefers them over the other places, guess they might know what they are doing.

 

[greg334]

Well I'm sorry for your problems.... I would make sure it gets fixed - it is a good business decision.

By the way if you pack the fridge with those frozen packs, it won't run as much. A packed fridge is a happy fridge.

 

[inkasnana]

Forgive my mistake. I've always called it a generator without realizing there is a difference between that and an APU.

It's that stupid, noisy, only-works-when-it-wants-to, frustrates the heck out of me, metal box stuck to the bottom side of the truck.

 

[layoutshooter]

You got the same kind of APU I have then. Brand or make does not matter. If it acts that way it sucks. Layoutshooter

 

[MentalGiant]

Well I'm sorry for your problems.... I would make sure it gets fixed - it is a good business decision.

By the way if you pack the fridge with those frozen packs, it won't run as much. A packed fridge is a happy fridge.

Don't worry its packed right now. It always stay packed. Once I see food started disappearing from it, its time to hit wal-mart again. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to cook much since the APU took a dump on us. The conviction oven we use to cook with and the appliances use way to much power, even with the truck idling. The inverter starts going crazy when we do try. But, were going to take off for a bit at the end of the month and while were out of service, were having the APU and some other minor things repaired, so hopefully we will be good to go when we get back on the road.

 

[greg334]

Forgive my mistake. I've always called it a generator without realizing there is a difference between that and an APU.

No need to apologize, I understand.... remotes are still called clickers and clickers to me were things that the 101st carried with them on D-Day.

Now when any of you are going to toss that APU out in the trash, call me I will take it off your hands.... of course i won't charge the environmental fees.

That goes for generators too.....

 

[layoutshooter]

Well, if you can make mine work, and stay working, I would be happy to pay you the labor I have been paying shops all over the country. If not, when I do take it off I will be selling the only part that works, the engine. The rest? Maybe part it out. Layoutshooter

 

[greg334]

I can't see what the problem is, maybe mentioned a wrongly spec'ed hose? I'm not ready to go back and do repairs for others right now, I wish I could but can't.

I heard of one A/C company out there using hydraulic hose for repairs - bad thing to do.

 

[layoutshooter]

I was not really asking for you to really do it. Just musing out loud. This thing is really frustrating. I keep wishing that it would just go away. Layoutshooter

 

[inkasnana]

Layout, maybe if we combine our mental forces and each wish hard enough, both of our APU problems will vanish! lol

 

[greg334]

I have a big hammer and pry bar.

Is the A/C the only problem?

 

[layoutshooter]

For the most part. It does eat belts. I just have to change them often, to keep them from breaking. I do use the Carrier belts, not the cheapies. The pullies have been checked for alignment and they tell me they are straight. The last time it broke it took out a wiring harness. The AC sucks. It freezes up on a regular basis. It seldom works more than 3 or 4 months. Good idea Inkasana, (meditating) OMMMMM MONEYPATRY OMMMMM!! Layoutshooter