Dear Old Nose,

It's a Perkins engine. The only option that's available is autostart and there seems to be some question about what it does. We know you can set it to come on at a certain time but the manual seems to be a little unclear. It says the unit can come on when the temp goes below your setting or above your setting but it doesn't make it clear that you need autostart for this feature.

Not sure if the autostart is needed if the battery falls below the certain voltage level.

A few experiments will solve all the questions. The autostart feature is $250 and can be enabled at any time by buying the code to punch into the computer.

I should be home early today so I'll be playing around with it.

It does need the oil changed and filter after the first 50 hours of operation which will probably happen my first time out. I'm going to buy a few filters before I leave today and do it myself. I'm sure I won't be around any place that services Rigmaster when the time comes.

 

I bet Joshua could break that code for ya.......

 

What was the installed price if you don't mind?

any calculations how long to pay for itself?

how much extra weight?

 

The unit costs $6,500 but Rigmaster announced a rebate while they were putting it in so it's $6,000. The dealer is going to wait for the rebate instead of me sending it in. It normally takes 14 hours to install but the mechanic was just about done yesterday so I'm guessing it will take 10 hours. He said my setup was a wet dream. No side panels, no junk and plenty of room. I did call the mechanic before going up and asked how he wanted me to prepare the truck for installation. I cleaned out certain areas and removed one of my drive mud flaps.

I think the unit weighs around 369 total. I lost one of my storage boxes and put a 60" box on my trailer so that may add a little weight between the difference of my old smaller box and the new one.

I don't know what the final price will be but I'm guessing $7,000 total. They paid for my hotel room and gave me a car to drive. The said it was a Mercedes but it says KIA.

I'm pretty sure I'll recover the price in less than 2 years. Between idling my truck and the cost of Idle Air I'm pretty sure I'll get my money back soon. I'm sure that I will use the Rigmaster 10 times more than I would idle my truck in normal circumstances.

The one thing you do have to have which I have (How many times can you use "have" in a sentence) is an electric block heater. The Rigmaster does not tie into your engine coolant system. They just supply a long dedicated extension cord that you plug into your truck when you want the block heated.

 

interesting. where in VT are these guys?

 

It's J&B International.
964 Hercules Drive
Colchester VT 05446
Phone: 802-655-1000
Fax: 802-655-3944

Every place I talked to said they could put a Rigmaster in but this was the closest place that has people trained by Rigmaster and it shows. They allowed me to hang around as long as I wanted yesterday.

 

Made it home around 7 last night. Took forever for them to register my unit with Rigmaster then I had to wait for a phone call from them. They want to talk to you in private and make sure you got the rebate if the dealer is eating it right off the bat.

They also wanted to know about the person who installed it. I guess they require that the mechanic heads to Canada and attends there training school. I told them he replaced many parts with other ones. He used brass for the fuel line connection instead of the one they supplied. He cut the cover bolt holes so you could slide the cover off without having to take the bolts all the way out. He used a different material instead of the shrink material supplied in the kit.

As I was leaving he was filling out a form with all the custom stuff he had to do for my particular installation and that will be reviewed by Rigmaster and changes made if they feel they should.

The unit powered up in 2 seconds with one puff of black smoke. That never happened again. (The smoke that is). It was real hot in Vermont yesterday and we parked my truck outside in the sun. It was ice cold in half an hour.

The unit blows air like a leaf blower. It's a lot louder than I thought it would be but it was running full blast. I'll play with it today but I'm assuming it will idle down once it reaches the right temp.

I pulled into a rest area in Vermont and it was a sneak attack by the DOT. They were in there in force with there portable scales and probably 15 cops, 6 vehicles and a huge van thing with all sorts of equipment. Every time a truck came in to take a break they made them line up on the side for there turn in a surprise inspection. Once again, they ignored me. Probably because I was bob tail.

 

The dealer called me yesterday and gave me the code to enable the Auto Start feature. Rigmaster has done away with charging $250 for that feature.

I spent all day yesterday putting new mud flaps on my truck and 1/4 fenders for my drives. The mud flaps were real nice black rubber ones the dealer gave me. I had plastic white ones before but they get dirty and just don't look good.

Of course, every single bolt was a pain to get off. WD40 and vise grips were the order of the day. Bolts snapping off and all were rusted. Off to the hardware store for all new stainless nuts, bolts and washers.

The 1/4 panel drive fenders had to be assembled and, as usual, I put one together backwards and had to take it all apart and reassemble.

I'm off in a few hours for the airport to move my mother to Florida then back home on Monday. Take a few days to get my act together then time to hit the road.

 

When you have your own trailer, fenders are a must IMO. Put some grease on the threads before you put the nuts on.

 

Steve, do yourself a favor and loosen all that stainless hardware and apply some anti-seize to the bolts and retighten. Stainless tends to still have corrosion problems where it touches ferrous metals (the brackets) and antiseize will make it possible to get the stuff apart if you need to later.

Would you say the rigmaster is quieter and smoother than the engine idleing or louder? Does the cooling capacity seem to be similar to the truck system? Does it cool better or not quite as well?