BTW what generator did you go with?

With it having a fuel pump, it should be legal. Interesting.

 

There is a 1/4" steel table that I had built for the unit to sit on. It is hidden, and you'd have to stick your head underneath the AC unit to even see it. The AC unit is not only bolted directly to the truck, but it is also bolted to the table. I've been bobtailing quite a bit with the unit in place, and the level hasn't changed at all. The major thing I have to watch out for is that I don't park in an area where I am leaning too far to the left. The AC is installed at a 1/4" slope, and is sealed off to prevent water from running the wrong way. There are 7 drain holes along the bottom edge, from front to back, which will allow water to drain even if I am at an incline.

 

It is built by Eastern Tool and Equipment.

Yes - this unit is DOT compliant.

The condenser fan (which is in the middle of the unit) draws air from inside the truck which it blows on the condenser. That hot air is blown out of the rear of the unit (the part that is outside the truck). If you put your hand outside in front of the unit, it is very hot. If you put your hand on the side of the unit inside the truck, it is cool.

 

1st dumb question; How do you cover the condensor opening for the winter?

2nd dumb question; Did you put rubber dampeners between the jenny and the box?

3rd dumb question is personal; ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MIND? That's something one does to a truck like mine (10 year old FLD) not a truck like that. :lol:

 

I'm lazy. I just picked up my truck from Thermo King yesterday and got a tripac with all options installed for 8500 out the door.

Would I consider yours? Probably not. For the value of about 1/4 of what I paid, I think you're getting the better deal, and since you built it, you'll probably have better servicability out of it than mine.

I was gonna make a thread about my sexy APU :x

Looks like a clean install. I agree that the exhaust is ugly, but since you can't see it and it works, I say "right on!"

 

Bandit, if you wanted sexy, RIGMASTER is the way. Thermo King sounds like your full of gas or something. I showed you pictures of my female friends and I only had to say 2 words slow to them......RIG.......MASTER!!! Said with a deep, Barry White voice.

My thoughts on this whole setup.

I would put the A/C out the back, mounted properly with a nice shelve to support it. I think the way you have it will either cause your cab metal to deform or the thing is just plain going to fall inside the cab.

A/C units are not meant to be mounted that way due to the heat that they generate which is going to end up in your cab. The back 75% is also meant to be outside in the heat so the dehumidifier can do it's job correctly to remove moisture from the air.

That muffler hanger in the back will break real quick. The pipe will vibrate and resonate causing the metal to fatigue and break. I would suggest going to Mienike Muffler and have them install a car muffler pipe and car muffler like I did on my Rigmaster. It cost me I think $130.

Being a single cylinder I think it's going to be really really loud but the majority of the noise will come from the engine and not the muffler but you have some good insulation so that may help.

The fan should not have been mounted on the side. It should have been mounted facing towards the rear like all other APU's. Between the air intake grill facing forward and the fan on the side that sucker is going to fill up in no time with tons of crap, salt, water and snow. I'm guessing those plugs will short out due to all the water and snow getting in.

I kind of wish I would gave gone this route instead of the Rigmaster just for the simple fact it would have been fun to do but I'm very happy with my unit.

I would put the window back in, ditch the A/C unit and buy a roof mounted Carrier A/C unit and junk what ever you have to on the top of your cab to go that route.

Your also going to have to change the oil very frequently. Most APU's like mine have a 4 quart capacity due to the harsh conditions and having more oil extends the frequency of the oil changes.

I also think your going to generate tons of heat with a single cylinder engine basically running it's balls off as opposed to a twin cylinder like most APU's that have a large radiator with fan and water cooled.

I applaud your setup and think it's a good start and will work for a while but my guess is that your going to end up doing the WHOLE setup over again with better equipment.

At a minimum, I would put that Carrier unit on top for $500 bucks. That's something that will stay even though you may need to replace everything else.

I'm being Devils advocate here and not attacking you personally and hope it didn't come across that way.

 

On another note. I think many people boast that there APU cools the whole cab to 65 degrees on a 110 degree day and I say your all full of crapola.

I have been in Texas many times already with the temp over 100 and every single person with an APU is doing the same as me. We are not only running the APU but have the truck engine running also and it's STILL NOT ENOUGH.
I've seen many trucks doing that plus have IdleAir hooked up!!!

The ONLY person I've seen that had the perfect setup had a Rigmaster with a Carrier A/C on top. I saw him at the fuel pump and talked to him about his setup. He told me to come over later and I did. It was about 66 in his cab, the outside temp was over 100 and I was actually cold after 10 minutes.

He runs both the Rigmaster A/C and the Carrier A/C when it's really hot. Other times he just runs the Rigmaster for the power and uses the Carrier. He was able to cool the whole cab off and didn't have to close the privacy curtains to cut the cab in half like I do.

I also plan to do the same when the opportunity comes up. On occasion I'm in an area with tons of RV dealers and shut down for a day and I call up seeing if they have a unit and can install it but no luck yet but will keep trying until I do.

 

It will come out entirely in the winter.

No. But there are rubber dampeners between the generator and the inner frame.

Maybe.

 

That's where it was originally going to go. The problem is that the rear wall on a 379 is sloped, meaning the AC would have either had to be at a really odd angle, or all the water would have run right to the front of the unit. It's not sticking out very far, and most of the weight of the unit is held by the steel table I had built for it.

Have you ever seen an in-wall AC unit? Those have no side vents at all.

Possibly. I plan to keep an eye on it to see how it travels.

You know, I talked to the service guys at Peterbilt about that. When I said I knew a guy who put a car muffler on a generator, they cringed. They said that is probably the worst thing you can do, because you are actually restricting the exhaust from escaping, thereby increasing cylinder pressure. I talked to another guy who knew someone who did that, and his generator died prematurely.

They told me that my only real option to reduce the exhaust noise is to put a longer exhaust on, never reducing the size of the exhaust, and keeping as many bends out of it as possible.

We'll find out on Monday.

Take a look at a Comfort Master - it's mounted in the rear, just like this. Those APU's are running a radiator - I'm not. That's why the fans are mounted on the side.

It is weather tight. It doesn't look it in the initial pictures because I was still putting it together.

So let's see......I should remove the wing on my roof, which has given me a guaranteed 3/4 MPG savings, so I can put a roof mounted RV air conditioner up there because it would look better? :roll:

Mine took 1 3/4 quarts. The manual suggests changing oil every 500 hours.

Possibly. Most of the time it will be running at 1/2 load or less.

For what you paid for your one Rigmaster, I could replace this generator TEN times. If I can get one year out of it, that means I can run for TEN years before I've matched your cost. How long do you expect your Rigmaster to last before you'll have to replace it?

It did. I'm telling a moderator. :wink:

 

lol

When Meinike did my muffler they have reference material to indicate the correct back pressure for ever car ever made back to the Model T. It also lists generators and marine engines that cover the Perkins like mine. It's a real broad range and they were able to pick from tons of mufflers made for 4 cylinder cars.

And yes, I would remove the wing.