Installing Solar on the truck...

[Waterloo]

Well, back to work... Never give up your trailer at LandStar... I took a 34 day reset, not my choice... Anyhow, back at work, switched agents and am running freight terminal to terminal for ABF LTL Freight. Pulling doubles and 53' trailers and actually enjoying it. Now, the purpose of this post...

The truck sat in storage for a month, in Michigan, and I never visited her in that time period up until I found some work. I did that on purpose, even left the refrigerator on the entire time. And yes, I emptied it when I parked.

The fuel gauge did not move from the APU, normally it would have drank over half a tank or more after sitting like this. The batteries were at charge, 13+ volts when I got in, they were being maintained nicely with the solar panels. The truck fired right up, like she had only sat overnight.

I am on reset here in Little Rock, at the Petro, may take another day off and head out on Saturday. Still getting my truck legs back. The APU just turned on, first time today, it is 2330 hours. It ran for a bit yesterday, but not for long.

These panels have paid for themselves 10 times over. Just letting this truck sit for a month would have cost me time running up there every few days to start and let her run, and money from all of the wasted fuel from the APU, and maybe even a service call.

The one issue I have had, is seeing as the APU rarely ever runs, when morning comes, the engine block is cold. I have the TK APU plumbed into my coolant system. No APU running, means a cold start in the morning. But, I run my gear oil, and if you have ever cracked a motor that runs it, you will know that it leaves a nice slick coating on everything it comes into contact with. So, I am not to concerned about the cold starts.

If you are thinking, or are on the fence about installing these flexible solar panels on your rooftop, just do it, especially if you run a bunk heater or have a lot of electronics and a refrigerator onboard. Just my .02 as they were worth the time to install, and did not break the bank. I think you could do this for roughly $500 or less. I put roughly $750 in my setup, but can see now that $500 or less would do the same job.