Anybody using a "Idle Smart" system in their truck?

Pretty much the same as opti idle and I never cared for it.

 

Doesn't idle smart keeping starting and stopping the engine? I would hate that if I was trying to sleep. I suppose the APU would do the same, but I think it wouldn't be as noticeable???

 

It also will still get you a ticket in no idle zones....

I am using parksmart and it works good.

 

Problem with any systems that start and stop your motor:

First off, your motor burns 1 gal/hour idleing, an apu burns .3ish. If you own your truck, its hard on the motor to keep starting and stopping. The worst thing you can do to your motor is start it. Once its started it is proprly lubed and ok, but durring the start some of the parts are dry. If you starting several times a night, this will kill the life of your motor.

 

I borrowed one of our trucks that had Idle Smart installed in it and played around with the system. System worked reasonably well in maintaining engine and interior temperature but the only issue I had was the starting interrupted the power to the inverter which caused my cpap machine to shut down briefly, waking me up. If i used it in my own truck, I think I'd install a battery isolator and separate battery to run my cpap.

 

People like me come back to posts like these so let me chime in. I used Detroit’s brand of this type of system Optimized Idle for nearly two decades. Only put 2 starters in my truck in 1.5 million miles and rebuilt the motor after 1 million only because I felt like it was time. Didn’t need it. Only expense the opti idle ever caused me was a LED bulb and a hour of time to diagnose why it wouldn’t work. It was the hood sensor. Bypassed it and never had a problem after. Again in 1.5 million miles.

Can you say they about an APU?

So wearing out the starter or the motor as the reason these systems suck is a bunch of BS.

Compared to $10,750 plus $950 and 8 hours of time to install it? (Whatever APU company is out of PA quoted me that) I think the choice is clear!

 

Exactly. I had an APU in my last truck and it was PITA. Worked great while it worked. But the repair cost every other month plus the PM costs cannot be compared to my Opti-idle with interior comfort.

My new truck monitor’s the batteries and keeps me comfortable while I sleep. I have a solar gasless generator that keeps my electronics on when my batteries dip low and the truck restarts, so no power interruptions even when my inverter restarts. Going to be upgrading my solar generator to a 2000 watt system soon. My inverter will be used only as a charging station for my solar generator. Also going to be getting solar panels on the roof of my tractor to keep batteries charged so that my truck will have less restart cycles.

As far as fuel consumption, there’s no work around yet unless I go all electric. But I’m not using 10 gallons of fuel a night either. My Opti-idle only turns the truck on when temperatures fall below 5 degrees I’ve set. Once the truck starts, it only runs to raise/lower the temp back to where I have it set. Summer times my truck starts more often than winter. Until they come out with a small portable A/C that I can hookup to my solar generator passed through my inverter, I’ll have to live with what I have. But it still beats having to deal with an APU or idling my truck all day long.