Rev's Ride 1

[LDB]

It's all white. I'd use it whenever I needed a/c. I can close the curtains to the cab and it's pretty insulating as well. I'd already have it cooled down either from having been running and had the truck a/c on or overnight cooling. Either way it would never have the load of cooling it down, just maintaining the already cool temp.

 

[greg334]

The one that blew up was an AIMS 2000w (5000w peak) pure sign wave unit

Unless you really toasted the thing like melted the copper on the circuit boards, or all the insulation of the windings of the transformer, fix it.

Danfoss is what I heard, but they make a few models and no one has yet told me which one it is. The one they are pushing in Europe for the tractors is a single compressor model using their larger compressor (bd250 or bd350) but I think the height would be too tall with your unit, so I am guessing that they are using something like a pair of BD80 which may work well in my situation.

I got the fridge parts sitting at home now, the remodeled sleeper will have a pull out fridge, I can't put in a normal stand up fridge so this is my solution. Well the point is that I have two condensers, one is a watercooled thing and the other is a really small outside condenser. This will take out 80% of the heat and leave me with more room in the cabinet.

I am doing the same thing as you are with the Polyisocyanate and the bubble wrap stuff but the one thing that I found out is that I have to actually eliminate air space with the Polyisocyanate to make it work right, hard to do with the curves in this round box of a sleeper.

One suggestion that was made was to use a two part closed cell foam with tyvek as a interior surface wrapper and the bubble wrap stuff on top of that. I didn't get a clear explanation what the tyvek is for, but the foam kit to do the cab and the sleeper is about $120, closed cell stuff.

 

[yankeex]

were did you order this truck from i would like to talk to you about this truck how can i contact you carl

 

[dhalltoyo]

Carl,

Unicell makes the cargo box.

Chevrolet builds the chassis.

Getting a commercial fleet person to understand what you want is the difficult aspect.

My sales contact at a local Chevrolet dealership is a great person. He, like 99.9% of the folks in truck sales, have very limited dealings with the needs of expediters. Fortunately, he was open-minded and willing to listen to my needs.

If you send me a Private Message, I can give you his name and number. After going throught this process with me, the sales rep now understands what expediters need and what he has to do to meet those needs.

This would be an ordered unit and you can expect a 6-10 week wait time, if there is an available chassis. Nobody stocks this unit in the dimensions I required for my needs.

The "Set Back" wall that separates the cargo box from the bunk area is a special order item and the length of the cargo box was a special order too.

 

[Jack_Berry]

david,

what kind of mileage is the truck getting?

 

[dhalltoyo]

Best to date is 15.5

I will be switching over to synthetic 5-30W after 10,000 miles. It should increase the mileage as it did on my standard 08 Chevy.

A couple of other changes are being considered to increase the mileage.

I have been test driving by the Tachometer and it seems that 2100 rpm's produces a better mpg average than driving at 1900 rpm's. It seems the higher rpm's handle the inclines with a greater fuel economy. At 1900 rpm's the engine seems to be straining as it pulls a hill and I can watch the mpg readout on the Driver Information Center drop rapidly. Going up the incline at 2100 rpm's the mpg readout stays more uniform.

Wierd. The engine is turning 2000 times more per minute, but the fuel economy is improved.

 

[LDB]

What is your speed at 1900 and 2100?

 

[dhalltoyo]

55mph @ 1900rpm's

60mph @ 2100rpm's

 

[piper1]

At 2100 rpm you are closer to the peak volumetric efficiency of the 6.0 liter. The engine makes better use of the air and fuel your feeding it and it makes up the difference you lose by going faster. The fact that it works this way for you tells me you got the drivetrain spec bang on!

 

[RLENT]

It's all white.

Ahh good ..... doesn't get much better than that.

I'd use it whenever I needed a/c.

As do I - any time I'm sitting and it's warm out, the unit goes on .... if I ever run out of battery capacity I'll just turn the truck on, charge the batts and use the trucks AC for awhile.

Now that there appears to be a workable solution for charging up AGM batteries with the Sprinter I may eventually go with four L16 AGM's ..... that would get me about a 50%+ increase in capacity in about the same footprint ..... but so far the 4 Walmart batteries are working fine.

I can close the curtains to the cab and it's pretty insulating as well.

Got it - yeah .... anything you can do to reduce the space you are cooling should get you improved performance.

I'd already have it cooled down either from having been running and had the truck a/c on or overnight cooling.

Yup - precooling an already hot truck would be critical. It's what I do - run the Sprinter's AC at maximum to cool the truck off as much as possible before I shut it off and start up the Mini-Cool.

If you can set the trucks HVAC to recirculate so that there is no path into the vehicle for outside air that will probably help as well. Parking in the shade would probably get you considerably improved performance too. I'd guess that isn't quite as easy in a big truck as in a cargo van. Lately I've started to look for closed gas stations (with an overhead canopy) and stands of tall trees where I can park close in on the north side, during the middle of the day.

Either way it would never have the load of cooling it down, just maintaining the already cool temp.

Right. Like I said, talk to Ray about sizing the unit for the space you are cooling - can't imagine that spending that kind of money and then being dissatisfied with the performance would be a pleasant experience. Ray won't steer ya wrong.

 

[fatboy]

Hey Dave This Is Really A Great Looking Truck. Like The Red In Decor Also .

 

[Jack_Berry]

again i have seen a landstar aerocell. he fueled and parked and then disappeared from the j in toledo before i had a chance to speak to him.

 

[dhalltoyo]

Fatboy,


Thanks for the kind words!


Just look for three orange cones around the van and you'll know it is me.


You can usually find me inside the truck stop, or fast food restaurant, with my laptop.


Make sure to introduce yourself.

 

[theoldprof]

FYI: If anyone's interested. Saw a van similar to Rev's Ride in Holland MI at the Chevy dealer. Didn't stop. Don't know anything about it.

 

[Suds43]

NICE RIDE Dave!!!!!
You'll be easy to recognize from now on, you'll be the one grinning from ear to ear!! Bet your prouder than a pea**** cruising up and down the road in that!! I would be!!!
Good work!

The first time I saw "Touchdown Jesus" on I-75 I thought it was the coolest thing I ever saw............but can't imagine how much that cost to build.......... I still think it's pretty cool though. I'll have to see if I can find the pictures we took of it and post them so those that haven't seen it will know what everyone is talking about.

You should start a little contest, "Name the ride"!! lol
With Unicell and Cheverolet, I'd call it a Cellrolet!!

Make sure you post some pics after it's all lettered..........

Mark (Suds43)

 

[cheri1122]

Congratulations on a very well planned and designed vehicle - nice job!

 

[CharlesD]

NICE RIDE Dave!!!!!
You'll be easy to recognize from now on, you'll be the one grinning from ear to ear!! Bet your prouder than a pea**** cruising up and down the road in that!! I would be!!!
Good work!

I think the dirty word filter is pretty funny how it will block letters within a word instead of just looking for the word on its own. And it's not like this word is really a cuss word. What about a rooster or something you do with a gun?

 

[late4dinner]

The Landstar van you saw might have been mine. I can attest to Revs statement about Unicell's help. They are very good to work with. My biggest problem was the Chevy Dealer. They first told me that chevy didn't even make a 10,000 gvw truck. It didn't get much better from there. I ordered mine from the ground up. You can get heated remote mirrors. They are made by VelVac. They cost about $800 installed but I wouldn't have a truck without them. Mine is a 6.0 gas because I didn't want to pay for diesel and carry the extra weight. Sure wish I had known about the AC Unit when I ordered main. Mine is fully insulated with a factory built wall to seperate me from the cargo. I had a remote start put on mine so when I get hot at night I just start the thing and it runs for 20 min and shuts off. Cools things down real good. I also had to fight to get the 50 gal gas tank, but it is well worth the extra cost.

 

[Broompilot]

Congrats, hope it makes you many of $ and many fuel efficent years of depenability. Just one more thing it needs a big blue and yellow M on the front bumper. Good luck Rev. nope forget that God Bless Rev.

 

[dhalltoyo]

Thank you Cheri and Broom for the kind words.

Thanks also to late4dinner for the info on his truck.

If American Axle hadn't been on strike I would have ordered power/heated mirrors too. I had them on my regular 08' van. The lady who bought it loves those mirrors.