No, I don't mean the stuff hippies smoke... Got a friend who I am building a produce wagon for, he wants to rig up a refrigerator unit to. Relatively small, about 8x8x5" tall reefer area. He has no power, in this location, so I was wondering if a reefer unit off of a semi trailer would be overkill? Any idea of how much fuel consumption these things average/hr? Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated...:notworthy
Yes, you want a smaller one off a short truck box. The kind that measure maybe 2'x2'x4' with a 2 cylinder Yanmar engine, not the ones off semi trailers with 4 cylinder Isuzu or Kubotas. Better yet, get a generator and run a small window AC. A produce wagon, does he want 40 degrees or so? Forget the reefer unit, way too big. If this is going to run all summer, get a good one cylinder diesel engine and hook it to a compressor with an appropriate evaporator.
Reefer unit off a trailer will be wayyyy overkill, they can do -20 in a 53' van. Even the unit off a box truck would be overkill, what temperature do you need to maintain? An APU off a highway tractor could be made to work and they use almost no fuel.
You might be able to find a reefer body cheap with the cooler still intact.
A reefer unit is going to run in the hi thousand $ range.. 2 a/c units and a small pull start generator off of craigs list is about 500.00 You'll have to check the a/c units to figure the wattage/voltage requirements for the proper generator purchase. a gen w/ a 5-6 gal tank will run about 8-10 hrs. a tank & gas has always been cheaper than diesel.. Just something to think about..
My uncle used to buy truck boxes for storage before the connex boxes became popular, I think he paid $200 each for 3 of them, they still had most all of the reefer stuff attatched but might have been truck AC driven? I recall a big box up front with a few wires and at least two copper lines. .. but at 5 inches tall you don't have much space Structural insulated panels might be the way to go for making the box, For that matter you could scavenge all the parts from a big soda cooler or stand up reefer that's being scrapped, careful work you won't have to even open the system to install it. Someone here on Craigslist is selling the inside and outside parts of a walk in freezer for $500 obo.
A reefer has a long run time, a craigs list generator not so much...I am fed up with used generators, parts are expensive and if the coils go out on the gen side, scrap. Howard
Truck reefers are not AC driven as far as I have ever seen. They have fuel lines running to them. Truck AC was never quite enough to even keep an ambulance body cool, it certainly won't have the capacity to cool a box, unless a different compressor is added. It seems finding one of these small reefer trucks with front end damage would be the way to go if the price was right.
https://www.storeitcold.com/walk-in-cooler-home-2/ Friends of ours have a truck farm and sell produce out of their barn. They have used this device on standard window A/C unit for several years and are very pleased. Maybe small A/C and generator? DB
I work on generators. Remember that portable gas generators have a life span of 3000 hours give or take. Probably some breakdowns in between. Small diesel reefers and small diesel generators share the same type of engine and they typically go 20,000 or more. Plus with a real reefer the engine only runs when it needs to; with a generator it has to run all night long even if the compressor only runs 2 hours in the night time. Plus there is the unreliability factor if you cobble a system from an air conditioner, cool bot, cords and wires, generator. It is one thing to have a cool bot in a meat locker behind your house with commercial power where you can quickly fix it if something goes wrong. Something else to have to deal with it out in the field. Another of my 2 cents.