Cool Your Truck with Webasto
posted by Jeff Novak: Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

The product is called BlueCool and its by Webasto Products. The heart of the system is a 300-pound black box that’s mounted on the truck’s frame rail. As the trucker drives, the system sends refrigerant through a matrix of graphite and a water/glycol mixture inside the box, creating blocks of ice.When the truck is stopped, the driver turns on an air handler that circulates coolant around the ice and blows cold air from the unit into the bunk area of the cab. The fan and circulation pump use only 3.5 to 10 amps from the truck’s battery — which means there’s no danger of draining the battery, Webasto says.

Installation costs $5500 which seems like a lot, but with gas where it is, the company says the device pays for itself in less than a year, as the EPA estimates idling consumes 1 gallon of gas per hour.

The company also offers efficient heaters for the upcoming winter months.