Air Conditioner Alternative Installation

[LJ-TJ]

Quite a few folks would like to install an air conditioner but don't want to put it on the roof of their rigs. That seems to be the week spot on most of the older rigs. As well an RV air conditioner is much more expensive compared to home air conditioners. I ran across idea on a trailer and thought it might give some of our more talented designers something to work with.

[M & J]

Air conditioners plus snow on the ground = BBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[cosmic]

that's just wrong.  W%

[rude-a-bego]

Now that is clever!
The worlds smallest "slide-out"!

[Lefty]

I'm not a fan (pun not intended) of  home A/C units sticking out of the side or rear of a travel trailer or especially a motorhome. Besides the esthetics... there's also the fact that most home A/C units consume vast quantities of amperage compared to a RV A/C unit. You can quite easily over load a typical 30A RV outlet with a home A/C unit and just 1 or 2 other things turned on.

But, I'll say this.. that is an ingenious installation you pictured. At least it won't stick out while travelling. And unless you were set up & camping, you wouldn't know it was there.

[vegestar]

In years past, before I took over as lead travel trailer tech of the housing dept for the folks who build Burning Man, that was standard procedure to replace a broken rooftop unit or add A/C where there was none before.  Usually a window is removed and some sort of shelf built to carry the weight of the unit.  Most are crudely done (picture lot's of spray foam and silicone lol) and it's not uncommon for them to fall out in transit!!  Of course trailers (and the A/C for that matter) are not designed to be bouncing down the road with an A/C hanging off a wall so it's understandable they we lose a few throughout the season.  Just last year I convinced them that it's cheaper in the long run and much easier for me to replace a rooftop unit, proved by me replacing a roof unit in less than an hour vs the 3 or 4 to install a window unit.  However for smaller trailers the window units are great.  I sat down with our power dept and we compared the various loads of different A/C units in my arsenal.  The small window units actually draw considerably less power than a rooftop unit, sometimes even 8-10 amps less.  This year I'm working on making some of the window units removable for transport and cleaning and building a testing and cleaning bench for the rooftop units.  I'll get y'all some pics of the more "creative" installations next time I'm out on the ranch. (haha, creative... right!)  In this organization you get points for solving the problem at hand as quickly and easy as possible, not so much for longevity and structural integrity.

[Old Man Powell]

In an act of desperation we purchased one of those home, portable A/C units for our previous class C camper. Buy them at hardware store... roll around on wheels and have a vent tube coming out the back. Turned out to work very, very well. We had already removed the refrigerator so it was easy to vent it out the side where the old frig access "panel" was. And all together we spent about $330. Just something to think about. During transit we secured it to a wall with a bungie cord.

[Doug B.]

I just removed the roof air from my 74 Southwind, it needed resealed at the roof anyway, was questionable as to how long it might work, and the thing had to be every bit of 125 lbs on the very tip top of the vehicle.. I replaced it with a vent and will be buying the portable home a/c too, the one I'm looking at is about 80lbs, and will ride at floor level.. plus its way cheaper than a new roof air unit.

The unit on the trailer is clever though, and Im sure floor space is at an absolute premium in something that small.