Air Conditioning Can't Keep Up

[LoneStarBQ]

I have a 2012 American Tradition 42 foot. Three A/C units, a front to back slide on the driver side and two slides on the passenger side. When the slides are in, 8 of the air conditioner vents and intakes are covered by the slides. Therefore, if my theory is correct, in addition, the engine is putting out quite a bit of heat, which comes up through the floor in the rear. This time of year, all three A/Cs can't keep the inside temperature below 85 inside. Not appealing. My theory is that the vents in the living room that are covered by the slides are doing absolutely no good. The cold air from the vents just sits up there and never makes it to the cabin. Plus the engine heat is not helping.

Any tricks of the trade that anyone is aware of? Closing the vents in the rear bath and the ones that are covered? Additional insulation between the coach and the engine? Anything?

Thanks

Jack

[huffypuff]

Mine has a vent on the unit that blow directed out of the center turning the roof vents off. I think it does a better job than the roof vents as air flow is much higher. You will get more noise. You turn the vent on and off by sliding the panel from one side to the other to expose the holes. See if you have something like that.

[chp007kd40]

Hi Jack. Lots of us have the same issue in varying degrees, but the result is about the same. Our 40 ft Horizon was a pretty easy fix since we didn't want and or need the combo washer/dryer (to heavy compared to the good it did so we took it out) and in it's place I got a 12k btu a/c from Home Depot and put it that space. The unit is set up to where you can run a air intake from the unused dryer vent and exit the hot exhaust out a convenient sealed location and plug the electrical into the w/d receptacle. That way you can circulate the air within the bedroom with the sliding door closed or not. It is a little noisy, but sometimes it is a benefit to drown out outside noise. It works well with the other a/c unit also. Hope that helps. David

[hermanmullins]

Jack,

Midland, Texas, there is no direction you can go this time of year that it isn't very hot.

I see that you travel with the kids and they do more around. We have always put up a curtain behind the drivers and passengers seats and the dash air is kept up front. In your case is there a way that you might put up a curtain across the coach far enough back so the kids may be seated where the dash air can help reduce the heat.

Have you looked for some vent covers that would deflect the air front to back and not to the sides?

Good luck and try to stay cool.

Herman

[elkhartjim]

Does it cool adequately when the slides are out? If thats the case, you have an air balance issue, however, if it doesn't cool period, sounds like one or more of the rooftop units is not cooling properly. True, the engine will create additional heat load, but not enough to notice. I can stand on the carpeted engine cover barefoot and it doesn't feel warm much less hot.

I would think with the slides in and three units cooling you should easily lower the inside temp by 20-25 degrees.

[wildebill308]

When you run the dash air, run it in the recirculation mode so you don't have to cool the air coming from outside.

Also check your air filters they plug up fast and greatly reduce air flow.

Bill

[tbutler]

If you decide to add insulation in the engine compartment be sure to install insulation made for that purpose. Make sure it doesn't restrict air flow around the engine. I would consult the manufacturer before doing or having any of this work done. Our engine compartment has foil lined insulation and the floor above is still warm to the touch. The closet above the engine is very warm but it is closed and doesn't really affect the internal temperature until we open the closet.

We run both AC's while driving in very hot conditions and they keep the temperature in the low 80's. If necessary we can also run the dash air to keep the cockpit cool. When we stop for the night, I open the engine cover to allow better circulation of air around the engine. That really helps to get temperatures back down to comfortable levels.

Like you, we have roof AC vents that are covered by the slides when they are in. Our vents can be turned to direct the air over the edge of the slide outs and we do that before we travel. Louise also closes the window shades on the side(s) of the coach that will be facing the sun.

[five]

On my coach, there is a gap between the top of the slides and the A/C outlets in the ceiling. Sometimes I run a fan along the top of the slides to blow that cold air around.

[LoneStarBQ]

I had a previous motorhome that you could open the vent on the A/C itself to dump air straight down. This motorhome does not have that. The engine does produce a LOT of heat in the rear bathrooom. I have been closing the A/C vents in the rear bathroom and run the vent fan (if I left the A/C vents open it would just vent the air conditioned air). This seems to help. As for the covered vents, the small fan on top of the slide is not a bad idea or maybe a make-shift vent extension over the edge of the slide, but I haven't figured out how to engineer that without making tacky modifications. If I could figure out how to get those vents to produce air to the cabin, I think it would solve the problem.

Thanks,

Jack

[huffypuff]

Well Jack, at least you know what I'm talking about dumping the air straight down when need to. Sorry you don't have that anymore as you and I know that it helps.

[wildebill308]

Jack try running the dash air on recirculate to help bring down the temperature. I know you have checked your filters and made sure your condenser coils are clean.

Bill

[hermanmullins]

Jack, by any chance were you in Gillette last year? A number of folks had the fins on their A/Cs almost closed completely from the hail.

Also it there a chance you can change out your vent cover so you can direct the air down, or can you bend the deflectors so the air goes down rather then to the side on to the top of your slides.

Herman