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Old 09-03-2007, 02:46 PM   #1
rickybobby
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Default AC on top or inside

looking to buy used TM & wondering about the advantages & disadvantages of the placement on the AC. Do the ones ones mounted on top do better than the ones placed inside on the door side or worse?? Any technical info or personal experience is greatly appreciated.
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Old 09-03-2007, 09:32 PM   #2
Paul_Heuvelhorst
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Our 1998 2619 had the side air. It put out lower BTU's of cool air than did the A/C mounted on the roof of the larger TM's at that time. Ours was 10K BTU if I remember correctly.

In my opinion, the roof air distributes air more evenly throughout the trailer. I made a cardboard shroud to direct our side air to the front of the trailer.
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Old 09-05-2007, 01:24 PM   #3
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Our 1998 3124K has the roof mount AC. I set it up in near 100 degree temperatures, put the AC on, and set the control on median level. When we came back a few hours later the inside was nice and cool.
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Old 09-05-2007, 07:25 PM   #4
wbmiller3
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We have the side mount, and it's OK, but I would rather have the top mount. The additional storage would be nice and I think the top mounts are more powerful. But, no plans to replace the current trailer.

We had a problem with water pooling in the bottom of our side mount A/C. This was not a problem with the drain hose but rather a design "feature" of the A/C unit. It was made to keep about a half inch of water in the bottom. I do not know why but speculate that in less humid climates retaining this water may prevent the constant dripping you see from some window a/c units. The trailer drain hose would not start to drip until this 1/2 inch deep receptacle overflowed.

Since we camp often in the humid southeastern summer, at the end of each trip, we would have a 1/2 inch of water in the A/C, unknown to us. On the drive home or to another campsite this water would slosh out into the inside of the trailer where we would find it soaking the carpet and discoloring the cabinet. It took us a long time to figure out where this water was coming from.

Once the clue-bird landed on me, I pulled the unit out of the trailer and carefully drilled many drain holes in its built-in "pan", then re-installed it. Ever since then the drain hose drips constantly and no more water in the trailer. That was about four years ago.
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Old 09-06-2007, 08:27 AM   #5
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RickyBobby
Having owned a 2 TMs, a 1998 2720 with a side mount A/C and a 2003 2720SL with a top mount A/C, I can tell you that the top mount 13,500 BTU unit will cool the TM much faster and colder than a 8,000 - 10,000 BTU side mount unit. With the side mount I was never able to keep the inside cool enough in mid summer high humidity days here in the south. The top mount unit can freeze you out on any given day. I keep the temp knob set at 40-45%.

WBMiller3,
The water in the pan is retained for the slinger ring on the condenser fan. It throws the water onto the condenser coils so as to increase the A/C cooling efficiency by water evaporation.

Mike
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Old 09-06-2007, 11:45 AM   #6
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On the one trip where I had a reason to use my roof mounted a/c it did not freeze me out. Outside temperature was 110 in the shade and I was parked in full sun.

This was an unusual day, even for Lake Almanor, CA, July 2005.
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Old 09-06-2007, 03:28 PM   #7
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Mike,
Thanks for the info! From looking at the unit it was clear that the water retention was designed in. Nice to know what it was for.

I guess I dropped my unit's power a bit, but that's OK...couldn't take the water coming in. Definite mildew potential in our climate if we didn't open the trailer up and dry it out on arriving home.

Bill
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Old 09-09-2007, 08:31 AM   #8
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I installed a new side unit in my 91 model this year and it does not do a good job of cooling.You have to keep fans going to circulate the air and that takes up space.Seems that the best it can do is 20 dregrees below outside temp. When you are at Myrtlebeach and it hits 103 , the camper can be a little uncomfortable.I always try to find a shady area to set up in. I would go with the roof top mounted unit if I had to do over.
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Old 09-09-2007, 02:43 PM   #9
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On side mounted units you need to put a shroud around the unit so that all the hot air coming across the coils is 'piped' to the outside. If you don't do this, the hot air from the coils will be sucked around to the intake on the sides of the unit and just blow hotter air across the coils. It can get so hot that the head pressure on the unit will rise and shut the unit down. The units installed by TM had a piece of sheet metal from one side, over the top, and down the other side. It extended from the unit cabinet to the grille on the side of the trailer.
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Old 09-22-2007, 06:35 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PopBeavers View Post
On the one trip where I had a reason to use my roof mounted a/c it did not freeze me out. Outside temperature was 110 in the shade and I was parked in full sun.

This was an unusual day, even for Lake Almanor, CA, July 2005.
Aren't you glad you weren't in San Jose on the day? It is still several degrees cooler at Lake Almanor than in the valley on any given day! ;-)
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