2619 AC Duct Work Location

I recently purchased a 2004 model 2619 that has a side AC installed directly across from the bathroom (see picture). It must have been ordered without the roof mounted unit as there is no hole / skylight where it would have gone. We tested the unit out, with the kids, one night at home and the AC did not cool the unit very well despite blowing fairly cold air. It seemed like it might actually have been cooler outside then it was in.

The next day while finishing cleaning I noticed that there was light inside the cabinets behind and in front of the AC unit from cutouts to vent the AC. This is when I realized that someone installed a window ac in this unit instead of a through wall AC and it was puling air from inside the unit to cool the condenser side of the AC.

I have looked at all the posts here and searched online for either another way to vent the unit by pulling in outside air or a wall unit that will fit but no luck. This weekend I am going to pull the AC out and see if I can come up with a solution. It would be easy to vent to the outside wall if it was in one of the other cabinets but the wheel well on the front side and storage draws on the back make it nearly impossible. I am unwilling to part with a draw and cutting into the wheel well seems like a bad place for a vent that would gather debris.

The best solution I have come up with so far would be to cut a hole straight down under the unit and cut part of the tray off the bottom of that AC unit. This would let air in from under the camper but I would have to make a trap door to seal it up when traveling.

[Bill]

J, etc. -

Don't cut yet! One of our members - perhaps harveyrv? - did some nice sheet metal work a couple years ago to address exactly the problem you are having. I'll see if I can find it- or someone else may post a link.

[Edit] I think this is the thread I was thinking of. Try down around post #13 of
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ead.php?t=7477

The basic idea is that you have to keep the hot air stream being exhausted from the rear (outside) of the unit separate from the recirculated and cooled indoor air flow. If they mix, the result will be no cooling - and maybe some net heating.

In other words, at the front of the unit, room air is drawn into the unit, cooled, and sent back into the room. At the back of the unit, outside air is drawn into the unit, is heated, and is sent back to the outdoors. You must make some baffles to keep these two air streams from mixing. Simple sheets of sheet metal did the trick for Wayne.

Bill

[B_and_D]

This is weird, because we have an older TM that used to have the side A/C and it was installed in the shelf above where yours is. There is a vent and a hole cut in the TM wall at the back of that area. Our A/C had trim around the front of it that kept the exhaust to the rear vent. I'm confused by your saying that you see daylight. Does yours have a vent on the outside?

Keep in mind, also, that if the power source doesn't have enough amps that the compressor may not be kicking in.

Bill,

I appreciate the response. Based on Harveyrv's pictures his unit appears to be located in a different cabinet that may be a little bigger and he used part of the next cabinet for the intake duct. Harveyrv actually installed the exact same unit that is in my 2619. If I install the duct similar to his it would run into my wheel well or the drawers. Harveyrv made a good point about recirculation of air from the exhaust vent to the intake which is part of the reason I think pulling air from underneath may be a good option. See attached additional pictures of the issue and current tear down.

Note that the original installer drilled holes in one of the drawers to provide air flow. There was also a metal drip tray that stuck out into the hall to cut your foot on. The previous owner had a blowout on the curb side under the ac which damaged the floor and insulation where I will be adding my intake vent so no real loss to the integrity of the trailer.

B_D,

The daylight I was seeing was through the side vent on the unit and out the back where it vents outside. I think I have sufficient power as the unit did blow cold air. I think it was sucking so much air from around the unit and from the cabinets that the cold air never had a chance to travel through the camper.

[wbmiller3]

That is an odd installation and I think not by the factory. Our 2001 has the side AC factory install and it has a half-height cabinet below it. The cabinet that holds the AC is an odd shape looked at from above, kind of trapezoidal, I assume this is to help with the air flow issues.

When the factory AC died, I replaced it with what appears to be this same AC model thanks to a recommendation from harveyrv. Other than some trim cutting around the cabinet edges because it was very slightly larger than the original, it was not difficult to replace and it works well. In fact it works better than the factory unit because it has a higher BTU output.

The only modification I made to the unit (and I did this to the factory unit as well) was to drill holes VERY CAREFULLY in the unit's integral drip pan so that all collected water goes into the trailer drip pan. I did this because the units are designed to collect a half inch of water or so and this sloshed out into the inside of the trailer when we drove to the next campsite (in SE Texas if you run the AC, you are making water). Knowledgeable people on this board remarked that this would likely result in a loss of cooling efficiency because the units use the collected water to cool internal parts. That was an OK tradeoff for us because of the damage to the cabinetry and potential mold issues caused by the sloshed out water.

As I see it, the biggest issue with the side mounted design is that the cool air emitted from the unit tends to bounce off the other side of the hall wall and stay in the immediate vicinity of the AC, causing its thermostat to cycle while the rest of the trailer is too warm. We, and others on this forum, have handled this by placing a floor fan in the back of the hall to blow the cool air away from the front of the AC towards the front bed. It's a little awkward but it works.