Improving A/C

[roadglide]

Originally Posted by thefulminator

I am an engineer that studied HVAC in college. The stock setup kills all the momentum of the air before it gets into the ducts. This causes the air flow to rely strictly on pressure differential.

In place of spending a ton of money on a block of foam, I did the mod myself similarly to what is done in this video. The changes I made were using galvanized roof shingles to make the sloped surfaces in place of foam blocks. It's made a huge difference in air flow. Recently was on the columbia gorge with temps in the high 90s and the AC was able to keep up much better than in the past. My coleman AC has a different grill with the intake completely on one side so the mod didn't change anything to do with the incoming air.

Not a debate sure it will work.

[roadglide]

It’s not a debate sure it will work.

[Danimal713]

I saw the RVairflow video and made sense but the $170 I choked a bit, plus loosing the dump function. I got to this looking at otherYouTube videos and saw that one in one of the list. BTW, that is why when you start doing this, you then notice that 3 hours have gone by and nothing done of the today list! Anyway I was considering coughing up the $170 but careful measurements sowed the AC unit was installed about 1 1/2" off center to the ducts plus the hole was slightly larger than what was claimed to fit. It might have been made to work but loosing the dump function was not exciting. I can work with metal (light fab work) and wood (what do you want me to build?) so took a piece of scrap 2X4 cut to length and put a 45 degree wedge on top - ^ like this and centered under the squirrel cage from cool side. I also used HVAC foil tape to seal the area better than whomever had been in it before. It was "partially sealed" but not to my standards. I also had noticed some duct tape (cheap crap stuff) on the front of the base that is flush to roof (is SUPPOSED to be flush but there was a gap and it whistled). I used closed cell foam weather stripping to run around the edge and no more whistling. I get a noticeable much more air flow out of the vents and it cools the trailer more quickly. The dump feature also works better all by just doing a better job sealing the air flow. The baffle splitting the air stream was what I think made the more air into vents and more efficient because they were previously hitting a flat surface. Now each side is directed right into the duct.

[roadglide]

Originally Posted by sourdough

Just want to say that we bought this trailer "because" it had the dump feature on the bedroom AC. We camp in warm areas quite often and like some other posters, we love that "dump" feature to help us cool down. I

I was concerned about losing the dump feature, I have a vent close to the AC unit that pushes more cool air into the bedroom using the airflow system and the air from the bathroom vent circulates into the bedroom. I Realize now that dump system is a very poor way to cool my fifer bedroom. I use the garage ac half the time and it work a lot better having the dump isolated.

[GMH]

All I can say is WOW! That tape job and little scoop sure made a difference! Before we could barely feel the air coming out in the bedroom. And...the central dump feature still works! This picture is the bedroom diffuser and the dump under the unit open.

[Skippy38]

Originally Posted by Danimal713

I saw the RVairflow video and made sense but the $170 I choked a bit, plus loosing the dump function. I got to this looking at otherYouTube videos and saw that one in one of the list. BTW, that is why when you start doing this, you then notice that 3 hours have gone by and nothing done of the today list! Anyway I was considering coughing up the $170 but careful measurements sowed the AC unit was installed about 1 1/2" off center to the ducts plus the hole was slightly larger than what was claimed to fit. It might have been made to work but loosing the dump function was not exciting. I can work with metal (light fab work) and wood (what do you want me to build?) so took a piece of scrap 2X4 cut to length and put a 45 degree wedge on top - ^ like this and centered under the squirrel cage from cool side. I also used HVAC foil tape to seal the area better than whomever had been in it before. It was "partially sealed" but not to my standards. I also had noticed some duct tape (cheap crap stuff) on the front of the base that is flush to roof (is SUPPOSED to be flush but there was a gap and it whistled). I used closed cell foam weather stripping to run around the edge and no more whistling. I get a noticeable much more air flow out of the vents and it cools the trailer more quickly. The dump feature also works better all by just doing a better job sealing the air flow. The baffle splitting the air stream was what I think made the more air into vents and more efficient because they were previously hitting a flat surface. Now each side is directed right into the duct.

I would love to see a pic of what you did. I am experimenting with wedges also in the a/c trying to figure out how I can close the dump vent and direct more air to the ducts but retain the dump feature...