EstorilM wrote:
The TT is ducted (is that pretty much standard?) but I pulled the vents off on the first trip and was surprised to see that a lot of the tape had pulled away from the ceiling cut-outs and was starting to flip up and block the vents. That helped a little bit.
How are the ducts run? It seems to just be an air "gap" between two panels, not a "hose" or a duct.
I understand the "better" constructed, "pricier" trailers use ducting. What I've seen on mine is since the roof to ceiling gap is small, there is no pre-fabbed ducting like what you see in houses. It seems builders create the ducting during the trailer build process. Could there be gaps in areas you can't reach? Very much could be the case but I do not know.
Once you watch those videos, you will see the main AC unit is a series of folded sheet metal put together to create the unit. The gaps between the sheet metal are what is normally not sealed very well. On mine, there was some aluminum tape used but was very sparingly used. That created the situation you'll see in the videos linked. I was losing a good amount of cooling out those gaps and on the intake side, seems it was pulling in outside hot air.
The biggest change in proper cooling on my AC unit was from sealing the main unit, not so much from better sealing on the ceiling vents. Although, I was desperate to make sure the AC was working as efficiently as possible, I tried sealing up every AC related ducting I could get to.
An additional item you could address would be changing the AC ducted vents to adjustable flow and directional vents. You probably already have direction vents.
The adjustable flow vents are available if you start searching around. This would help your situation of closing off the bedroom.
Good luck and keep us updated if the better sealing works. A roll of aluminum tape is significantly cheaper and less work than replacing the AC unit!
