I own a 2000 Tioga class C on a Ford V10 chassis.On our way home from a camping trip yesterday I was running the chassis/dashboard air conditioner because it was warm outside, like 90-95 degrees. it was putting out cold air and then all of a sudden it went warm air. I turned it off and dealt with the heat for about an hour, I turned the A/C back on and it was cold air for about 15 minutes. this was the situation until I got home. Thank god the coach A/C was working but had to run the generator all the way home.Does anyone know what the issue could be? am i just low on refrigerant? does it need a new charge of refrigerant? is the evaporator bad?any help would be appreciated.

I thought I noticed something similar on a previous trip, almost like the fan stopped working for a while then started up again. Last trip didn't notice anything, but wasn't that hot so I didn't use it that much. A number of years ago had the AC quit working on one of my cars, several days across country with no air. Turns out it was a bad AC switch. AC charge can be checked with an ac gauge attached to a freon can at the auto parts store. Check the electric clutch on the compressor, you can hear/see it engage. Is the drive belt in good shape? Most places that do AC charging will do ford e-series motorhomes.

Did the blower stop blowing, or perhaps the direction of airflow went to Defrost? Going to defrost mode under load is a known issue on Ford chassis, usually caused by a vacuum leak, bad vacuum reservoir, or bad vacuum check valve in the HVAC control system.

My Chevy did something similar a few times on long extremely hot drives. A/C kept blowing, but starting putting out boiling hot air. If I stopped, turned off the engine, and restarted in a couple of minutes, usually I got cold air again. Googling around said it might be a stuck blend door in the A/C system. I never did anything about having it repaired and it hasn't happened for several years.If you get cold air at all, you still have refrigerant in your system.

Tiger4x4RV wrote:My Chevy did something similar a few times on long extremely hot drives. A/C kept blowing, but starting putting out boiling hot air. If I stopped, turned off the engine, and restarted in a couple of minutes, usually I got cold air again. Googling around said it might be a stuck blend door in the A/C system. I never did anything about having it repaired and it hasn't happened for several years.If you get cold air at all, you still have refrigerant in your system.Quite possibly the compressor is shutting down due to air in the system causing high head pressure or the clutch is disengaging after it gets hot. . Refrigeration/air conditioning systems do not use freon like an engine uses oil. If it is low on freon it leaked out somewhere. There are also possibilities with pressure switches. Try to locate the sight glass and look for air bubbles, you should not have any, it should be clear. Check around air conditioning fittings for oil seepage, that is an indicator of a leak. As was said, if you still get cold air your charge is good, your electrical components need checking.

On my truck camper I had a noise one year when traveling and nothing happened. The next year same noise and the air conditioning stopped working. Everything continued on but the air was hot - zero cold, a few minutes later it was back. A couple minutes after that it was off again and never came back on. We returned home and took to my mechanic and he said the bearings on one of the pulleys went and caused the belt to stop turning, replaced pulley, tightened belt and all was fine again.

dashboard A/C on the fritz | Good Sam Community

23 Replies

Tiger4x4RV
Nomad
Sep 06, 2017
My Chevy did something similar a few times on long extremely hot drives. A/C kept blowing, but starting putting out boiling hot air. If I stopped, turned off the engine, and restarted in a couple of minutes, usually I got cold air again. Googling around said it might be a stuck blend door in the A/C system. I never did anything about having it repaired and it hasn't happened for several years.

If you get cold air at all, you still have refrigerant in your system.
sch911
Explorer
Sep 06, 2017
Did the blower stop blowing, or perhaps the direction of airflow went to Defrost? Going to defrost mode under load is a known issue on Ford chassis, usually caused by a vacuum leak, bad vacuum reservoir, or bad vacuum check valve in the HVAC control system.
photobug
Explorer
Sep 06, 2017
I thought I noticed something similar on a previous trip, almost like the fan stopped working for a while then started up again. Last trip didn't notice anything, but wasn't that hot so I didn't use it that much. A number of years ago had the AC quit working on one of my cars, several days across country with no air. Turns out it was a bad AC switch. AC charge can be checked with an ac gauge attached to a freon can at the auto parts store. Check the electric clutch on the compressor, you can hear/see it engage. Is the drive belt in good shape? Most places that do AC charging will do ford e-series motorhomes.

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dashboard A/C on the fritz

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