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danamccready's avatar
danamccready
Explorer
Jun 07, 2026

Cooling trailer while towing

Has anyone engineered a small 12 volt compressor style ac unit.. I trailer all over the country and frequently stop and use the 5ft wheel to eat and rest. The trailer gets really hot in certain parts of the country. I made my own swamp cooler out of a cooler and 12 volt boat bilge fan. Ran sealed vent tubing in a U thru the top of the cooler that the blower pusher air thru with 3/4 bags of ice over the tube. Works to keep the rv in the 70's when it's 90+ outside. I've seen people using 12 volt heat/cold strip to create small units. Was thinking of trying to combine something like that in the swamp cooler set up to blow the air over that in place of the bags of ice. Anybody done or seen something like this. I want to run this while traveling and not spend thousands for portable units that need venting and draining. 

8 Replies

  • While I appreciate the ingenuity and creativity, this is an inefficient solution in search of a problem. Your Rv already has an AC that's pretty efficient at cooling without introducing moisture. It's cleaner and just easier. Get some power to it and use the solution you already have. Plug and play. Keep it simple. 

  • a real swamp cooler is the last thing you want to use on a rv because it introduce moisture to the rv.    I know you said that the ducting is enclosed so the ice just cools the outside of it, but cold metal and humid air is going to form condensation, if you have a drain then you can get rid of a chunk of it and actualy dehumidify the air a bit other wise it is just going to evaporate with the airflow again.  so in a sealed one ya it won't be as bad but it isn't as efficient as a open swamp cooler.  the cold plate idea is kinda neat, but you will get the same condensation forming so you have to figure out a way to handle that, and the peltier plates do take a surprising amount fo power for what you would want to do.  to give you an example the TEC1-12706 plate is a 12V peltier that consumes 6amps of power, constantly.  from this 72 watts you get 50 to 60 watts of cooling.  so that is between 140 and 200 BTU/hr so to equal the cooling preformance of a 15000btu AC, you would need about 80 of the plates, so that would consume 480 amps of 12V power.  we still haven't discussed how you get rid of the heat from the back side of the plate.  that has to be vented out somehow

    there are 12V compressor rv's, but while they are more efficient than a 120V ac they still take some power to run, so you would be looking at batteries and enough solar, or running a generator while your driving, but it is a realistic option. 

    the other thing I have seen laitly is smaller mini splits, but thats going to depend on the rv and where you can mount the outside unit.  

  • I don’t believe what you are seeking is possible. An A/C unit is simply a heat pump; it moves heat from one place to another. So in essence, you have to be able to pump the heat outside - you have to have a vent, there is no conceivable way around that. And while your putting a hole in the side for a vent, you can put one in the bottom for the drain also.

    Your swamp cooler is basically a rudimentary heat pump. It”s moving the heat in the air vent tubing into the cooler full of now melting ice. 

  • Bags of ice?  
    Idk much but how many Peltier chips would it take to cool a rv in the summer? And how many batteries/solar/etc?

    Doesnt seem efficient to me at all.  
    short of a huge battery bank and at least a 3k inverter, a generator is necessary.  No free lunches anywhere.  

     

    • danamccready's avatar
      danamccready
      Explorer
      • Yes. The aluminum duct running a U inside a 30qt cooler. The duct is completely sealed so no water can get in. Then the cooler is filled with bags of ice encasing the aluminum duct. The boat blower blows air thru the tub exiting the other end of the U duct pushing out cold air from the ice encased tube. Cold air comes out but you're not adding a lot of humidity since you're not blowing air directly over the ice creating moisture. 
      • danamccready's avatar
        danamccready
        Explorer

        Not sure how to attach a photo of the cooler here. I'm sure there's a video out there on how the make a swamp cooler from a cooler. 4 bags of ice lasts all day and keeps the 5th wheel in the 70's. Not a perfect solution but helps.

        Enough to let you use it while traveling until I get to my next sight and fire under the ac's. 

  • Most people that want to cool their rv use a generator and the rooftop ac and turn it on about an hour before their destination. Never done it myself when we had our Fw, but I know people that have. 

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