Forum Discussion

carolcamp's avatar
carolcamp
Explorer
Jun 03, 2013

A/C's in Hybrid Extendable Travel Trailers

I am looking at a Hybrid Extendable Travel Trailer and wonder does anyone know how the a/c does in North Central Florida in the summer time? I am concerned that it won't cool very well? WE have some really hot days close to 100 and I am trying to see if that is the way I want to go? Any suggestions? or Comments?
  • We have camped our Roo in the southern humidity of Florida, Georgia, Tenn, and when prepared, have had no issues cooling. Use the Reflectix, Gizmos or space blankets and try to camp near shade.
  • We are in central Florida (near Lakeland) and our A/C can keep up in the summer, even without shade.
    It isn't very cold during the day, but is cool. Cool enough to nap if you wanted to. At night it gets very cold and I find myself turning up the temp so we don't freeze.

    We do NOT use the gizmos or reflectix. We could probably regulate the temps a little better with them but feel it isn't necessary since it is rather comfortable without.

    We camped at Lake Louisa State Park last summer (absolutely no shade) and the inside of the camper was probably in the mid 70's during the day with the A/C set to low cool.
  • Some pointers for making your a/c keep your family cooler. Just about all a/c's are designed to pull the temp down 18 - 20 degrees from outside air temperatures. An example would be if the outside air temperature is 76 degrees with humidity around 54 % , then the a/c will take the internal camper temp down to approximately 58 degrees, if the humidity is higher, then the ability of the a/c to work more efficiently decreases if your thermostat set point is at 58 degrees. The higher the humidity the more the a/c struggles to pull moisture out of the air. If you are parked where there is no shade, then I would leave the cooling to the evening hours. Shade is your friend obviously , near the ocean or bay, or harbor where cool breezes will help your machine. Reflective covers over your canvas ends help as well. My hybrid is ducted, so my thermal loss is negligent over a conventional a/c direct ventilation configuration. Another thing you might want to consider is going round your machine and sealing possible air leakage round storage areas, where plumbing is jutting through the frame, even around your slides if you have them. It doesn't take much too vent your air to the outside. There are all sorts of tricks on here from everybody on how to save your a/c air. Anyway hope this helps some.
  • The AC should work fine with gizmos & relectix. Just a note that there is a lot of difference in the heat in Vegas & NM that is dry desert heat than the humid heat in central Florida. Lot easier to cool dry heat than humid heat.
  • Not sure if you are referring to an "extendable" as one of those TTs that have the rear bed that slides out in a hard shell, but if you are, I can tell you that there is a family that camps with us and they have one of those with bunk beds on the front of the trailer (4 beds) and a slide out bed in the back and their A/C has no problem keeping up with the Central Florida heat. I hope this helps. Oh, and their A/C is ducted (sp?) so it comes out of different places in the camper; where as our HTT only has that central A/C that only blows out from the middle.
  • We had no trouble keeping our Roo cool even in the NM summer heat.
  • We took our old HTT to Vegas some years back. It was 100+ during the day and the A/C had no trouble keeping up. We also don't use PUGS. It was also a smaller trailer than our new one. I image the new one would not be quite as good in that respect.
  • a simple search here, on the subject, will yield hundreds of similar questions and answers.

    your question is asked all the time. there are many members here from Florida that own hybrids and are very happy with them.

    they have all purchased Popup Gizmos or the generic solar blankets for the tops of the canvas ends and also put Reflectix in the windows.
    in fact, most of us do this and we don't live in Florida. it's the #1 mod for Hybrids, because it helps regulate temps inside the canvas ends, in summer AND fall. plus the PUGs help keep the canvas clean and also provide darkening for afternoon naps.

    by doing this, the a/c in the hybrid can keep up with the heat.