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PhilR's avatar
PhilR
Explorer II
Jul 22, 2017

Air Conditioner

I just installed a Coleman Mach 8 9,200 BTU AC unit on my Northern Lite truck camper. The camper was prep'd for ac from the factory. The front of ac unit is fastened to the roof at the former roof hatch opening, which is about an inch higher than the roof elevation which causes the rear of the ac unit to be cantilevered and unsupported. Not sure if I need to provide additional support between the bottom of the ac unit and the roof. Anyone else experience this problem?

35 Replies

  • Ours the roof slopes starting about 2" from hole. Important is the hole itself if flat. But the end of our AC is a almost an inch off roof. Gasket kit included a strip for rear support, as I recall I moved it closer to hole so just shy of contacting roof (like it would if roof flat) before compressing gasket.
    Our original AC was larger, the rear support strip didn't contact roof at all and it didn't leak or other ill effects from lack of support after 10 years.

    View showing roof slope

    Not best picture, just showing start of roof transition from hole.

    Its the 4 mount bolts that hold AC to roof, compressing gasket-
    I don't 'think' non-supported rear could cause a leak. I just didn't like of idea of it hanging and bouncing down the road. Possibly- likely wouldn't move though. If you added something just ensure it doesn't hold the unit up from compressing the gasket.
  • I installed the Polar Cub on my Bigfoot. It sandwiches the roof between the inner mounting plate and the A/C frame. It only needs to seal where the foam gasket contacts the roof. The Bigfoot roof is curved, so side to side the A/C really only touches where the hole is plus about 4-inches.

    Wayne
  • Can you build it up with composite lumber or something similar?
  • I'm curious as well. Considering installing a low profile Dometic unit and my rear vent is labelled 'AC prep'.