Air conditioner for my 11 foot truck camper?

Guessing the OP is looking for very inexpensive and very little effort. Never usually a successful combination for things that are generally expensive and require effort.

You might be able to find a used RV AC and there are a few sites that sell blemished/dented one for less.

However, if you are handy, a cheaper option is cut a hole to fit a window AC, or remove a window and build a frame to go around the AC to fill the empty space. Remove it for traveling and put back in when you get to the destination.

In the mean time, try parking in shade or use sunshade/screens to block out most of the sun. I don't think there is a lot that can match the wind stirred by a box fan.

Our windows are crank-out jalousies with attached interior screens so using a window is out of the question: we do not want to remove the whole window unit for a retro. The issue of draining the moisture from the A/C won't work with the window. Perhaps a bucket with a cover that has been cut for a hole to fit the drain hose. This works for us to drain gray water out to an enclosed bucket when necessary. We also have a portable dehumidifier but it is ineffective.

You're not going to find any non-RV options that don't involve some modification for installation, or at the very least, building something to make it work.

I still think your best bet will be an 8000BTU portable air conditioner. Maybe you just don't understand what one is. It is a free-standing appliance, sits on the floor like a skinny R2-D2. It is NOT a window unit, which sticks through the window. There's one hose that goes to the nearest window, and a cord that plugs into a wall outlet.

You will need to come up with a way to hang the hose in a window, and block off airflow to the rest of the window. That's the minimum amount of work you can expect to try to adapt a non-RV air conditioner to your camper.

Swamp coolers (fan and water, or ice? Not sure how you can have an unlimited supply of ice camping in an antique TC) only work in very low humidity. That’s why you never seen them east of Texas.

You have options but they will require money, some handy work or more money and someone else’s handy work.
Honestly it’s a stretch goal with that camper unless you’re handy.

It looks like many others have great ideas, but as our truck camper is 45 years old, there aren't many options for installations. Many factors need to be considered upon reading the suggestions for us. We do have a dead gas furnace that could be taken out for a small unit, and it has the exterior panel to reach it. We are rethinking this, will stick to our table fan as it's daunting to press on for A/C. We heard about placing a fan over a bucket of ice water to blow cooler air and we may try that! THANKS FOR HELP, and will check in for more ideas.

THIS is a neat unit that I have been looking at. It's 12V and it's a heat pump so it replaces both your furnace and gives you an ac and draws just over 11 amps on full load. Best of all compared to other 12V AC's it's a little more affordable, but it would take a bit of work to install.

Steve

There are a number of mimi split project on YouTube one can check out on truck campers.

For the units themselves, it's six of one, half dozen of the other.

The beauty of a portable type is you can vent it anywhere. Why can't you use a window? Make up a cover for the nearest window and attach the vent hose to it. You don't HAVE to use what comes with the unit.

I ran an 8000BTU portable unit in my Palomino pop-up for a couple of summers. Bought it from BJ's Wholesale Club for $279, late summer clearance price. Sure, it took up a square foot of floor space, but it beats heatstroke any day of the week.

My camper has sliding windows. To vent, I cut a piece of plexiglass to fit in the space made by the partially-open window. It slips into the slots and the window closes against it to hold it in place. The vent tube from the AC plugs into the plexiglass.

valhalla360 wrote:
For a "portable" aircon (a unit that is meant to stand in a room with hoses lead to a window), your biggest problem is space in a small truck camper. We used one on the boat when the built in unit went out but the boat had a much bigger space to put it...it was still in the way.

Yes, it needs to vent but that could be accomplished thru the screens, just a question of how much work you want to put into making it look decent....at the low end, you could duct tape it in place with a piece of cardboard for next to nothing. If you want it to look better, you could make a plywood cover that holds in place with clips over the open screen window.

If you do go with a "portable", look for one with twin hoses. the single hose models, use already cooled interior air to cool the condensor and then dump it outside, along with all the cooled air. This drastically reduces the effective cooling power (regardless of the btu listed). The twin hose style pulls in outside air to cool the condesor and then sends it out the other hose making it far more effective.

If you are talking about a window unit, mostly an issue of getting one that fits the hole in the wall.

I have considered a window AC in my 1181 for many years now. I have the perfect place, rite where the microwave is over the cooktop. We never use the microwave and that 747 on the roof as long since worn out it's welcome. I would love to have an extra hatch up there as well. Ive seen many conversions for this job and have considered it.