taking out rear air coditioner (Roadtrek)

[GaryKH]

Hi. I was wondering if anyone has taken out the rear air conditioner, permanently in their Roadtrek. I seem to have developed a leak in the rear passenger side & the only place it could be coming from would be the AC. This is something that we don't particularly need, having camped without one since the '70's! We have a 1998 D190P.
If you have taken it out, what did you use to cover the opening up with, & how did you seal it back up?
Any insights would be appreciated. Thanks, Gary

[GaryKH]

Thanks for the suggestions. I still haven't decided on what i'll use yet. RT suggests using Tide in a mixture. Whatever i use, it will be no more bleach. i don't want to push it with that stuff.

[senf]

What about trying Black Streak remover? Not only does it work on RVs but I use it to clean the mould and grunge off my house eavetroughs.

[gdoug83]

GaryKH wrote:
Any suggestions for a good cleaner? Thanks, Gary

Awesome might do the trick. Read the instructions for strength. Did wonders for me on a vinyl windshield cover at 50%.

[PSW]

Sometimes you can use a VERY diluted solution of "Shock" (the stuff you can buy at Lowes or HD to kill junk in a swimming pool) to kill mold and mildew. It comes in small little packets and each one treats thousands of gallons in a pool, so I am talking about just a teeny bit to a gallon of water. Of course, you would really want to test it on some place that didn't show and make sure it didn't eat or mess up the surface. This stuff is really toxic, so be careful if you try it and remember that a packet is used for a whole pool!

Probably a better solution, but this works on certain molds and mildews.

[GaryKH]

Well, i finally got the whole thing fixed (i hope!) There has been a few heavy downpours since i've sealed it & so far, it's stayed dry. After taking the AC out, it was revealed that the original roof was still there! Upon further investigation, i found the 'C' channel that holds the F/G top to the metal van body with rivets was the cause of the leak. Somehow, water was getting onto the rivets & running down them into the inside rain gutter & from there getting into the rear corner. I replaced the grills with some hard plastic pieces & used some good clear roofing sealant all around. It took a couple of tries to get it sealed properly. I was fighting weather & freezing temperatures, but eventually got it! Now, i'm working on trying to get rid of the stain that it all left. I've tried some bleach & that worked 60%. I bought some peroxide cleaner & that didn't work so good. It's the blackish mildew stains that are the stubborn ones. Any suggestions for a good cleaner? Thanks, Gary

[steveh27]

Xplorers have been known to develop leaks where the fiberglass top joins with the OEM dodge side. They put a gutter there & I've had to drill out the pop rivets, clean out the old sealant, reseal & reattach all. It is a tricky job to reassemble it & have the gutter flow well. The rear window is the emergency escape & has leaked at the top hinge where the crews are. RV sealant & covering with black duct tape to match the hinge has stopped that.

GL with your search. Finding & stopping a leak is a pain.

[GaryKH]

Thanks for the replies. On my RT., the water ingress & staining begin at the top of the passenger side, rear wall/ceiling intersection (above the window height). This tells me that it starts somewhere above that line. The awning is currently off (waiting for a replacement) & is sealed (recently), i don't think it's from there. The only other penetrations above this point would be the AC, & the center brake light. I took the bottom grill off yesterday & investigated. It is really hard to tell the configuration of the drain plane from the AC, but it does go under the molding that fastens the F/G roof to the metal body of the van. At the edges there appears to be a vulnerable area, so i put a lot of chalking in there. However, i don't think this is where it was leaking as it would have to be from a hose pointing up (or a real bad storm)& i've been parked for 3 months. This leaves the center brake light fixture, which i'll be looking at soon. I'll let you know what i find.

[Handbasket]

FWIW, I had a '99/'00 RT D190V 'back when' (early 2000's). Mine leaked in the right rear, which turned out to be from the big single rear cargo door. From research here and elsewhere on line, it seemed to be pretty common. Unfortunately, I can't recall all of what I did to fix it.

I know I untwisted the door gasket, and glued it's (yellow?) plastic locating pins back into their holes in the door's perimeter. I _think_ I also put some square weatherstripping on the upper part of the body-side door frame, located so it just barely interfered with the outer edge of the OEM gasket. I think that stopped it.

If yours is really from the A/C, I can only say that I remember reading the R&R-for-repair procedure online; can't recall where. I'd saved it for a while, but it's been gone many computer crashes ago... probably was stored on a 3 1/2" floppy or a Zip tape. I think it was stored in the archives of the old MSN RT group, but i think MSN pulled the plug on that years back. A user by the name of "Smallcamper" here (Tom) was the mod there; dunno if a PM thru this board would reach him or not.

There are also two yahoo auto groups that might be worth inquiring in... 'classicrv' and 'Class_B_Vans'. There just might be someone there who has a copy.

HTH!

Jim, "One good turn gets most of the blanket."

(Ah-hah!.. I see Rodger wasn't typing slow, shelling pecans, and watching TV like I was... very good!)

[My_Roadtrek]

I found this in the archives. Sometimes you need to use different search criteria, and not give up.
Step by step instructions in this link. Also, you can call Rt and they will send you the instructions.

http://forums.woodalls.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/29314.cfm

[RnRs-RT]

I have a 99 Dodge 190 versatile. I have had my rear AC grills out to repaint and the seal/pan under the AC is very well sealed. If the leak is in the extreme rear corner I would check the tail light. Pull the light and you will see a galvanized
patch over an existing hole in the body sheet metal. It is adhered with a sealant and mine had come loose just enough to allow some water leakage. I pulled it off and resealed it and it has been fine since. I have also heard of some windows leaking. If you really want to get rid of the AC I do not believe it would be much of a project.

[GaryKH]

Well, before i posted, i tried searching this forum & also on google. Nothing came up on this forum, but on google, there was an old posting from here, that ran off into a different tangent. Not much useful information. Could you tell me what search terms you used to access the old data?

[My_Roadtrek]

There is info about how to do this in the Class B archives. Search posts over a year old, only in the Class B forum.

[Steeljag]

I start by saying I don't have what your inquiring about. If it is a roof mounted AC unit, could you not remove the AC unit and replace it with a Fantastic Fan or similiar model. I believe the opening for both should be the same measurements.

Just a thought, Im sure you will get some replys from those with direct experience.

Good luck.