8000 btu A/C in small bunkhouse?

[fsds123]

I am looking at some of the 20 ft long or so bunkhouse trailers.

Dutchmen RV Aspen Trail 1700BH
Forest River RV Wildwood X Lite FS 195BH
Ameri-Lite 198BH
Jayco 174BH

Many of them on local dealers lots (Houston, Texas) have the 8000 btu A/C's.

Anyone have any experience with them on a small trailer in hot weather? Seems too small to me?

Also, any preference on manufacturers? They are all the same price.

[gypsmjim]

I bought my Trailer SPECIFICALLY because it came with a wall mounted unit. A roof AC would have been a deal breaker.

If you don't care about location, buy the biggest AC you can get and be done with it. If you ever intend to boondock, buy the appropriate size generator.

[JiminDenver]

A 5000 BTU window shaker will keep our 25 ft bunk house sitting in the sun down to 80 when it's 95 outside. Normally it would be well over 100 degrees without the little A/C as Ameri-lites are not well insulated. That said our humidity is very low compared to other places.

[hohenwald48]

justafordguy wrote:
Not sure about a 8000btu wall unit in a small camper but I have one in my 12' x 12' Florida room, all windows on three sides and it cools it down great even when 90+ outside and humid (which it always is in Florida). ;D

I bet you got more than 1.5 inches of insulation too. 🙂

[justafordguy]

Not sure about a 8000btu wall unit in a small camper but I have one in my 12' x 12' Florida room, all windows on three sides and it cools it down great even when 90+ outside and humid (which it always is in Florida). ;D

[fsds123]

We owned a 25 ft trailer for about 6 years and it had the 13,500 A/C, and had no problems with cooling in Houston. Other non Houston dealers do sell these trailers with the 13,500 A/C, so might just go that route. Would hate to buy and find out in the summer it can't keep up.

[gypsmjim]

hohenwald48 wrote:
Open your windows on a July day in Key West and you'll be toast before the sun goes down. 8K BTU may be fine up north but it will be very uncomfortable in the south anytime in the summer. Just depends on where you plan to go.

Of course, that's why when I said it was wonderful I specified where I was.

If I was in Key West in July I wouldn't be in an RV, I'd be on my boat.....LOL.

[hohenwald48]

Open your windows on a July day in Key West and you'll be toast before the sun goes down. 8K BTU may be fine up north but it will be very uncomfortable in the south anytime in the summer. Just depends on where you plan to go.

[gypsmjim]

fsds123 wrote:
How does it do in 90+ degree weather?

It works for us. During the day all the windows and the door are open and there is no need for it anyway. We are camping - we aren't inside during the day. Once the sun goes down and we decide to go in I turn it on about 15 minutes before, and when we do go inside the trailer is comfortable.

Our 195 is a very small trailer - it doesn't take much to cool it down. Just like in the Winter, when we get there it might be 25 degrees (F) and it only takes 15-30 minutes for the furnace to heat everything up.

[mhardin]

I have owned a Jayco 266 for about 14 years. The 13,500 A/C was usually adequate, but in the high 90s it was not enough. A couple of years ago, we spent several days in 105+ degrees. The 13,500 A/c was NOT any where near enough. I even put aluminium foil over all of the windows and topped that with blankets and quilts for insulation. The trailer couldn't get below the high 80's during the day. I replaced that with a 15,000 unit but have not used it in extreme heat yet. BTW, I live in the Houston area and would not even consider a 8,000 unit.

[SoundGuy]

gypsmjim wrote:
Our Jayco 195 has the 8,000 unit and I would not take a trailer of this size with anything bigger.

I like the side mounted unit better than the ones on the roof. It has ample cooling. It requires a smaller generator for boondocking. All positives, no negatives.

Having said that, our hottest temps are in the 90's.

Interesting observations and conclusion. :W I'm in Ontario where the weather isn't any different than New York state, currently own a 19' travel trailer equipped with a 13,500 BTU Dometic Brisk II A/C, and wouldn't want to have anything less. JMO but no way a mere 8000 BTU would be sufficient anytime it's hot enough to even warrant using the A/C.

[fsds123]

How does it do in 90+ degree weather?

[gypsmjim]

Our Jayco 195 has the 8,000 unit and I would not take a trailer of this size with anything bigger.

I like the side mounted unit better than the ones on the roof. It has ample cooling. It requires a smaller generator for boondocking. All positives, no negatives.

Having said that, our hottest temps are in the 90's.

[DutchmenSport]

35 and 1/2 foot TT with 3 slides here with a single 15,000 AC. Works great. We replaced the original 12,500. It just couldn't do it. Now granted, we camp mostly North of the Mason-Dixon line, so our summer temperatures are no comparison to Florida or Texas. So we do Florida in the winter.

But you take half the trailer (say 18 feet) and half the BTU (say 7,500), the cooling capacity would probably do just fine.... even in Texas summer.

The item that is more important than the cooling power of the AC is the insulation of the RV itself. If the insulation is good, a "lesser" AC will do well. If it's not insulated good, even a strong AC will not keep up. 99% of the comfort level of any RV is the insulation properties of the camper itself, and it's windows, and cracks and air leaks.

[Trackrig]

I'd look at it this way. We have a 40' DP that has two 15,000 A/Cs. They do alright in hot weather at over 100*F, but there's nothing there to spare.

The bunkhouse you're looking at is 20', half of our 40', therefore I wouldn't want to go with less than half of our cooling which would be a single 15,000 A/C. It get's hot in Texas. You can always turn it down, that's for the thermostat is for, but you can't turn it up past its capacity.

Bill