First night out, one issue ???

[Gsragtop]

So we are out on our first night shake down trip.. Everything has been great so far, and we are truly enjoying it.

One issue I have run into is the AC.. It was in the 90's today and we had a fully shaded spot, however even with the AC running all day it never hit below 80 in the trailer according to the furnace tstat. It never felt cool inside even with an oscillating fan I got to keep the air moving. The air coming out of the unit seems cold (I did not bring my vent tstat to confirm). Now I know some say the wall units are not great, but it's only a small 19 foot TT it should get it down into the 70's ??? It kind of put a kink in our weekend because we did not have a cool place to sit for a few min.. All of us are over heated and I'm a little agrivated because it's the one black eye on our trip.. For what it's worth it's a 8000 btu frididaire.

Also while we are at it, the fridge took forever to cool the drinks inside. I'm talking 6 hours or more.. Is that normal ??

[unimogdave]

My 189Q is about the same size (single axle 15ft box) and I wish it did not have this huge 13.5K creating all the drag on the roof. Parked in direct sun, on the hotest days with Humidex approaching 100F it will cool my trailer down below 70F in 15 minutes. I am surprised an 8K would not make it comfortable given some time. Must be others with wall mounted units that can comment?

[zigzagguzzi]

AC units can freeze up if the fan is not run at max speed, 8000 is pretty small, though. Jim

[MitchF150]

I've got a 22' (19' cabin) TT and it has a Coleman MACH 1 13.5 roof AC unit and it cools TOO MUCH.. 😉 I've had the thing in 90* + temps and it keeps it around the mid 70's inside (in full sun) but could cool it more if needed.. It will actually get TOO COLD if allowed..

I even keep the screen door open in the thing and it will still cycle on it's cooling..

What is happening to you is you are running it at 100+% and it's probably freezing up and that makes it nothing more than a fan, so it's not cooling anything...

Get a 'real' AC unit and you'll be much cooler and happier.. 😉

Mitch

[Gsragtop]

Ok I'm now fairly sure the unit is undersized as some of you suggested.. I am basing this on the fact that when I got home I pluged it in, and put a thermometer to the vents. I was getting 60 degree air out of the vents.. That's in 90+ degree air temp sitting in the full sun.. So it sounds like it's running fine and putting out air as cold as you could expect.

I was looking online and the larger units are slightly larger (2-3 inches deeper, and about 2 inches wider).. I'm not worried about the wider as I can always trim to fit., it's the deeper I'm worried about, as there is a plastic cover that I don't have much room to play with.. Ideas ???

BTW I also did confirm its a 8000 btu ac unit according to the sticker on the side. I thought maybe there was a chance they put a lower btu unit in by mistake. They did not 😞

[wmoses]

Gsragtop wrote:
Hear is another thing, I looked up the model AC unit online it's rated for about 350 sq feet. My trailer is 19x8'ish. Even if it's slightly wider, it's still under 200 sq feet.. So how can it still be so under performing??? Unless the unit is weak ??

Ratings when installed in a house will produce a much larger cooled area than ratings for an RV, due to the fact that the R-values in the walls are much less for RVs. The rating you saw was probably based on residential use.

[Mr__C]

Is there condensate coming from the a/c? Even though the condensate is slung onto the condenser coil, there should be some overflow. Can you hear the compressor running?

[Uma___Papa]

Seeing we are also in SC and have to deal with the extreme hot and sticky weather, let me give you some advice. Like others said start cooling your fridge a good 24 hours before your trip (ours is hooked up to the house power). We always put frozen bottles of drinking water and use empty milk jugs with water frozen solid (hopefully you have a large home freezer to have them ready), this helps the RV fridge so it doesn't have to work so hard to start cooling. We never put our cold food in till the temp in RV fridge is cold. It's best to put all kid drinks, be it water or fruit drinks (even colas) in a separate cooler just because they will constantly want to get something out (btw those frozen bottles of water go in the cooler cause they are now defrosted or at least partly so grandkids or us can now drink).
As far as cooling your RV, I can't give you advice on the size of the unit on yours but we always keep fans in our RV just to help the ceiling fan that's in the LR area. Our bedroom areas do not have ceiling fans so for us it's great to have moving air constantly. Too on those days that the bugs won't leave you alone while sitting outside we take them under the awning to help keep them away.

[Gsragtop]

homedad wrote:
If you can't put the whole trailer in the shade, can you put the fridge on the north facing side?

The entire unit was in the shade all day, I picked this spot on purpose for exactly that reason. That's one of the reasons I am so disappointed in the performance of the AC unit..

Hear is another thing, I looked up the model AC unit online it's rated for about 350 sq feet. My trailer is 19x8'ish. Even if it's slightly wider, it's still under 200 sq feet.. So how can it still be so under performing??? Unless the unit is weak ??

[homedad]

If you can't put the whole trailer in the shade, can you put the fridge on the north facing side?

[Gsragtop]

I appreciate everyone's input on this matter. I will be calling the dealer Monday and possibly gulf stream.. this really put a damper on the whole weekend because as I said before we did not have a place to cool down. at least with it being a wall mounted AC unit if I do not get any help from the dealer or manufacturer it's not expensive to replace myself. I can probably sell this one off craigslist and recoup most my money. just aggravating because this is a brand new camper and we shouldn't have to deal with this.

[scbwr]

OK....found pics of your unit.....wall mounted residential type as. You could have a defective ac...dealer should be able to test it and/or replace it.

[scbwr]

Although Winnebago doesn't offer a bunkhouse model in their smallest Winnie, it comes with a 13,500 but ac. Is your ac unit roof mounted or a wall mounted unit? If it's a wall mounted unit like you would have in a house, you may be able to buy a larger unit (btu) as long as it fits in the wall opening.

I hope you can work things out so you can enjoy your trailer....really sucks to start off this way with a new trailer!!!

[scbwr]

I looked at the Gulf Stream web page and saw that a 13500 btu ac is an option. So I think you are going to have to see about an upgrade. For camping down south, I think your dealer should have advised you to get the larger ac unit. I know it's not what you want to hear, but IMHO, the manufacturer offers the 8k but unit just to have a lower price. I hope I'm wrong....but if you need the upgrade, I'd be pushing for a really discounted price as the dealership should have advised against buying a trailer with the smaller unit.

[wmoses]

korbe wrote:
We will crack a couple windows open for positive flow.

You won't do that in (southern) Texas, I am sure. 😉