UPDATE- AC UPGRADE, Dealer Visit, and 1st long trip

[Gsragtop]

Hello again, Its been a while so I have a bit to update you guys on. As well as a few questions I as well..

First as some will remember I purchased a 2015 Gulfsteram Conquest 19ft Bunkhouse a couple of months ago, and durring our first trip out was VERY VERY disappointed with the lack of cooling from the factory 8,000 BTU unit. This is a typical "window unit " such as you would find in Home Depot or Walmart. The unit was working properly, just not powerful enough to cool the coach. So I desided to upgrade to a 12,000 BTU unit that was of simular hight and with, but 6 inches deeper in size. With some mods I got it in, but now had a new issue..

The new unit was not breathing in its box correctly, and was tripping its over heat breaker causing the unit to run for 10 min and shut down for 10.. When I was intsalling the unit I noticed that there was a vent mounted to the roof (kind of like a refidgorator roof vent), but there was not a hole cut in the roof to access the vent. After callig Gulfstream they agreed to pay for the hole to be cut so my new AC could breath better and not over heat. .OFF to the dealer I go....

This was my first experience with a warranty isseue on a RV, and true to form the dealership did not disapoint in there slowness of servce.. THREE WEEKS LATER and litterally 2 days before I had my trip schedualed I get my coach back and could only hope the AC issue was trully fixed (test run at the dealer might be different then real life).. The thing that bothered me was that I had already contacted GULF STREAM and gotten there appoval for the work, so this waiting time would not happen. I trully hoped we could fit a quick trip to a local camp ground in before our long distance trip. The dealer claimed the delay was getting the apporval from Gulfstream on the hold cut.. I think I was lied to, but the job got done and I did not have to pay a dime.

So that brings me to our FIRST long distance trip. A two hour haul up to charleston, and the longest I have ever towed the coach with my van. I have to say the van did great, able to maintain 60-65 mph, the pull was steady and sure and at no point did I feel unsafe... The ONLY thing I wished for was more power, as I was stuck towing in 4th which took my MPG's for the trip down to about 10 MPG !!! Thats downs from the vans normal 20+ish.. This was on basically flat land with some traffic lights and idle time, but still, much worse then I hoped for.

So we get to the camp ground and set up, which was eaiser then I thought it would be (I guess im getting better at it) even on the dirt site. The trip was a great success and even in the high 80's heat with VERY high humidity the AC kept things cool in the coach (73 durring the heat of the day, and into the 60's with ease at night).. SUCCESS !!! One small issue was a hole in the bottom of the unit that was dripping condensate into the coach, that was solved by a catch bowl for the weekend.. A permanant fix should be easy enough.

One issue that remained was trying to drain the AC when we left.. I evern built a ramp to tilt the coach about 15 degrees toward the drain and it helped but I still had water in the coach on our first stop.. I think I have to work out a plug/drain for the furtue.

So lessons learned:
1) A van can tow a full size coach (not just a pop up) if you are ok with miserable MPG
2) 8,000 BTU AC is worthless in a 19foot trailer, and the mfg should be shot for trying it.
3) warranty work although free, is a real PITA !!
4) Camping is still fun and family time is irreplaceable.

PS after all this... The wife wants something larger... Uhhh ohhh...lol

[BurbMan]

My experience has been that every dealer is like this...I'm pretty handy and if I can do it myself, I will before I make a trip to the dealer. I can understand why folks who aren't handy or own basic tools get very frustrated with RV ownership, because going back to the dealer for everything that breaks is a real PITA.

Glad you got the a/c situation fixed and looking forward to a great season of camping!

I would suggest installing a trans temp gauge in the van so you can keep an eye on transmission temps instead of relying on the idiot light to tell you when it's already overheated. It's the wind resistance that is the killer pulling a hard-sided RV, not the weight per se. FWIW 10 mpg isn't bad when towing, budgeting for fuel expense is part of towing an RV.

[PAThwacker]

Gsragtop wrote:
Hello again, Its been a while so I have a bit to update you guys on. As well as a few questions I as well..

First as some will remember I purchased a 2015 Gulfsteram Conquest 19ft Bunkhouse a couple of months ago, and durring our first trip out was VERY VERY disappointed with the lack of cooling from the factory 8,000 BTU unit. This is a typical "window unit " such as you would find in Home Depot or Walmart. The unit was working properly, just not powerful enough to cool the coach. So I desided to upgrade to a 12,000 BTU unit that was of simular hight and with, but 6 inches deeper in size. With some mods I got it in, but now had a new issue..

The new unit was not breathing in its box correctly, and was tripping its over heat breaker causing the unit to run for 10 min and shut down for 10.. When I was intsalling the unit I noticed that there was a vent mounted to the roof (kind of like a refidgorator roof vent), but there was not a hole cut in the roof to access the vent. After callig Gulfstream they agreed to pay for the hole to be cut so my new AC could breath better and not over heat. .OFF to the dealer I go....

This was my first experience with a warranty isseue on a RV, and true to form the dealership did not disapoint in there slowness of servce.. THREE WEEKS LATER and litterally 2 days before I had my trip schedualed I get my coach back and could only hope the AC issue was trully fixed (test run at the dealer might be different then real life).. The thing that bothered me was that I had already contacted GULF STREAM and gotten there appoval for the work, so this waiting time would not happen. I trully hoped we could fit a quick trip to a local camp ground in before our long distance trip. The dealer claimed the delay was getting the apporval from Gulfstream on the hold cut.. I think I was lied to, but the job got done and I did not have to pay a dime.

So that brings me to our FIRST long distance trip. A two hour haul up to charleston, and the longest I have ever towed the coach with my van. I have to say the van did great, able to maintain 60-65 mph, the pull was steady and sure and at no point did I feel unsafe... The ONLY thing I wished for was more power, as I was stuck towing in 4th which took my MPG's for the trip down to about 10 MPG !!! Thats downs from the vans normal 20+ish.. This was on basically flat land with some traffic lights and idle time, but still, much worse then I hoped for.

So we get to the camp ground and set up, which was eaiser then I thought it would be (I guess im getting better at it) even on the dirt site. The trip was a great success and even in the high 80's heat with VERY high humidity the AC kept things cool in the coach (73 durring the heat of the day, and into the 60's with ease at night).. SUCCESS !!! One small issue was a hole in the bottom of the unit that was dripping condensate into the coach, that was solved by a catch bowl for the weekend.. A permanant fix should be easy enough.

One issue that remained was trying to drain the AC when we left.. I evern built a ramp to tilt the coach about 15 degrees toward the drain and it helped but I still had water in the coach on our first stop.. I think I have to work out a plug/drain for the furtue.

So lessons learned:
1) A van can tow a full size coach (not just a pop up) if you are ok with miserable MPG
2) 8,000 BTU AC is worthless in a 19foot trailer, and the mfg should be shot for trying it.
3) warranty work although free, is a real PITA !!
4) Camping is still fun and family time is irreplaceable.

PS after all this... The wife wants something larger... Uhhh ohhh...lol

Number 1: that bh is 8ft and 11" tall. Full height campers are 11ft plus

[ScottG]

I think the rep is full of it. Why would they put a vent on the roof that has no purpose.
They simply screwed up.

[Gsragtop]

Mr. C wrote:
Did Gulfstream just forget to cut the hole for the A/C to breathe in your unit, or all similar units?

I figured that this was your problem from the beginning. The 8000btu unit wasn't breathing either...

Ok that's the odd part, when I spoke with Gulfstream they said it was a running production change NOT to cut the hole (they felt it did not help the AC cool the unit), and that my unit must have been on the line when the change came through which is why I had the vent cover at all.. As for the 8,000 btu unit, I don't recall it switching off while running and it was putting out cold air (in fact it's currently in our Bed room at home and cools it down nicely). I just don't think it was moving enough air to over come the heat + humidity we see in SC..

[Marauderer]

<>

You are a lucky man. Your DW is a keeper.

[Mr__C]

Did Gulfstream just forget to cut the hole for the A/C to breathe in your unit, or all similar units?

I figured that this was your problem from the beginning. The 8000btu unit wasn't breathing either...

[Gsragtop]

To be clear we will not tow anything heavier then what we have with the van.. I don't want to start that debate, LOL.

[dadmomh]

Uhhh Ohhh is right. 8000 BTU A/C....they should be beaten to a pulp! So the Kia is still in the mix and is still going to be a huge factor. We had a chance this past weekend to take the 50 cent of an AR-One. Owner said it weighed in about 3,000#...FWIW. It was a 17 or 18' IIRC and considering size and amenities. Might be worth taking a look. It had a queen size walk around bed, nice kitchen with more space than I would have expected. Sort of a mini-u-shaped dinette, but could make an extra bed pretty easily. Decent interior storage and they mentioned that others they'd looked at in that size had nothing for storage. We did not see the bathroom, but there was a decent size closet door next to the bathroom - pantry, wardrobe, ??? The downside was the smaller refrig. That would not do for us, but they said they were perfectly pleased with what they could get in just for the 2 of them. Fit and finish looked good. He said he paid abut $11,000. Re the A/C, you'd have to check the specs but it was very comfortable when we went inside. Online homework. Good luck.