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