Well, I'm knee deep into my Spring camper project. I posted about this earlier about all of the work I plan on doing but this update is specifically to the AC conversion. As a recap for those that didn't see my initial post, I am removing the roof AC unit and replacing with a under the dinette 12v DC unit. This is going in place of the furnace (which is being replaced with a Wave 3 Catalytic heater and is sufficient for my climate).
The AC unit I purchased off of Aliexpress for around $550 plus $250 in shipping. The price seems to fluctuate quite a bit by the way so if your interested in this project, keep checking those prices often. One note... This unit is actually a 24v DC unit but they include a 24v to 12v converter if you order it that way.
So far the install has been fairly reasonable. The most difficult part is needing to change how the outside air is routed. This unit has the outside air vents on the bottom of it (for install in a van conversion where it would pull from air through the floor. I didn't want to cut any fiberglass to vent the air downwards so I'm rerouting the air to go out the side to make use of the existing hatch for the old furnace. The biggest part of my time is spent puzzling through how I'm going to fit the various pieces and what type of ducting I'm going to use.
I am recording all of this and will eventually have a video on YouTube to show how I did it for anyone else contemplating the same project.
For anyone wondering why bother doing this? Many reasons I suppose. First, I couldn't stand how tall the existing roof top AC looks on the camper. It stands out like a sore thumb. It's also susceptible to low hanging branches. It is a lot of mass high up on the camper impacting ride handling. It is inefficient and loud. The best part is that this new unit I will be able to run on battery and solar for most of my needs thus making it way more useful.
A few more pictures to share. I did end up removing the divider in the seat that separated the small compartment from the larger compartment. In these pictures I still have the piece of wood where the divider went but I eventually removed it because it was difficult to work around and served no purpose. Initially I was thinking of moving my battery to the small compartment but as of now, I'm leaning towards running the cable provided to where the existing battery is. The AC unit itself is 24v but they provide a 12v to 24v DC converter. The 24v wiring they provide is really quite long and will snake easily through the camper to get to the back where the battery is. The only real difficulty will be in getting the wire around some of the tighter compartments with limited access. It will be a bear to get it done but I don't foresee any show stopping issues. As part of this build I am also removing my oven / stove and replacing it with just a two burner stove. When I do that it will likely free up quite a bit of space to snake the wires around.
