Air conditioner for my 11 foot truck camper?

[Francis]

We need a small portable Air Conditioner for our old 11 foot TC after a sweltering camping week. Any recommendations? Researching online offers many choices but we cannot vent through the crank out windows and it needs to plug into an AC outlet. A reservoir would be OK to attach a drain hose if necessary for a bucket! THANKS!
Francis

[WarrenS65]

Can you use this to vent out the window? Window Seal for Portable Air Conditioner, 100% Sealing Effect AC Window Seal Vent Kit for Portable A.... $16.99 on Amazon.

[mkirsch]

Francis wrote:
Our windows are crank-out jalousies with attached interior screens so using a window is out of the question: we do not want to remove the whole window unit for a retro. The issue of draining the moisture from the A/C won't work with the window. Perhaps a bucket with a cover that has been cut for a hole to fit the drain hose. This works for us to drain gray water out to an enclosed bucket when necessary. We also have a portable dehumidifier but it is ineffective.

Modern portable ACs don't need to be drained very often if at all. The moisture is vaporized and sent out the exhaust tube.

I drained mine a sum total of TWICE in all the years I owned it.

You do you, though.

[StirCrazy]

valhalla360 wrote:

StirCrazy wrote:
THIS is a neat unit that I have been looking at. It's 12V and it's a heat pump so it replaces both your furnace and gives you an ac and draws just over 11 amps on full load. Best of all compared to other 12V AC's it's a little more affordable, but it would take a bit of work to install.

Steve

The link you provided goes to a 115v (per the website) unit.

Also, heat pumps are not great with actual cold temps. 40-50F, they do pretty well. By the time you get into the 20'sF, they lose a lot of heating power.

For the price of this unit, probably cheaper to get a standard RV roof mounted unit.

So it is, I missed that sorry, as for cold weather performance.. this one doesn't give spects so ya it most likely sucks, but lots can go down to -30C now days, they just cost a little more.. but seeing as this one is 120V its no good anyways.. weird as the link I followed was a 12V so I'll have to check that out and see if it switched me.

[deltabravo]

The problem with those portable a/c units is this:
They blow hot air to the outside of the RV. That exhaust air needs to be replaced with and equal amount of outside air coming into the camper, so the A/C is fighting a never ending battle of trying to cool the air it's drawing in from the outside (through an open roof vent or window) to replace the air it's shooting out through its exhaust hose.

Twin hose model solves that problem as described in an earlier post, quoted below:

valhalla360 wrote:

If you do go with a "portable", look for one with twin hoses. the single hose models, use already cooled interior air to cool the condensor and then dump it outside, along with all the cooled air. This drastically reduces the effective cooling power (regardless of the btu listed). The twin hose style pulls in outside air to cool the condensor and then sends it out the other hose making it far more effective.

[Grit_dog]

Bedlam wrote:
I want to be that 80+ guy still going out camping. Neither father nor father in law lived that many years, so I hope to break the cycle.

Right? Hell, I’ll consider 60 a win.
The avg age of both my parents and now including my wife”s lives is 59 and change.
At 83 if I was still campin I’d take a bad loan out on a new TC with the biggest air conditioner if I had to. Prolly ain’t gotta worry about paying it off and wouldn’t have to suffer with a table fan in the sweltering heat….

[valhalla360]

Francis wrote:
Our windows are crank-out jalousies with attached interior screens so using a window is out of the question: we do not want to remove the whole window unit for a retro. The issue of draining the moisture from the A/C won't work with the window. Perhaps a bucket with a cover that has been cut for a hole to fit the drain hose. This works for us to drain gray water out to an enclosed bucket when necessary. We also have a portable dehumidifier but it is ineffective.

That's not an issue for a "portable" air/con unit. No need to remove the windows or screens. Also, most splash the condensate into a mist to send out side with the heated exhaust air, so no draining.

This doesn't work with a dehumidifier as there is no exhaust air. It pulls air out of the room, over the condenser and evaporator and then exhausts the now dryer air back into the room.

[valhalla360]

StirCrazy wrote:
THIS is a neat unit that I have been looking at. It's 12V and it's a heat pump so it replaces both your furnace and gives you an ac and draws just over 11 amps on full load. Best of all compared to other 12V AC's it's a little more affordable, but it would take a bit of work to install.

Steve

The link you provided goes to a 115v (per the website) unit.

Also, heat pumps are not great with actual cold temps. 40-50F, they do pretty well. By the time you get into the 20'sF, they lose a lot of heating power.

For the price of this unit, probably cheaper to get a standard RV roof mounted unit.

[notsobigjoe]

OP, I would not hesitate for a minute using this small unit in my TC. Basically it's 2 ft. tall by 1 x 1 "Not actual size" Get a pc of that thick hard pink insulation from Lowes, cut a hole in it, tape it in the window of your choice and run it out the window. It's 199 on amazon prime so that means it's cheaper somewhere else. Good luck buddy!!!!
https://www.amazon.com/Uhome-Portable-Conditioner-Dehumidifier-Included/dp/B0B21DJWNG/ref=sr_1_8_sspa?crid=3UW7KL5A33NLJ&keywords=portable%2Bac&qid=1692479587&sprefix=portable%2B%2Caps%2C134&sr=8-8-spons&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.f5122f16-c3e8-4386-bf32-63e904010ad0&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9tdGY&th=1

[Bedlam]

I want to be that 80+ guy still going out camping. Neither father nor father in law lived that many years, so I hope to break the cycle.

[Francis]

Guess this 83-year old guy will stick to the table fan. We are unable to get out camping much (sigh) and will just keep it simple (yes, cheap). Thanks for so many replies though, perhaps to help someone else with the same challenge.

[Grit_dog]

Guessing the OP is looking for very inexpensive and very little effort. Never usually a successful combination for things that are generally expensive and require effort.

[jimh406]

You might be able to find a used RV AC and there are a few sites that sell blemished/dented one for less.

However, if you are handy, a cheaper option is cut a hole to fit a window AC, or remove a window and build a frame to go around the AC to fill the empty space. Remove it for traveling and put back in when you get to the destination.

In the mean time, try parking in shade or use sunshade/screens to block out most of the sun. I don't think there is a lot that can match the wind stirred by a box fan.

[Francis]

Our windows are crank-out jalousies with attached interior screens so using a window is out of the question: we do not want to remove the whole window unit for a retro. The issue of draining the moisture from the A/C won't work with the window. Perhaps a bucket with a cover that has been cut for a hole to fit the drain hose. This works for us to drain gray water out to an enclosed bucket when necessary. We also have a portable dehumidifier but it is ineffective.

[mkirsch]

You're not going to find any non-RV options that don't involve some modification for installation, or at the very least, building something to make it work.

I still think your best bet will be an 8000BTU portable air conditioner. Maybe you just don't understand what one is. It is a free-standing appliance, sits on the floor like a skinny R2-D2. It is NOT a window unit, which sticks through the window. There's one hose that goes to the nearest window, and a cord that plugs into a wall outlet.

You will need to come up with a way to hang the hose in a window, and block off airflow to the rest of the window. That's the minimum amount of work you can expect to try to adapt a non-RV air conditioner to your camper.