Custom Air Conditioning Retrofit

[Thisismyusername]

Whoops left the cabinet pic off.

[Tford]

Looks very doable to me, my Pioneer air handler unit is only about 7.5” deep and 11.5” high weighing in at 17 lbs. and should fit in that cabinet easily. With it being above your head it could stick out farther and still not be a problem with head knocking clearance.

[Thisismyusername]

Originally Posted by Tford

Looks very doable to me, my Pioneer air handler unit is only about 7.5” deep and 11.5” high weighing in at 17 lbs. and should fit in that cabinet easily. With it being above your head it could stick out farther and still not be a problem with head knocking clearance.

Awesome great to hear about that success. Do you have any pictures of it mounted? Also which models to go with? And lastly what kind of clearances in inches did you end up getting around it? Allegedly it says it requires around 5 in clearance on top at least the model I'm looking at but I think that's just to have full access to open the top door completely.

[Tford]

I’m still waiting on a part or two but my build will essentially be a clone of Joel’s here in this thread. And there’s a few good examples of front mount compressors here as well without the need to add the bumper extension like we have to do on the rear. I went with the 9K, 115V lower SEER unit from Pioneer. It’ll have an inch or two above the unit which should be fine for incoming air feed and yours looks like it will have even more space up above. I’ll also put two 6’ no kink flex lines from the compressor unit to inside the trailer for ease of installation and possible line vibration damping.

[Tford]

Yikes, it’s like crickets on this thread….and no one seems to be answering messages….but I’m forging on and fixing to drill holes in the back for Freon and electric….

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Tford

A question for Dave/Jake/Joel…did y’all mount your outside unit with bolts that went all the way through your 3” rectangular tubing? I think I can see in your pictures that no gusset/bracket was welded to the rear frame extensions to fasten the compressor feet to…

Thanks!

Rob,
On our 19 we did an aluminum mounting platform and the outside unit feet are sandwiched with rubber pads and bolted through the aluminum plate only. I wanted a captive design where the unit mount could not break free if it degrades. I'm glad I did because my rubber pads have degraded considerably since 2016 and are in need of replacement. As an insurance policy we put a ratchet strap around the unit and platform to helping to limit movement when it is in motion.

When we did Jake's (viator36) the frame members were threaded to accept the mounts. He had trouble with some degradation of the rubber and replaced them as he indicated in an earlier post. Note that these are not a captive design but Jake also uses a ratchet strap around the unit when the trailer is in motion.

[Tford]

I’m hooked up! Put a channel under my four feet and put my vibration dampers under that. Freon lines run tomorrow and hope the flares and couplings hold up to leaks! Cuz it ain’t like getting up in the cabinet and getting to the two lines right out of the air handler are gonna be easy to get to…again….

[Tford]

Air handler…..

[splitting_lanes]

Looks great. It should be really quiet and efficient. If it performs like the mini split in my house, I’d expect you could cool the trailer with 600w or so, even less once cooled.

I’d like to see more pictures of the back of the trailer.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Tford

I’m hooked up! Put a channel under my four feet and put my vibration dampers under that. Freon lines run tomorrow and hope the flares and couplings hold up to leaks! Cuz it ain’t like getting up in the cabinet and getting to the two lines right out of the air handler are gonna be easy to get to…again….

Nice work! Good luck running those refrigerant lines. That is the toughest part. Looking forward to hearing how it runs! Whisper quiet cooling in these small trailers will feel like a dream come true.

[Tford]

Buttoning things up and wondered if anybody substituted something for the covered wood trim panels in the corners, like maybe covering a light piece of tin with the cloth and being able to bend it around the Freon lines for a cleaner corner look?

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Tford

Buttoning things up and wondered if anybody substituted something for the covered wood trim panels in the corners, like maybe covering a light piece of tin with the cloth and being able to bend it around the Freon lines for a cleaner corner look?

Rob: If you cut away the foam and a bit of the wood block that accepts the screw to hold the corner piece on you can get the insulated refrigerant lines pretty tight to the shell and make it look stock. See the attached post. Personally I would try to use the existing corner pieces with matching vinyl covering first.

https://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f...tml#post289801

[Tford]

I cut away two sides of the cover piece mounting block and the lines are pretty tight up against the shell, but there is a bit of a gap. I’ll probably ignore it, seems like a little metal flashing with the covering on it would allow the piece to curve around the piping a bit. Fired it up and it cools great but there is a high pitched whine/whistle that’s pretty bad, only in cooling mode and not fan only, so it’s not a fan noise. Seems like it’s the Freon lines whistling as the refrigerant runs through them, almost like blowing air thru the lines…It was a self install without a gauge or pulling a vacuum on it, so that’ll probably be next after some research. Back to the drawing board!

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Tford

Fired it up and it cools great but there is a high pitched whine/whistle that’s pretty bad, only in cooling mode and not fan only, so it’s not a fan noise. Seems like it’s the Freon lines whistling as the refrigerant runs through them, almost like blowing air thru the lines…It was a self install without a gauge or pulling a vacuum on it, so that’ll probably be next after some research. Back to the drawing board!

Unless you install the type of system like MrCool with pre-filled quick-connect refrigerant lines you should always pressure test with nitrogen and then pull a vacuum before releasing the refrigerant from the outdoor unit. You probably have air in the lines and contaminated the refrigerant with moisture. Not good for the compressor and all other internal components. To be done right you need to have that charge pulled out, put the system under vacuum and new charge weighed in. A local HVAC tech might be your best bet.

[Tford]

Yup, I’ve come to that same conclusion with a little research, thanks for the agreement!

[LtDan]

Tford, we have that hi pitched whine in cooling mode as well. I looked in the Fujitsu manual and it actually says to expect that sound.
And I did have an HVAC tech come out and pressure test, pull vacuum on our unit.
Install looking good by the way!

[Tford]

Yikes, it had better not stay with this unit….kind of defeats the whole purpose of a quieter A/C!

[rubicon327]

My Fujitsu is super quiet. The only thing I recall the manual warning about is having refrigerant lines extremely short which can cause noise. Mine are about 10’ long and it works and sounds perfect.

[LtDan]

We’ll then, wonder why Joel’s doesn’t make the noise? I thought at first maybe I kinked a line and that was causing it till I read the manual and it said to expect a bit of noise.
Is. It possible Tford and I both have a line kinked causing it?
It’s really not load enough to be bothersome, we’ve sleep several nights with the AC on and didn’t seem to effect our sleep.
BTW Tford, we bought an older 35’ Silver Streak camper in Comfort TX years ago and left it in Big Bend to use. Sold it several years ago and now it’s a nightly rental in the Ghost town.

[Centex]

Originally Posted by Tford

... I’ll also put two 6’ no kink flex lines from the compressor unit to inside the trailer for ease of installation and possible line vibration damping.

Just very wild guessing here, I wonder if the greater length of corrugated flex-line has anything to do with the 'noise'? Given the relatively short lengths of all of these installations (compared to allowable total lineset lengths) I doubt it's a 'fluid/gas friction' issue but wonder about some odd turbulence in the corrugated line?

Again, just wild guessing and trying to ID installation detail differences.