IT'S STILL HOT In part 2 of this two part install, I'm cutting holes in the floor of my 1968 Play Mor and adding an exhaust duct for a window unit ac. Will it work? Be pretty COOL if it did...
Hey, thank you! I'm not used to getting compliments on this video, lol! I do actually have a few ideas for the next time I do one of these that should make the whole thing a bit better.
Love the AC idea. I'm going to use it in a camper build myself. I have plans to elevate the unit and build it closer to the wall for the exhaust and make a little door to open whenever i need to use it. I was going to ask about the drain but reading your reply on the same question was good. Your channel is great! Thank you for taking the time to film it.
Thanks! I will point out that while it seems to work, I really haven't been able to give it a good workout because the weather cooled waaay off the week after I finished it, lol! But yeah, it'll work better mounted up higher for sure. I did give in and drill a drain hole in the floor, but I still question if it was necessary. Good luck and thanks for watching!
Great video! Thank you! I was trying to figure out how to install a window a/c by opening the floor rather than a window. you helped me immensely. I appreciate it.
Looking good. You won't know yourselves next time you camp in the heat. You'll be nice and cool. Our little caravan is 15 foot and has an airconditioner about the same size as yours and it cools that space really nicely in the heat. Thankfully here in South Australia it isn't generally a humid heat but it definitely gets hot, many days over the 100F during Summer so it's nice to be able to sleep well at night when camping.
We'll see, we're thinking of taking it out soon, but we're actually getting a bit of a break from the heat so I might not even really need it at night.
I did this to my 65 Shasta. It was under the Goucho bed. I would put a small fan under the dinette table and point it to the ceiling. It would circulate the cold air up and make it a lot better.
That's the way to do it if you've got a low mounted AC! They sell a little fan at Target called a Wozoo that has oscillation and elevation, and it's actually pretty quiet. I highly recommend it! You can also get it a bit cheaper at Costco.
Your channel is great. I'm surprised you don't have more subscribers. Any chance you aren't including enough key words like reno, rehab, DIY, problem solving, design, how-to, tools, repairs, construction......you do it all.
Thanks for saying that! I actually think it's been growing pretty well. I meant to mention when we got 5000 subscribers, but by the time I got to it we were already almost to 5200!
I have a Scotty and installed AC under the bed. AC is extremely sensitive to airflow, much more than you'd think. Exhaust must be wide open, as large as the back of the unit. We have to keep the hatch open and have a small fan pulling in air, blowing toward the unit. It cools well though. I also recommend one with electronic controls. Ours has a remote and it turns on periodically to test the air temp and shuts off if cool enough. Having these running all night long is really noisy in this small space.
You know I really haven't even had the opportunity to try this out since I finished installing it. I went camping a week or two after finishing it and the overnight temperature had dropped to something like 22⁰F, so I wound up using my new power outlet for a space heater instead!
You will find that an exaust fan will help a lot. Just a little box fan the size of the rear opening will do. Also you will want to put some 1/4 inch wire screen underneath to keep critters from trying to get up in there.
Great suggestions! I had kinda thought about adding an exhaust fan and getting all complicated with it, but a box fan sounds like a practical solution. We had an inline fan with ducting in our camper with the darkroom to provide positive pressure in the back and to pipe in fresh/cooler air. I'm gonna go back and install a drain line on the A/C now that I know it works so I'll upgrade the mesh when I do that. Thanks!
I checked in with the current owners of this camper recently and they haven't had any trouble with condensation, but I think perhaps the "cookie sheet" is maybe a worthwhile suggestion for the future.
These AC units are designed so that they tilt naturally when resting on a flat surface so that condensation collects where it can kick it up on the coils and increase its efficiency. That being said, although the manufacturer specifically recommends against it, I opened the drain port to allow it to drain through the floor.
I’ve enjoyed watching both videos on the a/c install. Are you concerned at all about water splashing up into the intake hole while traveling in the rain? We’re headed to Branson this week for the vintage trailer rally. It’s our first rally and our first trip in the ‘69 Gold Star since I finished the rebuild. Wish us luck….No a/c. Just a tower evap cooler which I’m sure works better in dry Colorado than humid Missouri!
I'm not really. If you look at where you get water splashed up it's almost entirely behind the tires and not to the sides, but I am thinking of adding some sort of closure to the intake at some point. Good luck on your trip! We were just in Branson a few weeks ago for a little family getaway, and it was unseasonably cool when we were there.
I use the browser based free version of SketchUp, and I made a video about it here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HPl3DprhscQ.html You can undercoat your camper if you like, but there's a likelihood that anything you coat it with could prevent the wood from drying out naturally when it inevitably does get wet. I don't generally undercoat my campers and it's never been an issue. Typically what rots the floors in these campers are leaky windows and vents, not road spray.
Hi I and doing something similar just wanted to see how is the foam insulation holding up for the vent duct , looks a lot easier to do it using that that what I was planning to use on my, I will probably prefer to do it like yours instead of sheet metal , if you could tell me if the material is good and holding up the heat and everything ok, I will do the same thanks
I actually sold that camper recently and I never really had much opportunity to use the A/C as I mostly did cold weather camping. It worked fine the few times I used it, and I can't think of any reason it wouldn't hold up long term.
So now that has been a year or so, how has it been? Do you have a problem with the water draining? I didn’t see you address that and I’m not sure if you got one of those “dripless trays“ where it sits and the compressor dries it up
This AC unit is one of the dripless types, but I actually sold the camper before I really had a chance to use it much. I checked in with its current owners recently, and their only complaint was that when parked in full sun it was a bit too small of a unit to keep the camper cool, but otherwise it worked great with a fan on the floor to help circulate the air. They haven't had any issues with condensation either.
These newer AC units aren't designed to drain. They use the condensate by throwing it onto the condenser coil to evaporate it and get higher efficiency, but I did drill a hole in the floor for it to drain out. The manual specifically recommends against it though. For a drip pan I've seen some people use a baking pan with a hole, a hose barb, and a tube.
I mean, it COULD be removed, but it's kind of a pain to do it. These newer units are not supposed to have a drain, but there is a plugged port that you can open up to provide one. I kinda think I'm going to go back and open it up and run a line to it, but that might not make it into a video.
I don't actually own this camper any more, but I followed up with the current owners a few months back and they said that they hadn't had any trouble with moisture. They did say it maybe wasn't quite large enough for the times when the camper was parked in full sun, and that a fan on the floor circulating the air is a big help.
Whats the verdict after what 9 months of use? I have a 66 playmor and trting to figure which way to put ac in as well. Mine is a usable camper and not a show piece.
Well, I actually sold that camper and I only ever used it once, but it worked well that one time! I'm thinking about installing one in our Cal-Craft when I get back to it, but I think I'd install it high up on the street side wall and exhaust it straight out of the side with the intake air coming through the roof like I see on a lot of newer teardrop campers. It'd probably work a bit more efficiently that way, and I wouldn't lose a bunch of storage.
I did not. Now I know lots of folks will say you need to undercoat the wood to protect it from road spray, but that same undercoating will actually prevent wood from naturally drying out if/when it does get wet. Also if you go and drive through a rainstorm and get down there and look at the parts that get wet, it's almost entirely just the areas behind the wheels, and mud flaps would protect the underside far better than any coating.
Well, it's actually been cool enough since I've installed it that I haven't used it yet, but I did go ahead and drill a hole for it to allow for drainage.
Newer AC units like these aren't supposed to be drained. They evaporate the condensate to increase their efficiency. That said, I did add a drain line later for peace of mind, even though the instructions specifically recommended against doing so.
Very cool idea The only question I have is what did you do with the condensation under the unit. I know mine puts out over roughly 5 gallons a day What keeps it from leaking all over the floor. Thanks great job
If you read the owners manual for most of these newer units you'll find that they're designed to evaporate the condensate to improve efficiency. There is a drain plug, but the manual specifically recommends against opening it. That said, I did open it and drain it through the floor.
@@TrailerTrashtoTreasure Yes I am redoing an 1975 airstream land yacht And it’s kicking my butt lol But getting ready to close the walls up Can’t wait to get it done.
I suppose he's not going to do anything with it since these newer AC units evaporate the condensate to increase their efficiency, and the manual specifically recommends against opening the drain plug. Thanks for watching!
Newer AC units like these aren't supposed to be drained. They evaporate the condensate to increase their efficiency. That said, I did add a drain line later for peace of mind, even though the instructions specifically recommended against doing so.
@@TrailerTrashtoTreasure Monitor it closely. I do a little RV repair and during Covid and the supply shortage a lot of manufacturers went to window units on small campers. Just came from one that leaked and rotted out the whole wall and even dripped on the bed. I’m currently installing mine in my home built RV.
I'm gonna have to watch what I say I guess, lol. Maybe I should say, "I do stupid things, 'cause I don't know any better." I don't know, I'll work on it.
I’m messing with this in my trailer (25’Aljo). I have a good juice sucking AC on top, but I’m wanting to be able to go completely off grid, and still have a viable way to cool my trailer. So far I’m thinking it’s just not vented properly yet. I slid it into the microwave spot over my stove. So far the compressor would kick off within minutes of start up, I’m assuming it was getting too hot. So I cut another vent in the adjacent cabinet, ducted it into the ACs new cabinet, and added two small vent fans that real move the air. So the compressor runs much longer but still kicks off. At this point I’m assuming I need to isolate the mid-area vents so that the air will be pulled just through that area, and out the condenser. Be working on that tomorrow.
You need to have an exterior intake and an exterior exhaust. Those vent holes around the sides of the unit are meant to draw in exterior air to run over the condenser coil. The front of the unit has the interior intake running over the evaporator coil and the front exhaust where you get your cool air back into your room. You don't want interior air going over your condenser coil, so you don't want to draw air in from within the camper for that purpose. The easy thing to do with a unit mounted in an upper cabinet is to exhaust the condenser coil out the side of the camper and draw in the intake from the roof through some sort of roof vent. You actually see this a lot these days on smaller, less expensive, new campers. Good luck!
@@TrailerTrashtoTreasure I cut a hole in the back of the microwave hole and put a screened vent on it. Then I went into the cabinet beside it and cut a hole, to access it, and then a hole to the outside in that cabinet and screened it off. Made kind of a duct with some ply that isolated it to the microwave hole. But it’ll run for a while then I hear the compressor shut off. I figured I’d put in some baffles like you did to isolate the intake so that all that air goes through that and runs over the exhaust coil. Kind of concentrate it into that area.
Yeah, you want to also make sure you're getting plenty of airflow to the intake portion of the condenser, so try to cut down on any restrictions there.
I did add a drain line, but if you read the owners manual it specifically recommends against opening the drain as the design is intended to fling the condensate onto the coils to provide additional cooling. In my test of the unit so far, I could feel moisture at the drain hole, but it wasn't enough to ever actually drip.
The ac's now days do not drip (I am not fully covinced) but I put a partner mine just in case, I put my box through the cargo hold to exit the flow of air. Mine is also under the bed.
Most contemporary window units are designed to evaporate any condensate and actually cool more effectively without draining it away. That said, there is a place for an optional drain plug on this unit, and I've been contemplating installing a drain line even though the manual specifically recommends against it.
These newer AC units aren't designed to drain. They use the condensate by throwing it onto the condenser coil to evaporate it and get higher efficiency, but I did drill a hole in the floor for it to drain out. The manual specifically recommends against it though.
So you believe the engineers when they told you that they did not need to be drained ? I can 100% promise you you will be addressing this issue very shortly because it is absolutely going to leak all over your floor. Please give us an update on your fix for the leaky water, thank you
What makes you think you disappointed me? I'm just stating a fact. that the air conditioner is 100% going to leak all over that floor no matter what you say. And no matter how many times you repeat that they are designed not to , you my friend are mistaken.
My friend, all I can do is report my experience with it, and I had no issues. I did go ahead and contact the current owners of the camper to see what their experience has been after their first season with it, and they reported no issues with condensation either.
You mean louvered grill? It could work, I really didn't want to add any other restriction though, so I was thinking a more open sheet of what I think they usually call expanded steel, and then an extra sliding cover to keep out dirt and weather when I'm traveling. I've got a better idea for doing this in the future.
@@TrailerTrashtoTreasuresorry depending on which language my keyboard is set sometimes it try’s to auto correct it’s not 100% but yes that’s what I meant
I have no clue why people do this.. Just take a normal AC window unit. Separate the inside from outside. Add a a few feet more in compressor lines and wiring. Cover them back up using the old cover. Then you have a cheap mini split..... Takes about a day to make one...
That's an interesting thought, but I would think most units would require a tad more modification than just tubing and wiring; I suppose it could be made to work though, and I'd love to see one that's been done that way.
@@TrailerTrashtoTreasure Nope.. That is all you're doing with a Mini Split..Just longer refrigerant lines and some wires.. This does require you cut the lines. Add some valves. Extend them. Then pull a vacuum. Then add the right amount of Refrigerant back in plus 1oz extra for the extended lines.. Why you look for units that use R410a.. You can get that stuff anywhere...
@@TrailerTrashtoTreasure Look for one that does not have that sling blade on them.. As that is what they are for.. To sling the condensation on the rear coils.. As it captures the condensation in a tray... If you really want that brand. Then just add a fan to it. I seen people do that.. As they actually make fans to increase air across the coils... And remove the blade on the rear slinger shaft...
