What do you for cool on while driving?

[bgilly]

We are just back from a trip along the gulf coast. The weather was hot and humid. I ran only the cab air for the entire 4 hour drive both coming and going. The engine can take the load of the cab air compressor just fine.
The trick is to point the two center diffusers into the coach. No one sits in the passenger seat so I close that diffuser and the driver side is aimed along the door until I get cold then I close it just leaving the two center ones fully open. I set the air on max cooling and highest fan speed. Everyone was comfy in the back. I was surprised to never need the roof air.
Now it didn't get the coach down to 72 degrees but it was comfortable.
I rather run the cab air than run another engine (generator) and the roof a/c. It gets noisy in the cab but it generally is anyway when on the highway.

Bobby

[ATVer]

You certainly can run the generator to operate the ac when driving but you will put a lot of heat stress on it and may overheat the generator engine or the generator itself. Both are air cooled and the unit being close to the road and behind the chassis engine may see inlet air temps approaching 130 degrees or more. I use an infrared monitor to check tires and have seen road surface temps of 140 degrees. I have not researched the safety shutdowns on the generator but hopefully it has them to shut it down before failure.

The chassis engine and AC are designed for these conditions and AC load on the engine is a couple HP which is minimal.

[howzball]

Seems like an air cooled engine would benefit from all the extra air while running down the road as opposed to sitting in a parking lot with no moving air.

[RamblerGuy]

The problem can be low pressure area at generator air intake. A friend could not run his generator underway.

[lbrunning]

I run my generator and ac all the time when it is hot driving down the road never had a problem with it shutting down. we also rarely camp where we have hookups. On the 4th of july weekend started generator when we left at 10 am Thursday morning and it ran untill we got home at 10 pm sunday night only shutdown time was for fuel stops this included 16 hr of driving time. In 3 years on 2 diff class c mh I have over 300 hours per year on my generators and the only problem i had was the fuel pump on the 1998 jayco I had. I say run it if you got it .

[Enconcapt]

We have been staying real cool with just the dash AC by hanging a blanket from the front bunk, behind the front seats. This worked great for the heat also when we hit a late spring cold snap. We will hang a set of drapes to close off the cab but for now the blanket is easy to hang and makes the cab very comfortable.

Note this only works with just two occupants, more than that and the generator runs just fine.


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[CampTBug]

We run the cab air on max, point the two middle vents straight down the center towards the back and run a 12v fan plugged into the dash to further push the air to the back of the coach. It's worked great so far and our travels are in Texas mostly with temps of 95+. The fan clips on so we clipped it into the slot where your ladder hangs against the bunk area and it stays in place quite well (just don't trip on the hanging wire!). It will oscillate or remain stationary. We found it at Camping World. I just checked and it's currently on sale for $14.47.


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[funfinder5]

I don't understand how so many run just the dash air and keep your coach passengers comfortable. Motorhome is 32ft long ~8ft wide and +6ft high inside. Even minivans and SUVs have dual air for rear passengers. Shoot our minivan that's only 16ft long with a lot less cubic feet to cool, I can't cool the rear passengers with just the dash air on.

If we stop the coach for say an hour of shopping/sight seeing along the way it will be 100 degrees inside the coach when we return if we don't leave the genny running with the house air on. As you all know it takes a bit to drop the air temp on these rigs down 20+ degrees with 1 13,500btu unit. We also like our coach already cool once we pull over for the day at about 4-5pm. Hate pulling into a spot, plugging in, then waiting an hour for the rig to cool down before you can stand going inside.

This one of the many reasons why we traded up from a TT to motorhome. Fun and comfort starts the moment you get in it.

[bgilly]

Originally Posted by funfinder5

I don't understand how so many run just the dash air and keep your coach passengers comfortable. Motorhome is 32ft long ~8ft wide and +6ft high inside. Even minivans and SUVs have dual air for rear passengers. Shoot our minivan that's only 16ft long with a lot less cubic feet to cool, I can't cool the rear passengers with just the dash air on.

I had my doubts too but I figured I would try it and make adjustments (run the generator and roof air) if needed. The 4 hour trip in mid-day went fine. My son sat at his bunk/bench and my wife sat at the living area couch (the 3171 model). No one ever complained. We made one stop for shopping and when I walked into the coach from the drivers seat I was surprised how cool it was in the coach area just from the dash air. Now when I returned from the shopping 25 minutes later, the coach did heat up pretty good (I didn't run the roof air while we were gone). It took about 20 minutes for the coach area to cool back down - still without running the roof air.

I did do some experimenting with roof vents thinking opening the back one would allow the dash air to move through the coach. I don't think open or closed made much of a difference. I didn't want to operate the front vent with or without the vent fan running because I felt it would pull the cool air out rather than letting it reach the back of the coach.

All I can say is experiment a little. You won't get it down to 70 degrees in the coach when it's 90 degrees outside but it will be comfortable.

Bobby