Access to AC roof ducting?

[rockfordroo]

I have a 2016 Mini Lite 2503S with an Airxcel 8430 A/C unit. When we picked up the TT last year, it seemed (as I recall) that both the street side and the curb side ceiling vents were putting out good air flow.

However, this weekend, the street side did not seem to be doing much. Looking at page 5 of the installation instructions (see attached), it looks like the A/C blows into the ceiling ducts from the top of the roof. The "shroud assembly" is screwed up into the A/C unit on the roof and they have caulked around the shroud-to-ceiling gap. So I'm a bit loathe to remove the shroud assembly if it's not necessary.

Looking at the pic on page 5, it doesn't appear that removing the shroud assembly would allow access to the ceiling ducts anyway.

Does anybody have any insights on accessing the ceiling ducts. I'm guessing something related to the cold air plenum in the A/C unit is blocking them.

[Mr Havercamp]

Originally Posted by rockfordroo

I have a 2016 Mini Lite 2503S with an Airxcel 8430 A/C unit. When we picked up the TT last year, it seemed (as I recall) that both the street side and the curb side ceiling vents were putting out good air flow.

However, this weekend, the street side did not seem to be doing much. Looking at page 5 of the installation instructions (see attached), it looks like the A/C blows into the ceiling ducts from the top of the roof. The "shroud assembly" is screwed up into the A/C unit on the roof and they have caulked around the shroud-to-ceiling gap. So I'm a bit loathe to remove the shroud assembly if it's not necessary.

Looking at the pic on page 5, it doesn't appear that removing the shroud assembly would allow access to the ceiling ducts anyway.

Does anybody have any insights on accessing the ceiling ducts. I'm guessing something related to the cold air plenum in the A/C unit is blocking them.

Why in the hell would they caulk the interior assembly to the ceiling? They caulked the interior bezel of my skylight over the shower which aggravates me to no end. If they would of cleaned the underside of the upper bubble and topside of the lower lens it would of not been an issue but I quit trying to think of reasons they do some of the stuff they do.

You need to be able to pull off that assembly easily if for the only reason of checking the torque on the AC mount bolts. I'd cut the caulking and hope I could get it all off without boogering something up too bad.

You can get into the foam duct channel from inside that ceiling assembly but the access is very tight. Perhaps between that and pulling out the round vents you can probe around from one to the other? Maybe a loose piece of foam is jammed in there. I replaced 6 of my LED lights over the weekend on our Roo with ones that have switches, and found they have wiring channels routered all through those roofs. Somewhere the light wiring channels and wiring has to cross thru those duct channels. If there was a loose piece of foam in there I suspect that's where it would get hung up.

[rockfordroo]

Well, I got up on my roof and opened up my AC this afternoon. I was a bit surprised at how small everything is. I didn’t take any pics from the top (but should have).

Will describe: The evaporator stands up vertically. The fan is at the rear. It blows forward, through the evaporator, and down into a small plenum above the front half of the quick cool openings. Looking down into this evaporator plenum, only the forward half of the quick dump openings, which are at the bottom of the plenum, actually have direct access to the plenum.

At the top of the evaporator plenum are two approximately 1” by 3” openings that allow cool air into the ceiling ducts. On the curb side, I could put my fingers in pretty far. But on the street side, although the opening was about 1” x 3”, there was foam blocking the top half of the opening.

I went down in the trailer, pulled the first register in front and the register behind the AC and took some pics. Pic #1 is looking forward from the rear register. On the right, you can see some light coming in from the evaporator plenum. In Pic #2 I set a small LED light into the duct at the front register. You can still see the light coming in from the evaporator plenum. It’s about 28” from the evaporator plenum to the front register.

I went back on the roof with an X-acto knife and I cut out a bunch of the foam in the opening on the street side. Pic #3 shows the duct after I did that. You can see the loose foam I cut out sitting in the duct and you can see that there’s more light coming in from the evaporator plenum. So I’m hoping this will improve my air flow on the street side. And all that loose foam will come flying out!

Also: The cool air plenum and the warm air plenum are only separated by a flat piece of some material. There is some soft foam on each end. The street side end sealed pretty well, but there was wiring coming through the curb side and I could stick my fingers through the opening. I'll have to get up there again and plug that hole.