Air conditioners

Converting Cargo Trailers into TTTs

Air conditioners

Postby mx842 » Sun Jul 04, 2010 7:59 pm

Are the AC units that they put in these RV's serviceable? A while back when I had the mishap with the 240v thingy my AC unit quit cooling shortly after that. I was wondering if that could have had anything to do with it not cooling any longer. I have had several people tell me that was probably the case but it seems like everything is running, I mean it sounds like the compressor is running and the fan motor works It is just not putting out any cold air. It seems like my truck AC when it gets low on freon.

Can you service these things or do you just throw them away when they stop cooling?
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Postby Shadow Catcher » Mon Jul 05, 2010 6:10 am

Just about anything is fixable. if you throw enough money at it $>
If it is low freon, a tap can be put in (if it does not already have one) and it can be recharged. After you find out what went wrong and if that is what the problem is. Refrigerant is usually R22 and not something you can service yourself with out some expensive equipment. The rule of thumb is that it is worth fixing it it will cost less than half of a new one and is not too old.
You can check yourself if the compressor is working by removing the cover and feeling the piping, into the external heat exchanger, hot, the internal cold.
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Postby mx842 » Mon Jul 05, 2010 9:35 am

Shadow Catcher wrote:Just about anything is fixable. if you throw enough money at it $>
If it is low freon, a tap can be put in (if it does not already have one) and it can be recharged. After you find out what went wrong and if that is what the problem is. Refrigerant is usually R22 and not something you can service yourself with out some expensive equipment. The rule of thumb is that it is worth fixing it it will cost less than half of a new one and is not too old.
You can check yourself if the compressor is working by removing the cover and feeling the piping, into the external heat exchanger, hot, the internal cold.


Well then just suppose the system does need a shot of freon for some reason couldn't I just convert it from R22 to the new ozone safe 134 type? Assuming of-course there are no leaks that can't be fixed.

Also I am wondering if the high voltage may have caused something to burn out in the unit itself.
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Postby kstephenson » Mon Jul 05, 2010 12:06 pm

That is not possible. R134 A is not a substitute for R 22. The operating pressures are different.
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Postby Shadow Catcher » Mon Jul 05, 2010 4:05 pm

My bet is that there is something electrical that has failed/been fried. I frankly don't know enough about the internals.
Let me confess how I know about the freon recharging. Brand spanking new 8000btu window unit and I HATE the slinger fan throws the condensate water system and will drill a drain hole, well I missed and the freon escaped in a blue cloud and my language also a blue cloud. $100 later the $> the leak was sealed and the unit recharged with about a pound of freon (about what is in a RV unit).
This is not a do it your self project unfortunately!
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Postby mx842 » Mon Jul 05, 2010 10:44 pm

Shadow Catcher wrote:My bet is that there is something electrical that has failed/been fried. I frankly don't know enough about the internals.
Let me confess how I know about the freon recharging. Brand spanking new 8000btu window unit and I HATE the slinger fan throws the condensate water system and will drill a drain hole, well I missed and the freon escaped in a blue cloud and my language also a blue cloud. $100 later the $> the leak was sealed and the unit recharged with about a pound of freon (about what is in a RV unit).
This is not a do it your self project unfortunately!


Oh my, things just didn't go your way that day did they? :lol: I'm not laughing at ya, I laughing with you, sort of like when I plugged into the 240 side of the geni thinking it was 110. After the smoke cleared I had a few choice words escape my mouth too. :lol:

After it cooled down to about 95 today I went outside and got up on the roof of the trailer and took the cover off to see what was going on inside. I blew out all the dirt, leaves and other stuff from the fan and coil. There was quite a lot of junk and dirt that was on the coil and surrounding area and at first I thought it may have been my problem. I turned it back on and let it run for 10 minutes and got back up top and felt the lines. Everything was as expected from the feel of the air inside the cabin. Everything felt the same, the high pressure side and the suction side were no different as far as temp was concerned. The compressor was running and it got very warm to touch both top and bottom. Also as expected there were no service ports to check or hook gauges to. I guess I'll have to get one of my air condition buddies to come by and solder in a couple service connectors and see if I have a leak.

It's kind of weird cause the AC unit has a tag that says it was inspected in 2000 and the trailer is a 2005. Also it was supposed to be a 15,000 btu unit but as it turns out it is a 13,500 btu unit. That matters not because when it was working it really did the job with my trailer. I'm going to try and fix it if I can but will probably be on the look out for a deal in the mean time.
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