New Air Conditioner Installation- July 3rd, 2005
The Duo Therm that came with my trailer was in nasty shape. All the bolts holding the compressor and fan in place were completely rusted out, and the fan motor itself needed to be replaced. I spent an entire weekend just trying to remove the fan, but everything kept snapping off in places I couldn't reach... so I just decided to screw it (even though I was trying to unscrew it) and wait until I could afford a new AC. So, I bought the Carrier Air V 15,000 btu unit to fit in to a standard 14" x 14" hole... which my trailer has. I knew it wouldn't be terribly difficult, but would require an extra set of hands. I called on the services of Brett G, an experienced Airstream/Argosy aficionado. Actually, I let him run the show which saved me a lot of angst in figuring things out as I went along. He has done this installation before, so I relied on his expertise. For those interested, the entire installation took us about 2 hours to complete. Not bad for an Airstream pit crew! The installation went as follows...
Pretty, isn't it? This the unit that came with the trailer, and the shroud is in good shape because I cleaned it up and painted it.
This is a view of the old unit from the inside. This too I had cleaned up and painted to make it look purdy for the interior.
Looking good! This is the new unit, completely installed. Wait, I think this is the old one. Yep, the old one.
This is a shot from the inside with the interior plate removed. The bolts hanging down sandwiched the AC unit to the trailer. What a nasty mess. I am so glad I got rid of this thing.
Still packaged and awaiting it's marriage with an Airstream. Could an air conditioner be any luckier?
You can't see it in this picture, but there had been 16 tubes of Vulkem pumped in all around the old AC (I know this, because I was the one pumping it in there), as there had been leaks. Taking out the old AC would have been fairly simple if it hadn't been nearly glued to the roof. We used a scissor jack, and one of my trusty bedrails to crank it up off the top of the roof. Then, with the infamous count to three, hurled it off the roof and watched it thud on the ground below. I think Billy Joe might have thrown an air conditioner off the Tallahatchie Bridge in much the same way.
A clear shot of the opening with all the excess hardware and goop removed. My trailer DID NOT have the drip tube anywhere. Since I didn't have a factory AC unit, someone must have discarded it when the Duo Therm was installed. The opening was fairly clean, and the skins had a brace inside to prevent smushing.
A view of the final resting place of the old AC unit. You can see the multi ladder system we used to do the task. The new AC unit weighs only 95 pounds I believe. With two of us it wasn't difficult to get it up on the roof. Not much different than tossing those bodies in the trunk of the Caddy after a hit.
I was thinking maybe I would just make the area where the AC came out a skylight... but I decided AC was more important.
The AC unit just set right in place over the existing opening. It was very simple to align. All that nasty looking yellow on the ceiling is where I painted around the interior flange. That is what the entire interior of the trailer looked like. YUCK!
The inside flange simply bolted up in to the AC unit. I left out pictures of the shiny duct that screws in to the upper unit and gets trimmed around that rectangular flange. The wiring of the unit was white to white, black to black, green to ground and the connections from the AC unit clipped right in to the control panel. This would have been a lot more difficult installation if there hadn't been an AC unit there before, or the electric. For the most part, it was just swapping one AC for the other.
All set and ready for the interior cover. That round plastic piece on the right is a cam that spins to flip the end vents up and down. Pretty cool. Not a lot of motion to them, but I am sure it will make a difference.
The finished product up on the roof.
With the cover in place. There wasn't too much curve to the interior roof, so it sat pretty flush. We had to swap the supplied screws for ones a little longer to catch and really bite in. I didn't want the vibration of the trailer to send it flying... even though I do have new axles. :)
The circular vent is their "Air Shower" for when you first come in to the trailer. You can stand underneath and bask in the cool air. Kinda cool. Pun intended.
**** Shortly after the installation of the new AC, we had torrential rains. I was happy to report that there were no leaks of any kind. A week had passed and the trailer sat baking in the Florida sun. That following weekend we had more of our infamous torrential rains. This time I had a flood inside around the newly installed AC unit. Not good. Not good at all! I enlisted the further expertise of of Brett G., and we took another look at it. Well, our combined brain power came up with the solution that the week of sitting in the 95 degree weather had caused the roof to "move" (expand and contract) thereby lessening the seal of the seal. Not the appeal of the seal, but the seal of the seal. We then pulled the inside cover off and checked the bolts used for tightening down the unit. Voila!!! They were loose from the expanding and contracting of the roof from the heat. We know that when we initially cranked them down, that they were down there good! They now had a good 3/8" more cranking to go. So, we cranked. Then because we are Airstreamers, we needed to apply Vulkem. You can't have an Airstream repair session without the flow of some Vulkem. Spock would be proud. Vulkem applied, out to lunch to allow everything to set. A few hours later we returned and pulled out the fire hoses and gave that AC unit a bath that would equate to me tooling down I-95 head on in to hurricane force wind driven rains. The good news was that I wasn't really driving in to a hurricane, and that there were no more leaks. It has been almost a month and a half of every day rains and the AC unit has never leaked again. Other places have started to leak, but we all know that Airstreams are the only trailer ever made that doesn't leak. Oh, and of course we are all millionaires. Yeah right!
Home / Kitchen / Bathroom / Bedroom / Living Room / Axles + wheels / Rear end repair
Flooring / Water Heater / Dehumidifier / Exhaust fan / Frame and Belly Skin work / Rock Guard / Hitch / Dump Valve / IntelliPower