Window AC in generator compartment? (Scott or anyone else)

[Blue~Go]

I believe member Scott has installed a 6,000 btu "window" AC in the (former) generator compartment. I am interested to know more about the details either from Scott or anyone else who may have done this.

Some questions that come to mind (I've never used a window AC even in a house so not totally familiar with the details).

1) My generator compartment basically has a plywood floor with a big square hole where the exhaust drops down, and I guess some other holes (generator is still there now). Does this need to be modified?

2) Can you run it in the compartment as-is (with the stock ventilated door closed)? I suppose if a combustion engine can run in there so can an AC (?)

3) Where do these units drain condensate?

4) How have you handled getting the cooled air into the coach? My Concourse's generator compartment is separated from the living area by a metal box (earlier ones have a fiberglass box I think but probably same concept). The aisle side of the box is adjacent to the hallway so there is potential there (the fridge sits on top of it). Curious how the junction was made.

Due to Covid I may not be traveling to cool climes as I typically do. I could put an AC back on the roof but would rather not. In my case I would only plan to use the AC when plugged in to shore power.

Thanks,
BG

PS: A plus if I can remove the unit and seal the holes to the interior. That way the ex-generator box could function as general storage the majority of the time when I need no AC.

[Flame]

Kinda sounds like a fun project. The "exhaust side of a window unit needs to "breath" very well to let the hot air out!! Only thing on the inside would be to be able to get to the control panel and some holes cut where the vents will be blowing in to your coach. One more note:...A lot of ac units have a on/off button made onto the power cord also. And...many come with remote control handheld devises! There will be condensation drain to deal with which could simply drip onto the ground. And...there are a lot of smaller units that actually "trap" the condensation and "reuse it" for lack of a better term to keep water from dripping at all!! Just a few notes you might be interested in. None of the smaller units are very heavy and you could simply unplug and take it out whenever you wanted. I camped in the back of a pickup with a tarp layed over the top of the bed and a little 110volt ac unit sitting on my dropped tailgate blowing cold air on me at night!! The condensation just
ran off the tailgate onto the ground all night.

[Blue~Go]

Thanks, Flame.

I searched the topic because I remembered Scott had put one in. I didn't find too many details, but did see him mention he had a 6,000 btu unit with remote control, and that it cooled nicely.

I reckon the hot exhaust air will want to rise, which is kind of opposite to how the generator exhaust is piped downward out of the compartment. OTOH maybe it works out fine. There would also be the option of leaving the compartment door flipped open when in operation.

I hope Scott sees this, as there is no substitute for brazenly copying what someone else has found to work well

And maybe someone else has used one?

[Flame]

Blue, being able to just leave the outside cabinet open when needed would be perfect to expel the heat! A 5000 btu unit is about as small as they come. A 7500 btu is VERY LITTLE difference in size.I would use the most btu size I could get that would fit the compartment and still be 110 volt. I built "and insulated" a 12 ft by 12 ft. little cabin with a 7 foot ceiling down by my pond. I installed a 5000 btu window unit about a foot from the ceiling on one wall. I expected that to freeze me out of that little space but...in hot Texas sun it works it's but off and sometimes never gets it below about 75-near 80 degrees!! Consider larger than 5-6,000 btu if you can. In my opinion. Good luck.

[chin_k]

It may not be as efficient as a regular window unit, but there are portable window AC that you can put the hoses out the window to get the hot air out. I don't know if that is a good alternative, however.

[Blue~Go]

I looked into those a while back. They would be an option but here is why I ruled one out for me in my situation:

1) The units that use inside air are larger and I don't think I could fit one in the cab (where I was wanting to put it so out of the way when parked using it. I actually bought one but it was a HUGE beast and I returned it without using it. Super cumbersome compared to a window unit.

2) The units that bring in outside air are smaller but at the time I was at a campground near a truck stop so the night air was rife with exhaust fumes and I didn't want to suck those in.

Another thing I considered was mounting a window unit in a surround that would fit into the cab passenger window. A few reasons I decided against it were that it's more complicated than you'd think due to compound curves of Ford door; hillbilly look (at campgrounds); and, main reason, I'd still have to store it somewhere when driving. Since the logical storage place would be the ex-generator compartment anyway, I arrived at the idea for this thread.

(Premier owners might be able to mount a window unit in one of the coach side windows; not practical with the Concourse parallelogram ones.)

[Blue~Go]

Here I am, keeping my own thread going

I spent some quality time today reading previous generator removal threads here (very helpful!) and decided to start tackling it even though I'm not sure I'll be able to get it removed solo. Got the exhaust pipe removed, the DC positive and chassis ground taken off, the AC pigtail disconnected at the junction box in the closet, and the remote-start harness removed. Oh, and I loosened the four big mounting bolts just to be sure I could get them started.

I still need to remove the fuel line (need to order some 1/4" barbed fittings), and eventually the compartment door. Then the hulk itself (which is actually a nice hulk, with few hours).

So now I have more specific questions about the window AC installation there (sure, Scott is probably relaxing by some cool mountain stream, oblivious to the heat wave that is about to mow me down ). I remember Scott said he had a 6,000 btu unit with remote. Those seem to be around 13.5" tall. But I only have 12" of vertical face to the generator box in the inside hallway (there is an additional ~4-5" height to the box, but that's below the inside floor level). So.... I'm wondering how to handle the interface with the inside. Cut a hole in the generator box big enough to slide the AC in from inside the coach like you would in a window? Then only a 5,000 btu would fit and even that would be *really* close (they are 12" tall).

Or did Scott (or anyone else?) maybe let the taller one sit lower in the generator box and then interface it with the interior some other way (not sure how that would be done - some sort of fabric tunnel?). There's probably some slick way I'm not thinking of.

BG

[Scott]

Sorry for the delay. I've been without reception for a few weeks. It's been therapeutic depsite wind, snow and rain in NV, ID, MT, and OR.. Haha! Yes, remote streams.

I've done a ton of projects on my Chinook since purchasing it in mid OCT 2015. I do not document (most of) them here beause they wouldn't apply to the greater group.

But since you're asking, I'm more than happy to adress your excellent questions:

I hastilly removed the generator almost as quickly as I removed the jack knife sofa and rooftop air. In my 1994, the generator compartment is gel coated fiberglass. There were several holes so I covered the whole floor with a piece of plywood, painted the inside, and sprayed undercoating underneith. (search rockrover + generator. I think I posted a pic).

I purchased a 6k Frigidaire air con unit from that store with the orange buckets. It has a remote cotrol, which has been usefull for turning the blasted thing off in the middle of the night when I start shivering. The condensate collects in a reservoir just below the condenser core. The hot-side fan blades pick up the water and spit it onto the core, disipating the condensate while maximizing evaorative cooling. I had a drain line going for a while, but it wasn't worth the work. There's more to that story, but that's the idea.

The venting on the hot side was adequate but I wanted more, so I wired in a short extension cord that swtches hot when the compressor activates. That's connected to an 8 inch box fan which works in tandem with the factory fan. Not required, but certainly an improvement. I open the hatch when it's running. The AC unit had to be fully disassembled and a bunch of other things that required waiving the warranty, such as tampering with the wiring and drilling a few holes in various places.

Removing the unit takes three minutes with a screw driver. I saved the removed panel and can seal it off with vairous fittings. I would use 1/4 turn dzus, but I don't remove the AC because I don't need the storage. The tail end is supported with a block screwed in place.

The AC unit came with a comically huge GFCI plug (i.e. it wouldn't plug into my exterior outlet which is already fault protected). I wired a new cord, which plugs into my Honda 2000 generator directly, or into the rig's 110v.

It works very well. Better than the ancient Coleman that was on my roof. Way better. But the project was quite involved. If one can remove their generator with fair competance, then the rest is up to personal tolerance for experimentation (and failure).

Installing a window unit on a stilt in a cab window is probably the easiest way to go for ocasional use. But you have to set up and break down, you're cooling off a very hot cab, and I don't want to attract any more attention than necessary.

For the way we camp, there is a long list of advantages with this setup. It might sound minor but removing the roof unit gained 10 inches of vertical clearance which has been helpful more than a few times. And the skylight is just swell.

Oh yeah... really great to see you around here again. Your experience-based posts are widely appreciated. (Btw, I've put on a few lbs. [More toys and tools] Static wet weight is now 2900/5900)

Scott

Edited to add a pic while hiding from rain.

tmp-cam-1808671503.jpg (15.54 KiB) Viewed 8177 times

[Blue~Go]

Scott,
Thank you so much for coming in to the computer from your cool, shady streamside spot

I'm all in on making the mods. You should see how much I fettled to install the refrigerator. I just had to get the remote compressor model, and then put it in a cabinet up under the old absorption vent in the roof (and no, the compressor does not come apart from the refrigerator box It lives permanently at the end of a ~5' copper tube that you can't kink. Whee.

I, for one, would be thrilled to see any of you "oddball" projects.

Back to the AC.... So do/did you have more than 12" of vertical "face" to the generator box in the hallway? That's where I'm not quite visualizing how a 13.5" tall 6,000 btu unit fits there. (In other words, my sheet metal "box" extends both above and below the Chinook inside floor but the vertical part of the box that is exposed in the hallway is only 12.4" to the plywood base floor.

I thought about putting the whole unit in the generator bay and making some sort of fabric "photographer hood/tunnel" (that way it could sit lower in the generator bay), but that seems clunky (and impossible to reach filter or etc.).

Also the entire top of the AC unit will be close to the top of the gen box --- never used a window AC so not sure where most of the heat comes off of them (point taken on the extra fan).

Thanks again for your input. It's over 100º here today and I see zero cool streams Despite having wheels I'm going to be stuck here for a bit (and it's not going to be any cooler for ages).

BG

PS: Thanks for the welcome back.
PPS: I did see Rokrover's thread.

[chin_k]

I've done a ton of projects on my Chinook since purchasing it in mid OCT 2015. I do not document (most of) them here because they wouldn't apply to the greater group.

I second Blue's comment about "oddball" project, although I won't call it like that since that is pretty much all I do