Air Conditioning on New-to-Us 2017 Interstate 24GT

[vaboater]

Hi, my wife and I just acquired a silver 2017 Interstate 24GT. We're very excited and have been working hard on getting settled--much to learn and do!

I'm pretty sure that the chassis air conditioner needs to be serviced, but I'm not sure what is reasonable to expect from it. Can the chassis AC typically cool the whole van while traveling or is it necessary to run the generator and house AC as well? Is there a threshold at which the chassis AC is typically maxed out--say, an 80-degree cloudy day versus a 95-degree sunny day?

Thank you!

P.J.
Northern Virginia

[Titus]

It is just the two of us and the Sprinter AC does a fine job under most conditions when we are sitting up front. The exception to the 'most' is when bright sun comes in through the huge windshield late in the afternoon when heading west. I'm told that a 3M film does wonders to cure this. Also, we have some pull-down 'baby shades' that attach with suction cups that we use on whatever front side window needs it if the sun is coming in from the side.

It is warm and stuffy in the back on the rare occasion when one of us goes back to rest while the other drives. We have reflective foil that we leave in the rear side windows to block all light at night. These probably help with rear comfort on the hot sunny days. I think that a small fan (12 V or 120V using the inverter) would do wonders to improve comfort in the back while driving, but we've never tried that. We have never run the generator while underway, but I'm told it can be done.

We have found that the Sprinter AC will lose effectiveness after long (multi-hour) of use. I suspect the coils freeze up. I turn it off for 5-10 minutes, then back on. Good to go again. I don't think I've every had to do this more than once per day, and certainly don't have to do it every day.

[Luckysnuck]

P.J.
For driver and front passenger seat riders our experience in our 2018 AIGT has been that the chassis AC is fully capable of maintining adequate cool temperatures while driving. Naturally it will take a varying amount of time for this cool air to fully circulate throughout the rig. Over the recent 4th of July holiday in 90F+ temperatures while transporting 5 adult passengers the comments were that they were perfectly cool and comfortable; although at the expense of the driver and front seated passenger being a bit on the over-chilled side.
We've not yet in 23K miles of travel felt as if we needed to subsidize our chassis AC with the rear house AC while driving.

Per Titus's "coils freeze up" comment; we absolutely/positively have experienced this many times while on long stretches of driving when we've needed to be running the AC on medium/high or high. Of course we were extremely concerned that we had a serious AC problem, but after hearing of others experiencing the same and how to combat it, we just now know how to react to it. Very similar to Titus's procedure, once the air begins to blow what I call "luke cool", we turn the AC button off and just let the fan run. The air from the vents will immediately turn cool or at minimum cooler than it was blowing...after running it like this for 10~15 minutes we turn the AC button back on and it continues to run fine line nothing ever happened. Kind of a strange phenomenon, but we've learned to live with it.

[MountainLife]

We are in the habit of hooking to shore power in our driveway leading up to a trip. We get the refrigerator cool and then load our food. We can pre-cool or pre-heat the AI before departure. We close our blinds except the rear when traveling on hot days. The AC works great for front and captain chairs (where our pup travels) and we us a USB powered fan for the back should one of us want to go lay down. Not a fan of running the generator while driving, but I’m risk adverse.

Enjoy getting to know your rig. It’s like drinking from a fire hose, but so worth it!

[uncle_bob]

Hi

The fine folks at MB designed the engine driven A/C to keep the driver and assistant cool while chugging around delivering stuff with the van. That's the target market they seem to focus on.

If you want to heat or cool the back of the van when such things are needed, the front system likely will not keep things "nice" back there. The further back in the van you are, the less comfortable it probably will be. Yes, this is a "gotcha" with those seats way in the back of the van. It is one point in favor of the "4 up front" seating version.

Bob

[sheakev]

Originally Posted by Titus

I'm told that a 3M film does wonders to cure this.

We installed the 3M film on the windshield as well as the driver and passenger front windows. It made a huge difference. We had it professionally installed by a 3M certified shop.

3M™ Automotive Window Film Crystalline Series
https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b00016683/