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Old 11-16-2003, 11:45 PM   #1
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34' Excella 1000 needs cooler A/C

After posting/reading about installing a 2nd a/c in the bedroom on the 34' Excella, I am reconsidering this idea. Seems my options are:
1. Install some small fans above the bedroom doors to help the cool air flow into the rear of the trailer,

2. Install are new 15,000 BTU unit in the front, replacing the Penguin (original) unit

3. Add the second a/c in the rear bedroom as I originally thought of doing, but will have to have the condensate drip on the outside walls. Andy said I would need a new breaker/power cord if we went with the 2nd a/c. Both are negatives.

I have seen several long trailers with the 2nd a/c, but never thought to ask any of the owners how they run the units. Anybody have a 2nd a/c on their trailer? How do you manage the power? What about the water drip?

To Andy:
If we wait and go with the new 15,000 BTU unit (you are working on the pan for that unit, right?), will we really notice an increase in the cooling vs the Penguin we have now? What about the Penguin that is a 15,000 unit (saw this on another post)? Do you have a pan for it?

I will be taking the trailer to an A/S dealer during Thanksgiving for some service work and wanted to get the 2nd/New a/c issue handled at that time.
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Old 11-17-2003, 12:11 AM   #2
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Andy,

Just saw that Duotherm makes a Heat Pump unit (15000 a/c and 12000 heat). Do you have a pan for this model? It is called "Quick Cool" and can be had with an optional wall thermostat. Sounds like a winner, if there is a pan...
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Old 11-17-2003, 08:44 AM   #3
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You have an interesting choice to make. I also have seen 34' units with two air conditioners and based on my experience with my 27' Safari with my 13.5K Penguin, I don't see how the same 13,500 BTU unit can handle full sun hot weather camping in a 34.

Hence I chose upgrading my new Classic on order with the 15K unit. Unless the 34' units are wired for rear A/C you are going to have to deal with getting wire to the hatch, plus as you noted, no place to run the condensate. The other thing is you will lose your rear vent and fan which personally I wouldn't want to give up.

I guess if it was my choice to make I would probably take the 15K Penguin unit since it is the easy swap and really has no negative side affects to your existing trailer.

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Old 11-17-2003, 09:05 AM   #4
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More Cool, Less Heat

My 345 has about the same interior space as your 34’, and here in Texas it pretty much takes both of the AC’s to keep it cool.

The rear AC is an original 12,500 BTU Coleman MachIII, the front I replaced this year with a Coleman Mach 15,000 BTU unit. The new 15K unit pulls about the same amperage as the old 12.5K units.

The new Coleman fit into the original pan with a bit of coaxing and drilling a new hold down hole. The pan cut out dimensions, however, only allowed 3 of the 4 hold downs to be accessed from below. The fourth had to be Southern Engineered, but there was enough room to fabricate a sturdy alternative.

BTW, the Coleman comes self-panned, but neither of the two drain holes are adjacent to the cut out area. I don’t think it would take much to route the drain line to the cutout, though.

As I said, two AC’s are necessary for domestic tranquility during most of the year here in Texas. As to being able to run both AC’s at the same time, the generator on the MH is already set up to handle them both (isolated circuits), but you would have to run a separate feed dedicated to the second AC should you decide to go that route on your trailer.

Campground hookups should not be a problem if 50 amp hookups are available; most of the 50 amp services I have seen provide 50, 30, and 20 amp services in the same box. The 30 and 20 amp plugins should be on different legs, but I would suggest a voltage monitoring device for the trailer, just in case they are not.

It really depends on where and when you use your unit, but in Houston, where I have a minimum travel time of two days to get to anything resembling cool 3/4's of the year, two operational AC's are a travel necessity.
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Old 11-17-2003, 06:50 PM   #5
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I installed a 15,000 BTU Dometic Penguin in my 31' International Land Yaht. I bought the drip pan from the local Airstream dealer for $49.00. The 15,000 BTU Penguin cost me around $900.00. I did the install myself. I live in San Antonio, Texas at the A/C cools down my trailer from 100 to 72 in about 5 to 7 minutes. I used 2 tubes of Vulcrum to seal it all up. Hope this helps.


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