Quote:
Originally Posted by hot rod
You'd be surprised how little bracing there is in a factory trailer roof for the a/c unit. My top of the line Pace trailer was "wired and braced for a/c" at the factory, and all it had was the standard 1 x 1.5" light duty rectangular tubing they use in the roof bows anyway, with a couple of short pieces of the same rectangular tubing to make a 14x14 square (same size as a roof vent) and stuck some wood in to fill the gap between the roof sheet metal and the interior ceiling. I was mighty suspicious of that when I installed my rood a/c in that hole, but it has been on there for 2 seasons and a ton of miles so far with no ill effect. So I wuoldn't worry too much about the bracing in the roof, that is the easy part. Worst thing on the roof a/c is the $900 cost (heat pump) of the unit.
If you go that route, spend an few extra bucks and spring for the Carrier heat pump instead of the standard a/c with heat strip. That unt is 15,000 btu instead of the standard 13,500 btu, but the best thing is that being a heat pump it will also deliver the full 15,000 btu as heat just as well as a/c. The heat strip they advertise in a standard a/c does about nothing, and you said you generally have power to plug into so you kill 2 birds with one stone.
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So I looked into the whole heating/cooling thing a little bit, and Bob had a great idea with the mini-split system. Couple people have them. I think Doc has one, and he and I have similar trucks. Initially I balked at the price, but I noticed a couple on eBay that is are in the 500-700 dollar range. And they do both heat and cooling. 500 bucks I can live with. And the sizing is right too. 9000 btu is all my truck needs. I only have 18-20 feet of box as a living area. Hell, the entire box of 25 feet X 8 is still half of what the unit is supposedly rated for (400 sqf) I am a little skeptical though, the power rating is only 770 watts for heat or cooling. Either this unit is insanely more efficent than anything I have, or it's not going to get the job done.