Adding 2nd Air Unit

[Gmyoung]

We have an Eagle 31' travel trailer and in the heat of the summer, the air does not seem to cool the entire trailer very well. It takes care of the front great, but not the back.

We are looking into adding a second unit. I spoke with Jayco service, and they install a Coleman 13500 BTU via cutting a hole in the roof. I am very leary of doing that for obvious reasons. Has anyone else on this forum had any luck adding a second unit? Is there a unit that goes where the vent hole already is?

[05 duramax]

I added one in ours but it was prepped for the second one. Ours is a FW don't know if TT are prepped, but anything can be done for the right $

[Grumpy]

Who at JAYCO said they would cut another hole. Did you tell them you already had a vent in the back?

If you have a roof vent that is where it would probably go. The problem is usually getting the elec to the air con. Some people have used wire-mold up the wall and across the ceiling to get it there.

[Gmyoung]

I told them the model, which is a 314BDS. There is a vent hole, which is where my husband was going to install one. I've learned Coleman makes a pretty good one that operates like a window air unit,which means you control the unit directly with controls on the unit. Is that what you added?

[Ela1948]

i just had one mounted in the bed room of our 31.5 RLTS fifth wheel. It was mounted in place of the roof vent. It has the controls on the unit. We just spent a week in a campground with 50 amp service and I spent a good bit of time playing with the unit to see how it would sync with the primary AC. Worked pretty good. The one thing that you need to keep in mind is that the fans on that unit run all the time when you have the unit turned on. The compressor will kick in and out as needed. It works very well to get initial heat out of your camper. I don't think that you'll want to try and run it all the time as the fans even on low speed would be annoying at night. We are very happy with it so far.

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by Gmyoung

I told them the model, which is a 314BDS. There is a vent hole, which is where my husband was going to install one. I've learned Coleman makes a pretty good one that operates like a window air unit,which means you control the unit directly with controls on the unit. Is that what you added?

Many units, especially the pop-ups and hybrids use that unit since they do not have ducted air-cond. I have installed both.

[eldermike]

Do you have 50amp service in the trailer? We have 2 ac units in our trailer and its wired for 50amp service. The real advantage is watching tv or a movie we can run the rear one and turn off the front one which makes the sound level much better in the living area.

[clutch]

I would think 50 amp service would be a necessity unless you run a separate service just for the new AC. Use a vent hole that is already there. I would not cut a hole in the roof for any reason.

[Gmyoung]

Thank you all for the advice! I agree....not wild about cutting a hole in the roof either!

[cekkk]

Looking at your trailer I'd say it has 30 amp service. If that is correct, you must take that into consideration.

[Tail_gunner]

I think what some have done before in this situation is to add another, separate 20 amp line dedicated to the 2nd AC.

[Ela1948]

Originally Posted by cekkk

Looking at your trailer I'd say it has 30 amp service. If that is correct, you must take that into consideration.

if you don't have 50 amp service, its hard to see how it would be much of a benefit. You are aware that it takes 50 amp service to run 2 AC's at the same time.

[Gmyoung]

Yes, I am going to run a separate 30 amp line just for this unit. Otherwise I don't think it would work. I've seen several online, ranging from $450-880. Has anyone had luck ordering from AdventureRV.net?

[lx22f/c]

Just an fyi you don't have to run 30 amps. You can do it on a 20 amp circuit. I ran a 30 amp cord to a seperate 20 amp breaker. I did it because i already had a 30 amp cord so it worked out cheaper that way for me. If you are starting from scratch then you could just run a 20 amp circuit and use the breaker on the pedestal as your protection. My brother had a 2nd a/c installed on his motorhome and thats the way they did it. Check around locally on buying your unit before ordering one. You might find it cheaper through a local supplier than having it shipped. Good luck with your project. It really is not that hard to do once you get the wiring done.