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Cruise Air not cooling
We’re on the road, and of course one of my cruise airs, the one for the stateroom, is now not blowing cold (or heating). Wondering if anyone has any diagnostic tips to share while I’m on the road. My condensers are located up front behind the bumper. The unit worked for a couple hours then would just not blow cold any more. I have some tools, but nothing like gauges for measuring refrigerant levels.
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10 Replies
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No takers? FWIW, I can hear the compressor come on for a couple seconds, then turn off. My best guess is the compressor is drawing way too much current and whatever over-current protection there is shuts it down.
Not sure I want to invest more money in such an old solution, especially since this probably still uses R22. I am considering a 115v mini split with wall-mounted unit like the following: https://iwae.com/shop/12k-btu-22-seer-mrcool-diy-ductless-heat-pump-split-system-3rd-generation-wall-mounted-ha20868.html
I’d try to mount the condenser unit in the engine bay, passenger side, but space might be an issue. Air intake would come from below, air exhaust would go out the vented rear hatch. The condenser will probably need to place at an angle to fit. Anyone tried something like this?
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Shardan1 has some of us intrigued about a mini split solution to replace cruisers. No particulars were given but I am hoping that an effort is being made to match physical size so that evaps and condensers can be switched with new mini split components.. Hopefully there will be an update soon.
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Andrew where are you located? I’m surprised you haven’t had a better response to your problem.
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I am reluctant to get in the middle of this BUT as one who knows a little about vapor/compression refrigeration and have had the same experience as everyone else with the Cruisair, I’ll offer a couple of comments. With the minisplits, you have essentially the same problem as Cruisair minus the age issue. Namely the lack of nonhot air flow over the condenser. Remember the Cruisairs were originally for yachts where the condenser is cooled by sea water. Hoping that hot road air would work didn’t pan out and now most new coaches have roof airs. Lots of air flow over condenser coil, relatively inexpensive, and easy to replace. Getting them placed as a retrofit is not simple if you put in roof supports (which I did) but doable. I can keep the cruisairs going and have done so but expense (and frustration) in doing so is considerable. Unless you go to the trouble of putting in duct work for the roof airs (I didn’t) noise is a little more than the Cruisair but cooling is quite a bit better. Works for me as a cure for Cruisair insanity however wife says I am still crazy. I remind her she knew that when we got married. Mike
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I am in Austin, TX. However, I just dropped off my coach at Texas Custom Coach / CoachWorks in Pipe Creek. They are doing some paint/body work for me (had an incident in my first couple days of ownership I am finally getting fixed after nine months). I meant to ask CoachWorks if they work on Cruiseair, but forgot in the moment when I had to drop off. I’ll follow up with them on Monday.
I agree roof air IMO probably is the best solution, but I am just not sure I am ready to go that far. I do have existing ductwork for my RVAC, but I really doubt they would work all that well for a roof-air (and wouldn’t I need at least two of them for equivalent cooling capacity?). I was also hoping for much higher efficiency units, and it does not seem like the roof airs are really worried about that. Luckily the RVAC is working right now, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before that goes, too. Once that goes, I also want to figure something else out for that, maybe a solution involving a ducted mini-split in the same place, who knows.
One other reason I am reluctant to do roof air is that right now I have a pretty clear roof, and I’d like to keep that for a large solar array some day.
Doesn’t bus air get it’s condenser cooled by somewhere lower on the bus, like one of the bays? I wonder how it manages to do so well under similar conditions.
FWIW, If I could get a mini-split working for the stateroom, with condenser placed in right rear, then I would be able to dedicate the front spare tire area for a single front mini-split (I expect there would need to be *major* surgery to the condenser unit to optimize and fit in that area), and this unit could be IMO a much more appropriate BTU for that front area (15k cruiseair is way underpowered) IMO.
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Cruiseair woe’s are going to get much worse, my information from the grape vine is AAP is out of business and filed bankruptcy. I do know of one vendor receiving the dreaded bankruptcy attorney letter.
Jeff and Lindsay
91 Marathon XL -
AAP = BK
Oh no!
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Good point about still having the condenser in a poor location. Ive been looking at some of the big commercial rooftop units. Transair makes a rooftop condenser in excess of 100k BTU. They also have a 60k that would be great for the salon and galley. Has anyone have any info on these or ideas about the feasibility of using one of these?
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Andrew, right click on my PC name ‘lonestarace” and email me your ph#. You haven’t made your PC name active so I can’t email you.
I have experience with Coachworks and CruiseAirs. I live (Bulverde, TX) about half way between Austin and Pipe Creek. I might be of help?
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Folks at Texas Custom Coach say the compressor is bad. Still on the fence on what to do. A compressor replacement is still probably cheaper than any alternative, just not sure if I want to jump ship instead.
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