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cruise airs
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you should also ask around at marina service places. many of them are familiar with cruisairs. the only difference is that they are DX units to the water, vs DX units to the air. So the compressor part is the same for them. . and they are used to working in confined spaces. . there might be a learning curve for them for access and such – but I have had better luck with marine service yards than RV service places – outside of the known specialty places that know our coaches.
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CruiseAirs are like our home ac unit. They use R22 Freon which is getting harder to find these days. But a quick search of Craigslist will probably find you a 30 Lb bottle for a couple hundred bucks. Don’t accept substitutes.
I knew nothing about them when I bought our Prevost 6+ yrs ago. I did know about auto ac. So the first time one quit working, I tore the bus apart and called a tech. I watched and asked a lot of questions. I’ve never had to call a tech again.
I have one unit that leaks half of its Freon out ea yr. So every spring I re charge it. I check the charge on the other units ea spring too. Twice I’ve had a run capacitor fail. The capacitors can be purchased online(amazon) or at grainger. The biggest bummer about working on them is their location. I have 2 condensors in the nose behind the bumper. The 3rd is in the middle of the bus behind a large fresh water tank. That one is actually easy to work on. I can have the tank out in about 15 minutes and I don’t have to be a contortionist to work on it like I do with the front units.
I do dream of adding another unit, like a 24k btu mini-split($1100) blowin thru the OTR duct work would be awesome. But so far its just a dream. If ETLC or somebody ever came up with such a swap, they would stay busy with work.
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Been thinking about the same with the mini splits. Had a 14′ x 40′ sun room out at the ranchito that was all windows and the 2 ton Mitsubishi mini split was awesome,, heating and cooling. Friend of mine had a Eagle Bus and had a 3 ton Home Carrier unit in his. There are alternatives for sure. Just knowing how far to cobble up your newer coaches is the key. My antique Coach wouldn’t matter.
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I had the R-22 in my Cruisairs changed out to R-422 which is readily available and must more affordable. The air blows just as cold as it did when they were charged with R-22.
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Geo Prentice told me a few years ago that Hanna Trailer Sales in Oak Creek (just south of Gen. Mitchell Field south of Milwaukee) has a tech who worked at Burger Yachts in Manitowoc and, according to Geo is skilled with the Cruise-Airs. I don’t know the guys name or if he’s still there or not. Geo might know more and check in. Hanna: 7575 S Howell Ave, Oak Creek, WI 53154 Phone: (414) 762-7950.
Good friends of mine just purchased their second Ocean Alexander yacht (58′) and have based their boats in Sturgeon Bay WI. I asked him about Cruise-Air service and he said they use Kinnand’s from Green Bay/Sturgeon Bay for their Marine C/A’s. Kinnard’s lists Marine RV on their list of services and products. Green Bay is probably closer to “northern Wisconsin” than Milwaukee. If I had a C/A problem and wasn’t planning on being at ETLC soon, I would call Kinnard’s and see what they could do.
My friend said, “I have replaced a couple of those units over the years by myself. The wall mounted controllers are always an issue but can be resolved. A good HVAC guy can usually work on them and should know how to Check pressures. Not all marinas are that proficient, we use Kinnards in Sturgeon Bay, Wi, they are very familiar with those units.”
Another source of where to go would be to call Fred Pickering at A.A.P. Its my understanding that A.A.P. distributes the parts and pieces, he should know where he’s sending parts to and should have a good feel for who knows what they are doing. But I suspect you’ll be hard pressed to find someone who services Cruise-Airs much closer to you than Kinnards.
Let us know how this plays out.
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Hi Dick-
We are scheduling an appointment with Kinards on your recommendation.
Thanks! -
Contacted Kinards this morning. They “are not comfortable” working on our CA units in a bus.
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You may have to convince a technician the CA units are not high tech, rocket science or cheap junk like conventional RV’s.
They are robust, easily serviced units and if you make it easy for the tech to gain access he might change his posture. Not surprised because a lot of A/C service companies seem reluctant or afraid of them likely because typical RV A/C units are either not serviceable or hard to service.
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That’s disaapointing to hear.
If we take our coach to the Green Bay/Door county area … I’ll stop there and talk to them. Maybe if they see the coach, they might change their mind.
I suspect (and its only my “suspect”) that non-coach shops are reluctant because they look where the CAs are and just dread getting to them … behind the bumper, behind the entertainment center, etc.
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If you have CAs buried behind a bumper or entertainment center and a tech has to fold himself like a pretzel or spend an hour and a half unloading junk or removing an E center you are going to be lucky to get a technician that is not used to working on Prevost conversions.
But if you insure easy access, even under the worst of circumstances a CA can get most service easily in place. But if something requires removal, such as fan motor replacement it still is less than 1/2 to 1 hour to pull the entire condensing unit.
Been there, done that myself, and just watched Dana of AAP do the same thing recently. It is not a big deal.
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Richard, There are two schools of thought regarding operating A/C units through the inverters or powering them via the generator.
It needs to be understood both ways will work. Both ways are going to use similar amounts of fuel, either to feed the generator or to power the added load of the alternator. So except for that equivalence there are some diferences.
Inverters are going to take power from the batteries when they do not have incoming voltage from shore or generator power. The batteries only have a certain amount of stored power so obviously when you are driving that power is being replaced by the alternator. Depending on if you have a 12 or 24 volt coach your Cruisairs are going to pull 130 amps (12V) or 65 amps (24V) and that is the load on the alternator.
I’m guessing you have a 24V DC system and a 50DN alternator. If I am correct you are asking the alternator to provide 195 amps of charging current to your batteries. That is just for the Cruisairs. The alternator has about 270 amp capacity and anything over 1/2 rated current is likely going to add heat to the alternator, and it will also add heat to the inverters. If you have other loads while driving, like the refrigerator, water pump, microwave, coffee maker, etc. you are adding more loads and more heat.
As long as you can get rid of that heat you are OK, and that includes the heat in the inverters from the loads. Make sure the 50DN has the oil supply service bulletin taken care of and make sure your inverters have ample cool air supply and the fans are working.
The generator powers the Cruisairs differently. It supplies power to the inverters which they sense, and instead of inverting they become battery chargers for your house batteries, and that incoming power is also passed through the inverters directly to the electric panel without loading the alternator, batteries or inverters. The generator is designed to easily handle the electric loads, not only of your Cruisairs, but of anything else electric in your coach and it will do it at a rate I would guess to be about .4 GPH. At today’s discounted fuel prices that is about $.75 to $.90 per hour.
The choice of how to power the Cruisairs is yours. A whole lot of folks run theirs via the inverters, and then there are some like me who will never run an A/C through inverters.
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98 Vision Coach. My salon roof top a/c powers from the inverter. The galley and bed room a/c powers from shore power or generator. How can I get the salon a/c to power from the shore power or generator and not the inverters? Thanks in advance, Darrell
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Start the generator or plug into shore power. The transfer switch is supposed to bias input power to the best source, maning, generator, shore power and then inverter.
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Jon, Did not know that inverters were controlled by the transfer switch along with the generator and shore power. Now I know. Thanks, Jon
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Don’t take my word for it. Not all converters set up their coaches the same way. Typically however on inverter equipped coaches with no shore or generator power inverters are automatically supplying power to those items on inverter circuits. When shore power is applied then shore power is able to be applied to all circuits, including those on inverter.
The inverter however is not powering those circuits when shore power is applied, but is passing shore power through (generally through internal relays) to the inverter circuits.
When generator power is available, even if plugged into shore power a transfer switch will disconnect from shore power, and instead couple generator power to the electric panel since it is a higher current power source.
Having said that not all conversions work that way, such as Vantare (Featherlight) because their set up differs from most conversion. I am not familiar with Vision so I have no ability to describe its systems.
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