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Hunter Douglas Electric Blinds – Replacement
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I’m confident that the Dallas man really did drive with his forrward slides out. After talking with him several times on different coach systems his story couldn’t be anything but try.
Okay, for you Prevost OTR Air fans I agree that the Prevost system will freeze your side windows, unless the system uses anything other than Prevost ducts. It very well should. If not mistaken that monster compressor pulls about 30 horsepower. Given your need for COLD I bet the warehouse sized roof mounted air conditioner keeps your house cold too.
I can’t fault Prevost OTR Air, it’s just way too much capacity for a motorhome. A passenger bus has full side glass and over 50 heaters maintaing 98.6 degrees. We have half the glass, only three heaters, and our Country Coach OTR Air has maintained a very comfortable temperature in Florida. CC OTR Air is ducted into the bedroom and living area, not directly across the hot side windows. At about 3HP, I’ve saving the fuel it takes to run the 30 HP giant you enjoy.
Okay, I can think of one problem with my CC OTR Air over Prevost’s. I’m guessing the Prevost system uses an air bag to keep the compressor belt tight. If true, I have to break out two wrenches to replace or adjust by belt.
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Gil, not to be stirring the pot but I think we can both agree if you have a coach that can be kept comfortable using an AC unit or units that has a rated capacity of 26,000 BTU then the load imposed on the motor, whether it is powered off inverters which convert alternator power to electric, or an engine driven compressor the motor of the coach is working to cool the coach. The presumption is the coach started out cool and comfortable and the only power or cooling capacity required is that needed to maintain the inside coach temperatures and make up for heat loss.
Equip the coach with OTR and if all it has to do is maintain the same temperature against heat loss and you can expect the compressor to cycle on and off so that the total energy used is the same. Our compressors cycle on and off just like the compressors on any other AC unit.
Where we diverge is in two places. My OTR is going to bring my coach temps down in a heat soaked coach so when we talk advantages I am not limiting my thinking to the energy needed to maintain a temperature but to get to a temperature Once two coaches are at an equal temperature in equal conditions the difference in energy required to maintain temperature is slight.
The second place we diverge is folks without OTR talk as though whatever AC system(s) they have, they have ample cooling, and they forget what constitutes acceptable cooling for me may not be acceptable to someone else. I’ve stated before I am uncomfortable in temps exceeding 70. So on hot days in the south I am the coach whose windows have condensation on them. I have an aunt and uncle who wouldn’t consder turning on AC unless the temps start past 85. They clearly would be happy with a fan for an OTR system. But the numbers define the systems. From my perspective the lack of OTR is a deal breaker. I want to be able to cross the southwest in 110 degree temps and be comfortable in my coach. Despite the fertilizer both sides of this issue attempt to foist upon one another I can tell you under those conditions my OTR is working and I have a struggle to believe coaches with less than half the BTU performance available would be capable of keeping me comfortable.
As to the claim my compressor requires 30 HP, I am comfortable repeating it will use no more total energy to maintain the same temperature as any other coach under the same conditions.
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What good is OTR when parked ?
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What good is CC over the road air when parked?
For all of us we can do away with all but our house AC units. We don’t need any engine driven AC systems. With the multiple house AC units ducted properly and ample inverter and alternator power, or a willingness to use the generator we really do not need anything else.
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Jon, you do realize CC OTR air uses an engine driven compressor; don’t you? I’m not using an inverter for my air. You are correct in that your OTR air will cool quicker. 1,100 HP and 2,500 lb/ft of torgue will get you to 65 sooner too. Both are overkill for most. I thought most were kidding when they said you were cold. Now I know why. As for whether our systems will use the same engine HP to maintain a given temperature I can’t say. They will need to produce a similar amount of BTUs in cooling. How efficiently each can do so will determine the HP needed.
You like your OTR air and I like mine. It doesn’t get much better than that. Back to the original topic. I like the Day/Night shades and no this isn’t a CC thing.
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Sheesh, how did my blind post get to OTR.. Oh ya, it was me who did it…
Just a parting shot… I have owned both, 2000 CC Prevost with CC OTR and now the Liberty with Prevost OTR.
Ain’t no comparison boys, I speak from experience…
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So, which is better? I assume the Liberty with Prevost OTR?
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The point was that in very hot weather the cruise airs in a brand new multi-slide coach may not be the best system.
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Cruise Airs work great when the coach is parked. Not necessarily so for highway use. The previous coach they did work very well when an OTR circuit breaker failed. But regardless they are less efficient for sure when in use on the highway.
Corey, I understand the difference between the engine driven OTR systems whether on a CC or a Prevost system. But there are a lot of folks for whatever reason going down the road with only driver’s air and one roof AC running off the inverter. I don’t know why they do that when they have some form of OTR, but they do.
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Jon,
We don’t have OTR air in our Marathon. Normal operation is drivers air and one roof air. Usually the 4th air (bedroom) which can be ducted to 3ad A/C.
. Works very well.
I talked to Maddie (the wonder dog ) and she approves this form of OTR.
She actually prefers any A/C directed at the rug in between the pilot and co- pilot seat.
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The OTR Prevost air has superior cooling capbilities, but the Counrty Coach OTR does not eat up the bay space allowing for more storage. For those who don’t know the OTR Prevost system uses up one bay. That can be argued both ways. We carry too much stuff if we have the room. We do not have the room now – so the volume of stuff is reduced.
I was told that the OTR Prevost option from Prevost now adds about $2300 to the cost of the new shell. I have not verified that. You can buy a nice new Hyundai for that.$
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Tom, The board there are two of them that control the raising and lowering of the blinds, I had a problem while on the way toStuart couldnot get one side of the coach’s blinds to work, At Stuart they told me they combined the two onto one board Now I have to raise them all at one time I am talking about the front of the coach the back worked fine. They said they could not get the board any more would have to program a new type and the cost would be 16000, so they combined them to work all ay the same time, although I appreciate them trying to save me money I wish they had told me what they decided to do. I bought the Liberty because of it’s features, I want it to work the way it was when built so this fall I will request a new board and get it back to original. By the way the tech told me as long as the back shades work you can use OTR without any problem even with the front down, That is what he said I do not know but will try it out on my way to Port Huron on Tuesday and report back. I ask the tech would they not ballon out he said no! Gary
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I got the same thing going on Gary, they tied them together so it’s either all up or all down. I cannot leave the rear shades down with the OTR running, billows the blinds real bad because of the high air flow from the vents. I can probably leave the front ones down, the air coming from those vents is not as high, but that defeats the purpose by blocking the cold air. Doesn’t matter what the fan speed is, the rear will billow. It would be nice to be able to just raise the blinds about 4 inches with the OTR running. I’ll take manual blinds any day!
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the one thing I never hear in OTR air is while it has the btu horse owner to cool, with it being so over sized for an RV not the addition of 400 btu’s per person 20,0000 btu’ the rin time is less leaving a higher humidity in the bus. I have had only roof airs 3 in my royal and 4 in the parliament and in 110 degree weather it cooled very well. The humidity makes a big difference in comfort. Interesting the new liberty has roof air I am sure it has to do with 4 slide configuration.
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Doug, I can say for sure that OTR will wring the moisture out of the coach.
When we are running the OTR water runs in an almost constant stream from the evaporator drain on humid days.
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