http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2017/11/new-huntingcamping-trailer-day-its.html
When we bought it we knew there were a few things that we needed to repair. First up, the trailer lights weren't working at all. I won't go into it, but let's just say it took a while to repair. The good news, is that, the lights are now working. That means all the lights; running lights, brakes lights, and turn signals.
After we had bought the trailer I took a closer look at the A/C unit. There was no doubt about it, the entire thing needed replaced. The whole unit was corroded and coming apart. I didn't even dream about trying to repair small parts on the unit to get it working. I didn't see anything worth saving.
But I had to remember that the A/C unit was over twenty years old at that point. A/C units are usually good for about ten years. So that just confirmed that the entire unit needed replaced.
Frankly, it was also cheaper and easier just to buy a whole unit. So Dad scoured the internet for the perfect A/C unit. He found one that came highly recommended and the price was right. It shipped from Texas to Florida in only three days. That surprised even me.
Now came the fun part, installing it. I won't go into huge details like I normally do. I don't know if anyone should follow what we did as a guide. I would recommend YouTube. It has a lot of quality videos on how to install one.
The first thing was to take the interior panel apart, and remove the bolts. Three came out fine, but of course one just had to be a pain in the butt. Dad ended up cutting it loose with a grinder. I highly recommend doing that. Once the bolts were cut loose it was basically picking the thing up and throwing it off the roof.
Here's Dad and his belly thinking on things.
Luckily he's a lot lighter than I am, and the roof is metal. This was just after he shoved the old A/C unit off the roof.
As you can see it looked exactly like I said it did. Next up we cleaned up the hole where the unit sat.
Now about this time it was starting to get hot. As in, Florida hot. Before noon it wasn't too bad, but once it got past 12 PM it was downright miserable. Most of our time we spent on this project was spent on breaks. As in, resting and drinking a ton of water. During the hours I spent working on this project I ended up drinking over a gallon of water.
Once we cleaned the roof and hole off we took the new A/C unit out of the box. We actually read the directions. We made a (somewhat) smart plan on how to put the new unit on the roof. One of our ladders was pretty long. So we put it at an angle and just shoved the unit up the ladder. Dad was on one ladder and I was on another beside that one. In the end we managed to get the unit up on the roof, and then took another break.
The next thing was to line up the A/C unit on the roof hole. It sounds easy, and I can't say that it's too hard of a thing to do, but it really is time consuming. Well, it is if you want to do it right.
So the new bolts went in, and the new parts for the underside were installed. Again, it wasn't hard, it was just time consuming. Especially when you consider how many water breaks we were taking.
The next part was to connect the (optional) heat strips and the wiring. Most of the wiring was just pushing a plug into it's receptacle. Again, not hard, I just had to see which end went up. Next we screwed the cover on.
Great news! We plugged it in, and it worked the first time. What I liked was that it was immediately cold. It wasn't one of those units where you have to let it run fifteen minutes, and then it thinks about cooling. No, it was immediately cold. Needless to say we were really happy with it.
Here's what the unit looked like (from the outside) installed.
Not bad for six (grumble, grumble) hours worth of work. If I had to do it all over again... I totally would. Have you ever tried to stay in a camper without A/C when it's 95 degrees with 100% humidity? Like me winning the lottery it just ain't happening.
Hopefully this unit will last for a long time. Namely, because I don't want to do all that work again. But if I do, I'm certainly going to do it sometime other than summer in Florida.
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