Quiet Air Conditioner from Advanced RV

[avanti]

Originally Posted by jon

Plus it was only 6.5K BTUs mine is supposed to be 8.5K BTUs but I haven't tested it in warm weather yet. It seems like it might keep the inside of a pre-cooled van cool for a while. The bright side is that it only draws 40 amps though. A 110 VAC roof unit would draw over 100.
Jon

I don't think it is plausible to get 8K BTUs on 40 amps. The Arctic Plus (dual Danfoss) specs 41 amps at half power (presumably a single Danfoss running). As you say, running both compressors (82 amps) only gets you 6150 BTU. Your unit would have to be more than twice as efficient, which i don't think I believe.

[jon]

Originally Posted by avanti

I don't think it is plausible to get 8K BTUs on 40 amps. The Arctic Plus (dual Danfoss) specs 41 amps at half power (presumably a single Danfoss running). As you say, running both compressors (82 amps) only gets you 6150 BTU. Your unit would have to be more than twice as efficient, which i don't think I believe.

I don't believe it either. I was saying that I was sold a 8500 BTU but it doesn't seem to put out near that much.

That's fine because I'm done trying to make this passenger/camper convertible thing work. I'm tiered of unloading these heavy 3 person benches in and out alone. In a year we'll get separate vans for RVing/traveling and hauling kids. I already have a deposit at the conversion shop and I'll get a roof AC from Advanced RV.

I'm tired of installing new high tech stuff hoping it'll work perfect. I'll be a consumer and spend more money to get proven RV components.

Jon

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by avanti

Every undermount install that I am familiar with has been done naïvely, including ARVs.

How do you know this?

[wincrasher]

This is encouraging that ARV is expanding their business. I’d definitely be interested in their A/C refit, as well as the VB suspension and leveling jacks, but alas it all comes down to if the price is reasonable. How much of a premium are you prepared to pay for a bit of quietness?

[cruising7388]

Originally Posted by wincrasher

This is encouraging that ARV is expanding their business. I’d definitely be interested in their A/C refit, as well as the VB suspension and leveling jacks, but alas it all comes down to if the price is reasonable. How much of a premium are you prepared to pay for a bit of quietness?

IMO, the EP leveler system is a no brainer for any coach over 19 ft. Cost is about $7800. A great feature is that it uses a wireless remote for operation which eliminates the complication of hard wiring a leveler control panel.

The VB suspension provided by ARV is for the Sprinter platform and ostensibly mitigates the buck board ride in the rear experienced with the Sprinter OEM suspension. Does the Travato OEM suspension have the same problem?

[B Eventually]

Originally Posted by wincrasher

How much of a premium are you prepared to pay for a bit of quietness?

It's more than just quietness, standard unducted AC is so loud that it causes hearing damage. There's not many shops I'd feel comfortable working on my rv. I was mostly comfortable with AM Solar overhauling our electrical system and installing panels.

I'd be completely comfortable leaving my rv in ARV's hands. Other dealers, not so much. Advanced RV has earned their reputation and I'm confident they would not do anything to jeopardize it.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by cruising7388

IMO, the EP leveler system is a no brainer for any coach over 19 ft. Cost is about $7800. A great feature is that it uses a wireless remote for operation which eliminates the complication of hard wiring a leveler control panel.

The VB suspension provided by ARV is for the Sprinter platform and ostensibly mitigates the buck board ride in the rear experienced with the Sprinter OEM suspension. Does the Travato OEM suspension have the same problem?

Advanced RV installed the VB Air Suspension on the FitRV's Travato. There are videos out on that.

[Technomadness]

Originally Posted by GeorgeRa

Just wander when this Truma AC will come to our shores, I have seen it in EU – it is very, night time quiet. It takes 12”x18”x34” storage space, I could easy find a place for it in my sub 20’ long wide van. Truma entered NA with Truma Combi so AC could be coming soon.



https://www.truma.com/au/en/products...omfort-rc.html

Now that’s what I’m talking about! I can produce a 240V power supply. I wonder if you could buy this Trina online from a retailer in the UK or EU... or are they OEM only?

Still need a fuel based heater for sub 40 degree weather, but that’s no problem.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cruising7388]

Originally Posted by Davydd

Advanced RV installed the VB Air Suspension on the FitRV's Travato. There are videos out on that.

After watching the video I'm not convinced that the improvement demonstrated by Fit RV in their Travato ride is worth $8,000. Also, I wonder about warranty consequences. Mercedes approves the VB suspension change. How would Dodge address this?

[avanti]

Originally Posted by cruising7388

After watching the video I'm not convinced that the improvement demonstrated by Fit RV in their Travato ride is worth $8,000. Also, I wonder about warranty consequences. Mercedes approves the VB suspension change. How would Dodge address this?

I'm not sure about the value, either (unless perhaps if you need to have passengers ride in the back). But warranty is not an issue. OEM approvals determine what modifications certified upfitters are and are not allowed to make. But that is a matter of contract; such approvals have nothing whatsoever to do with consumer warranties. US law prohibits aftermarket modifications from affecting OEM warranties.

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by cruising7388

After watching the video I'm not convinced that the improvement demonstrated by Fit RV in their Travato ride is worth $8,000. Also, I wonder about warranty consequences. Mercedes approves the VB suspension change. How would Dodge address this?

My option for good suspension cost was zero. Simply, just started with 144” WB passenger van with good suspension by the factory instead of Cargo van and kept it 1000lb below max. Cargo Sprinter vans need some work for softer suspension.

This FitRv test was subjective as it was stated. I added air suspension to Bigfoot trailer but tuned the air springs pressure by testing with a USB accelerometer.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by wincrasher

... How much of a premium are you prepared to pay for a bit of quietness?

Quite a lot, actually. It's not the quietness per se that is important - it's the expansion in our ability to use the rig more fully, especially in the hotter months. Right now we pretty much abandon it to its storage garage for most of every summer. The main thing holding me back at this point is not the price - it's the drive from Texas to Ohio and back.

The levelers, on the other hand, I can do without. I achieve much the same outcome with fifty bucks worth of Valterra 'legos'.

[booster]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

Quite a lot, actually. It's not the quietness per se that is important - it's the expansion in our ability to use the rig more fully, especially in the hotter months. Right now we pretty much abandon it to its storage garage for most of every summer. The main thing holding me back at this point is not the price - it's the drive from Texas to Ohio and back.

The levelers, on the other hand, I can do without. I achieve much the same outcome with fifty bucks worth of Valterra 'legos'.

You could always put it on a transport and not have to do the drive. By the time you figure your time, it might be worth it.

[booster]

I can't speak for the MB or Promaster vans, but we have been messing around with the rear suspension of our Chevy for a long time, trying different things.

We currently have what I would have to call a "triple hybrid" of load carrying components in it right now, and it has seemed to soften and quiet the rear ride quite a bit. It consists of leaf springs, airbags, and urethane springs. The shocks are still the same Bilsteins we have had for years.

The Chevy starts out with a normal leafspring pack with a huge overload leaf on the bottom, which is engaged most of the time and quite harsh. We have added airbags that can pick up 50+% of the rear weight and are much less harsh than the overload leaf, so I removed the big oveload leaf.

One potential problem that comes with this is that rear axle motion from large bumps or dips could get fairly bouncy, like a big floaty airride bus, but this gets taken care of by the latest version of Airlift bags that have an internal beehive style urethane bumper inside of them that works like a Timbren does and limits big travels with a smooth and not harsh amount of added support. In our case the internal bumper was also needed in case of a bag failure because the bag install requires the removal of the Chevy OEM overtravel bumpers.

We have had this system in place for a few years now, and have been quite pleased with how it rides compared to before. Smoother and quieter, and it even took out some noise we thought was coming from the front end, so must have been echoing.

I will caution anyone who is thinking about softening the rear ride in their van to consider one other issue. If you soften the springing/shocks combo, you are reducing the rear roll stiffness so the van will tend to understeer (wander and wind push) more than before the change. The compensation for this is to add/increase the rear swaybar to get back to the normal handling.

[Davydd]

I don't know about Chevys and Promasters but I do know a lot about 170" WB Sprinters and VB Air Suspension is very much worth having for ride smoothness, cross wind, going over bumps like RR tracks, anti-rolling on driveway curbs, etc. If you have a back sofa with seatbelts and passengers it is almost mandatory once you experience the difference. The bonus of VB Air Suspension is often up and down leveling gives a much more level camp site and you can eliminate blocking in a lot of instances.

But that brings you to E-P levelers. I can see they save time especially in side to side leveling and in off-grid situations you don't have to rely on tell tale blocking. It probably is a want rather than need choice.

[mlts22]

As someone who finds A/C vital, especially in Texas where humidity makes fans next to useless, having a quiet A/C would be worth the added cost, provided it is reliable and serviceable (as in being able to add refrigerant and be able to replace components rather than all or nothing like all standard rooftop A/Cs.)

The one A/C unit I sort of liked was the Danhard split system, where the loud stuff was outside the vehicle. However, I would rather have a solid overhead A/C that is quiet, inside or outside over that.

[cruising7388]

Originally Posted by Davydd

But that brings you to E-P levelers. I can see they save time especially in side to side leveling and in off-grid situations you don't have to rely on tell tale blocking. It probably is a want rather than need choice.

We're from different planets. For you, the need determines what you want. For me, the want determines my need.

I see this differently. If you are using RV park facilities, leveling is generally not an issue. But IMO, one of the reasons for going to a class B is it's relatively anonymous footprint and scale that permits you to spend the night most anywhere. But what often puts a crimp in finding a comfortable parking spot is longitudinal and, particularly, transverse pitch. The ability to address this with an automatic leveling system in the rain or without messing with blocking, I think is a big plus and considering the modest cost addition to a class B that is already pushing six figures, it seems like money well spent. And in the context of the eye blinking cost of an ARV, it's chump change.

[booster]

Originally Posted by cruising7388

We're from different planets. For you, the need determines what you want. For me, the want determines my need.

I see this differently. If you are using RV park facilities, leveling is generally not an issue. But IMO, one of the reasons for going to a class B is it's relatively anonymous footprint and scale that permits you to spend the night most anywhere. But what often puts a crimp in finding a comfortable parking spot is longitudinal and, particularly, transverse pitch. The ability to address this with an automatic leveling system in the rain or without messing with blocking, I think is a big plus and considering the modest cost addition to a class B that is already pushing six figures, it seems like money well spent. And in the context of the eye blinking cost of an ARV, it's chump change.

I do think that you may still need to use some blocking under the levelers if it is wet or raining. We have seen lots of larger RVs with the levelers buried and not doing much of anything, and the park rangers not happy about the holes.

[cruising7388]

Originally Posted by booster

I do think that you may still need to use some blocking under the levelers if it is wet or raining. We have seen lots of larger RVs with the levelers buried and not doing much of anything, and the park rangers not happy about the holes.

I think the lower weight involved in a B opposed to a larger class A makes it less likely that the leveler will sink into mud. I agree that in any event blocking with levelers is a good idea to increase the surface area. But high impact blocks are thin, light, cheap and easy to store and a lot easier to position under the leveler than trying to move the coach wheels onto blocking. Also, I think the cross section of the platform on the EP leveler is pretty large.

HWH levelers on smaller coaches used to be commonplace until Mercedes got into the act with the Sprinter. Because their "sheet metal" chassis is probably more susceptible to tweaking than full box channel construction used by Ford and Chevy, Mercedes forbid upfitters from installing them for over a decade until they recently approved the installation of the EP leveling system which is currently available for installation from ARV and a few others.

I appreciate that everyone has different priorities but I've had coaches without levelers and coaches with them and for sure my next B will include them. I'd even pay the freight to add them to our 210 but for some reason both HWH and EP don't offer installations for this model. I'm guessing that we sit too close to the ground.

[pattonsr]

Originally Posted by AAFD

I watched the video, the output is closer to 15k than my 13.5 and more efficient. Im thinking of replacing my units.

KC

Where does it say the output is close to 15K btu?