How much is an OTR A/C system worth from an MC-9?

[ilyafish]

I purchased a roof air today off of craiglist and am in love.  Now I am considering possibly getting rid of the otr ac and getting a few more roof airs.  Anybody have a good idea of how much all the parts would be worth if the otr ac was removed?  Also, how much is the performance of a roof air affected when going down the road vs when parked?

[steve5B]

   Had I known now, I would have "NEVER'' removed mine.Being designed for that application it's hard to beat. Keep it if you can, great for a back up if you decide to have several rooftops

  Steve 5B.......

[gumpy]

I agree with Steve. If it works, keep it. If it doesn't work, repair it. You cannot beat the performance of the OTR air when driving in the summer. My family is usually bundled in blankets when we travel in August, and I'm just comfortable.

If the parts are in good working order there is some value for those who are maintaining their OTR system, but it's difficult to place a value due to location and shipping. It also depends on the parts. There are a couple clutches on these bus compressors and one is more desirable than another.

[belfert]

A rebuildable compressor is/was worth about $250.  Welsh Industries will buy them, but the shipping cost pretty much cancels out any financial gain.

[TomC]

Granted the OTR A/C system is powerful, but it is expensive to fix, pulls about 20hp from the engine, and takes up space with the ducts, fans evaporator, condenser, compressor.  I have three roof airs with the front one close to the front for air on me as I drive.  Recently, came through the desert with all three running in 102 degree weather and had to turn one off since my wife was cold.  The key is to have 2.25" sprayed insulation with lightly tinted glass-that works for me.  You can buy three roof airs for less then the cost of the OTR A/C rebuild.  Good Luck, TomC

[John316]

Ilya,

We got rid of ours, because it was SOOOO expansive to fix. We could have gotten a lot of brand new roof airs, for what we paid to get ours worked on. But, then again, if yours is working, you might not want to take it out.

I would try finding a charter lines that still uses your style bus. Ask them what they will give you for it. We found a guy to buy our componants for $1200, but then again, charter companies are using our style bus a lot more, than yours.

See what you can find.

Safe travels.

God bless,

John

[Kwajdiver]

Mine didn't work, est. $800 -$1,200 to get it working.  I took it out and trashed it.


Bill
The rain has stopped in Tampa Bay.  (for now)

[belfert]

Mine did not work either.  Estimate of $700 just to refill and test the system.  It turned out that the condenser fans were bad so the $700 would have gone up in smoke.

I took everything out.  Even if it worked Dina ducted the A/C through the luggage bays which we removed.

[JackConrad]

Another factor we considered besides the repair/maintenance cost (our was not working) was how much of the time we are in the bus will the engine be running (time we can use the OEM AC). For us and the way we use the bus, this was less than 10% of the time. We could not justify the cost or space consumed by the AC equipment for soemthing that can only be used less than 10% of the time.  If we spent more time on the road,our choice may have been different.  YMMV Jack

[buswarrior]

Hold on, we need to consider the duty cycle that this coach is going to be put to...

This is the band bus?

If so, driving this coach down the road with the band aboard is not the compromise condition that driving down the road between camping spots is for a busnut. More time will be spent moving than sitting as far as occupancy goes.

There are greater resources (somewhat) available to maintain the OTR air, the band, and a greater motivation to be comfortable.

Heat transfer through the sunny side of the coach going down the highway can't be dealt with by the awning...that ducted cold air in the wall is nice...

And losing the driver's AC is very hard to duplicate via the roof airs when driving into the sun.

Best of both worlds would be two or three roof airs and the OTR AC.

You have some tough decisions!

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[Airbag]

Oh that stuff is worthless! I'll give ya fifty bucks for whole shibang