Bus Road Air Cost per Year

[luvrbus]

Guys, all of the Luxury Class the S417 and the LX MCI used in their fleet have a Honeywell electronic air filtering system that is also included in the cost for operaration. 
I would have thought the H-45 Prevost would be in the luxury class but he said no.
With a 180 units in service how about that for a maintenance bill with all the other things involved in owning a bus BK spooky to me    good luck

[RickB]

I am so glad we are talking about this... A friend that works on AC systems from the board in a city near me has offered to help me diagnose what is wrong with my AC and I am pretty clear that I would be better off spending money on maintenance for my two bay AC units and more genset maintenance as well if this proves to be a major issue. Maybe if I had 400 hp and diesel was a buck a gallon it would make sense to rebuild it but as it is it is a hp robber and hurts my mileage pretty significantly (somehwere around a mpg).

I agree with the earlier post that nothing works like OEM Bus air when it's working right but man it can get expensive quick and in the case of leaks it just seems to keep on costing us year after year.

Has anyone ever checked the difference between running an genset (1/2 gallon an hour at load sound close?) and running our Bus A/C to see what the difference would be as far as fuel usage?

Good conversation... timely for me and many others I am sure.

Rick

[belfert]

The biggest advantage of road air is the amount of cold air that can be supplied.  When parked we can cover windows and such to reduce A/C load.  One really can't do that when driving down the road.  The european styled buses with the large windows are like greenhouses for the driver on a hot day and a lot of A/C is required.

I don't have road air, but it would be nice to have versus just the roof tops I do have.

[epssty]

Help me decide to get reed of the large ac system in my new bus


I would like to ask you guy your opinion about the debate about removing the large ac units in my new bus. I do not need it mainly  and I will be living in it when camping  not driving  and I would like to get better mileage while removing all the weight. If you would please help me with the selling of the parts. I do not see much on ebay so I do not know where to go. I can also put a water tank or gen set in the area. My bus is an Orion 1990 ddec 1 dd6v92

[TomC]

I've got three Coleman 13,500btu/hr roof top airs as my only air conditioning.  Two are sufficient while travelling down the road in over 100 degree weather with 75 degree inside.  Also, with a 90 degree interior, the three running will have the interior at 70 degrees in 30 minutes.  How much maintenance? Except for one external shroud and cleaning the filters every year-zero!  Hard to beat that.  Good Luck, TomC

[John316]

TomC,

Great to hear from you. I was just about to start a new thread asking where you were.

No wonder those roof airs keep you cool. You have great insulation. We tried to do as much as we could, but didn't get as much as you have.

Now our biggest problem is sealing the front of the bus up . That is tough.

God bless,

John

[gumpy]

I'm a computer guy.  If I need additional help with a computer problem I will call support for help.  I will understand the lingo the support guy uses and have no problem getting the issue resolved in most cases.  Now, if I called someone for help with A/C I would have no idea what he is talking about for the most part and be really confused.

I'm a computer guy, too. But that didn't stop me from learning what I needed to convert my OTR A/C to R134. It was not cheap, because I had to replace the 4 hoses, and the dryer, and flush the old oil out with a gallon of synthetic oil which costs $20 per quart, and fill with the same oil and R134. So, it cost me about $700 to do the conversion myself. It worked a year, and then I developed a leak in the condenser. A fellow busnut gave me a used condenser that he was removing, which I installed, and recharged. That was 2005. I haven't added any freon or had any problems since, and it was working this past weekend just fine. I will have to replace the seals in the compressor soon, and will probably do that myself, also.

The numbers shown at the top of the thread are for a coach being operated on a daily basis in revenue service. A company cannot afford to have it fail, and annual preventive maintenance is going to be expensive. My bus mechanic, who is one the most respected people in the bus industry, once told me that companies will spend close to $1000 a year on A/C maintenance.  In my situation, I have a redundant system that I can run if my OTR system goes out on me while on the road. I'm a huge proponent of the OTR air system. I can put my family into stasis in mid August temps and don't have to listen to them complain 

[bevans6]

If one had a bus ac system full of R134, and one wanted to remove it, what would one do with the R134?  Do you dump it out behind the barn, do you need a hazmat  crew to come in and recover it, do you need an HVAC guy?  what do you do with the stuff?

Also, what do you do with the big, heavy compressors and condensors and evaporators and such?  feed the landfill, recycle, or what?

Brian

[belfert]

The evaporator and condensor should be able to stripped down and sold as scrap.  Same for any copper tubing in the system.

A local bus garage might buy the compressor to rebuild and give you a few bucks.

[Jerry32]

I have to agree with nick and I am not a hvac guy. When I got the bus two years ago I put in a bunch of those little cans of 134A and mine was still running cold last week Jerry

[gumpy]

If one had a bus ac system full of R134, and one wanted to remove it, what would one do with the R134?  Do you dump it out behind the barn, do you need a hazmat  crew to come in and recover it, do you need an HVAC guy?  what do you do with the stuff?

Also, what do you do with the big, heavy compressors and condensors and evaporators and such?  feed the landfill, recycle, or what?

Brian

The R134 can be sucked out by an hvac guy with a recovery tank. You can use it in your car.

As for the other components, you should load them in your bay, and come visit me.  I'll help you find a place to unload them... right behind my garage. 

[JohnEd]

STASIS!  LOL

Thanks for that

John