First mini-split is installed

[robertglines1]

I had one left over from trade and before I found It Duwayne loaned me.  his  with all  gauges.. I since found mine.  A refill kit on Ebay is 57 dollars including gauges and adapter the refiled is 37.  nice to have on have in case of a aw-shir striation.   pull vac close gauge if it holds 20 minutes 99% safe to go.   keep all lines fasten down and insulated.  you will be amazed..  Head is starting to clear a little.  Doc Kook had good drugs pulled staples yesterday and said walk more.   Bob   ps lots of returning soldiers from sthe gulf wars did this akk time es civilians cut lines and moved to differant room=gi you fix it

[Oonrahnjay]

Thanks for the info.  Are you saying that those vacuum pumps from harbor freight wouldn't cut it? 

      I don't have any experience with them so I can only guess.  But the pump has to be high quality to pull the vacuum needed, it must not leak back through the pump during the "leak test" period, and the gauges must be accurate enough to tell you what the vacuum level is and whether it changes over the time period of the leak test.   

      My experience with Harbor Freight is that the tools fall into one of the following three categories:
1)  Work pretty well and last a reasonably long time ... (rare, IME),
2)  Work OK for a while and then fall apart,
3)  Total junk right out of the box.

      Since category 2) is the most common, I look at Harbor Freight as "rental" -- if what they cost is what it would be worth to you to use them twice and throw them away, then they're "worth it".  But generally, the more high-tech an item is, the more likely it is to be category 3).  I'm not saying not to try the Harbor Freight pump and gauges, but don't be surprised if they don't work for you (** in my opinion **, other people have had different results).

[tbfisher]

    Thanks Phil. I own an 05 Monaco Dynasty Diamond IV(4 slide)that is in very good shape.
It has 3 Dometic Penguin roof ACs that work OK, but are VERY noisy and inefficient. Since
they are 10+ yrs old, replacement is coming. Rather than spending $4K++ to do this, I would
like to consider retrofitting with a single condenser 24KBtu++ mini-split system with at least
two ceiling cassette indoor units. The indoor units, coolant/power/control lines should be
no problem since they could be installed in the existing  5"D x 12"W ceiling channel that runs the length
of the coach.

    My big question is where to put the condensing unit so I'm very interested in conversing with
members who have done this in their bus conversions, etc..

TBoone Fisher