question for Tekebird?

[DR]

Hi Tekebird, You had talked about split a/c units in another thread, knowing you have great background in busses, do you have a brand you prefer or know where we can get split units ?  Thankyou for the help DR.

[tekebird]

I'm familiar with Cruisair, but Nick will probably have some other good options.

[tekebird]

http://www.cruisair.com/

[DR]

Thankyou again for the help!!  DR

[luvrbus]

DR, I have had Cruisair in 3 buses and won't have anything else some guys say they are not dependable but I never had a problem with mine you need to make sure when buying that you buy the one for land and not for water.I use them because I like a clean roof and my wife likes them because the baggage compartment will hold more of her stuff   (junk).But they are expensive

[TomC]

Other non roof top A/C's available are from Dometicusa.com.  They still make the single and dual compressor basement air.  This is where you mount the unit under the floor with the condenser exposed to the outside of the bus and it exhausts the hot air downward.  Then the cool air is ducted up from the basement into the bus.  They are rated at 13,500btu (single compressor) or 27,000btu (dual compressor).  The advantage of the dual compressor is that one compressor will run when not much cooling is needed and then the second compressor will kick in when it gets hotter.

The next two basement airs are also available from Dometicusa.com, but under the heading of truck air conditioning.  Like the RV basement air previously described, it is also based on the roof air equipment.  There are two versions.  One is the all in one where the condenser air comes in and out of the cabinet then you duct the cold air.  This is usually mounted inside the bus at the base of a cabinet with holes cut in the floor to accommodate the condenser air.  This might not work well with a bus with baggage compartments unless you also vented the compartment.  If mounted over a non baggage compartment area-probably OK.  This unit is made to be mounted under the bunk of a big rig tractor, so under floor to open air is good.
The other is a split unit where you mount the unit inside the bus at the base of a cabinet and duct up the cool air outlet, then it has two freon lines going through the floor to a remote mounted condenser.  This has the advantage of being able to mount the condenser in a out of the way spot that won't take up storage space.

Cruise Airs are also splits, but the condensing unit has to be mounted in the baggage compartment then the freon lines go to the interior evaporator cooling unit.  They have been around for along time, they are expensive, and many times more problematic.

All basement units run the risk of higher maintenance bills.  Roof tops are the easiest to service, and many times cool the best, unless you design the basement units correctly.

I am tossing around for my truck project to use roof top airs (standard height Carriers, or Dometics because of the fan arrangement) mounted in my tween space.  The interior height of the box I'm making will be 9ft.  I will have a second raise floor so the forward 18ft of the box will have 24" of basement tween space.  I'll have plenty of room to mount a roof top air on a shelf then duct the condenser air out through the bottom, and duct the air up into the living space.  I'll use remote thermostat units made for ducting since these usually have a stronger fan for the ducting.  Roof top airs are generally around $800 for the heat pump version.  The basement airs previously mentioned are about twice that.  Many ways to go now.  When I first started, the basement airs were just starting to get popular, with the exception of Cruise Air that's been around for many years.  Good Luck, TomC

[luvrbus]

TomC why do say that the condensing unit on a Cruisair has to be mounted in the bays I have 3 units and mine are not in the bays

[TomC]

You absolutely right they don't have to be mounted in the bay-my mistake.  Good Luck, TomC