Ford Transit USA Forum banner

Air Vent vs Air Conditioning: need opinions

23K views 48 replies 27 participants last post by  ranxerox 
#1 ·
Hi, I'm new to the forums but have already found some incredible information embedded within!

As I'm going through my camper build I am at a decision point, based on the amount of real estate on the roof.

We require a roof top tent and I'm pretty much set on one of the hard shell two person tents, like the Air Top. Because of this, I probably won't have enough room on the roof to install an air conditioner.

Does anyone have a similar setup, without air conditioning? Do you find it adequate with a rooftop fan like the Dometic Fan-Tastic vent, or do you wish you had an Air Conditioner? What do you find is the warmest temps you can camp in and still remain comfortable?

Most of our adventures will be in the Rockies with the occasional trek to California and the Pacific Northwest. I'm thinking we should be alright, even in the summer, with the dry air and cool nights. At the same time, I'm asking, because this is a big investment and I don't want to screw up the build! I may need to recalibrate my plan.

Opinions, Experiences and Anecdotes welcome! ?

Thanks!
 
See less See more
#3 ·
Follow the seasons, Summer in northern states and winter in the southern ones.

Winter is a great time in the southeast, It is the off season and the campgrounds have off season rates, And no reservations to camp! It is often warm days and cold nights.

Just about everyone on this forum has a roof vent, I have the Fantastic Vent, I forget what model, Low profile and a flat cover, 10 speeds with a thermostat and a remote.

They do make air conditioners that fit up under the Transit, (nothing on the roof), A few here have talked of buying them.
 
#4 ·
Humidity is worse than heat, for sleeping. I camp in the south, often in summer. AC would be especially nice, if it were practical. I run my vent at fairly high speed, and have second cabin fan blowing over the bed, which makes it more tolerable. While I sleep OK, the clothing I have set aside feels damp in the morning.
 
#5 ·
We stay mainly north in the summer and only have fan. If you also get screens for the slider and rear doors, with a fan and the doors open the van usually stays pretty close to ambient outside temperature so it cools off well through the evening and over night.

I have no experience, so take this speculation with a grain of salt, AC may only be useful if you are able to plug in. Seems like it would draw down even the largest battery bank pretty rapidly.
 
#6 ·
Cool, that’s kind of what I was hoping to hear. I think the humidity should be fairly low in most locations we will go. Southern Utah in the spring and fall. Idaho and Wyoming in the summers. The Espar heater should take care of any winter touring or alpine ski trips.

With the AC option we would have only been able to run it with shore power or a generator. I don’t think the batteries would have been able to handle it all night.
 
#9 ·
I've always had RVs with AC so I wanted to put AC in the van but I plan on mostly being without hookups and I don't plan on being in the van much during the day anyway and can't run a generator at night in most places and not willing invest in enough battery and inverter to run an AC I've decided no AC. I also think you have to installing bracing in the roof for the weight of the AC. Maybe I'll try a portable AC if I find that it sucks that bad.
 
#10 · (Edited)
I have a MR Passenger van that I converted.

For different reasons, I didn't want to make holes in my roof but needed a little bit of AC when plugged in so I mounted a portable unit under the bed in the rear and vented the exhaust heat out thru the wiring access hole that already exists in rear supports right next to the tail light.

With some internal sealing via aluminum tape, I was able to direct the air flow out thru the bottom of the rear bumper using existing holes. I had to pull out a 6" x 4" rubber plug in the bumper but otherwise I had to no holes to drill for this experiment.
I directed the drain flow out thru a little gap I cut in the rear door rubber although you could just go straight thru the floor to but I haven't had any issues with my install.

Behavior after 5 months:
1. 10k btu wont save you in the 95F+ heat in direct sunlight unless you REALLY insulate up the van, it merely gives you a spot to cool off without idling the vehicle.
2. At night however, its great. It keeps the bed area quite comfortable, of course, your mileage may vary.
3. I use this only when plugged into shore power for now. A genny would run it just fine at 1600 watts though.



I used this unit for a couple of reasons.

www.costway.com/portable-air-conditioner-10000btu-ac-unit-dehumidifier-w-remote-control.html


1. Its 110vac, I could someday run it from a large battery bank I suspect.
2. Its short, at 21" it fits nicely under the bed.
3. Its quite reasonably priced.
4. Has a remote although I'm going to have to relocate the control panel... its on the top side of the unit.

Upcoming mods:
1. The control panel on the top of the unit is removable and uses just 4 low voltage wires, I'm going to relocated it on the wall next to the bed for ease of use. Its a normal digital thermostat with an IR receiver for the remote.
2. I want to put a vertical diffuser on it, it will help and be only 1ft in length. Right now I'm directing the flow at the bed via 3ft of 4" dryer duct. It works but I loose a lot of the efficiency I think due to the curves.


Good luck sir!
 
#12 ·
I also use a portable ac in my van for warm weather camping. I bought a Whynter 14,000 btu model that has two hoses. I use a 30 amp RV extension cord to plug into shore power. It is way better than a fan but not quite like household ac. An issue is that the ac unit gets warm and has to fight against itself.

Another option I considered is a Climate Right “pet enclosure” ac. That one sits outside the van and uses two hoses for intake and exhaust into the van.
 
#13 ·
A new small airconditioner will be available this spring.
The small size and portability might make it a good non-permanent option.

Kapsul W5 air conditioner

Type.....................................................5,000 BTU Window AC
Dimensions.....................................7" X 20" X 22"
Window Size..................................21" to 36" wide
Weight..............................................40 pounds
Power Type.....................................120V AC
Power Usage.................................480 W

It won't let me add the link due to my low post count.
 
#14 ·
#16 ·
I'm planning a build right now and am going to put http://stores.12voltairconditioning...split-system-8k-freon-lines-are-not-included/



Insulate well and with 325 Watts of solar I'm hoping to be able to run this all day long in 90 degree temps and have a full charge on the battery if I'm not using anything else. It's expensive but I hate noisy air conditioners.

Carquest will loan you the AC hose crimping tool if you are brave enough to make your own hoses. (It is easy.)


https://www.carquest.com/
 
#22 ·
......cut.....

Opinions, Experiences and Anecdotes welcome! ?

Thanks!
In the south, like Florida or along Gulf Coast, it’s not normally comfortable to sleep at night when it’s hot and humid.

My previous motorhome had A/C and generator, and our present van a small 5,000 BTU/hr window unit just large enough to cool at night. We normally stay at campgrounds with shore power, and it has worked great for sleeping for over 10 years. It’s enough to get very cold at night, but can’t do much cooling during the day when parked in sun.

As stated in other thread, we purchased a small 2200/1800 Watt portable generator just last year so we can boon-dock after football games. We tried it without A/C but it was too hot and humid (~80 F and 90+ relative humidity).

In cooler or dryer weather we’ve boon-docked many nights in comfort (we tolerate heat well) without A/C but everyone has a limit. My suggestion is to determine what your camping intentions are (location, temp, etc.) and your personal tolerances to heat. What others like me say won’t apply to you directly IMO. It’s too subjective.

Good luck.
 
#24 ·
We produce patent pending adapters for placing all brands of air conditioners on the roofs of vans. The adapters provide a flat level surface, stabilize the roof sheetmetal and spread out the load. Plus also raise the seal above any pooling water on the roof. We also include shims for the pads on the rear of the AC so they don't dent the roof and the air conditioner sits level. We offer PVC framing strips to further support and box out the 14x14 hole on the inside so the clamp ring has something solid to bear on. We do not recommend using wood because it is likely that there will be moisture near the opening and we don't want anything organic that can promote mold growth.

All the best,
Hein
DIYvan

We even produce these for the curved roof of Airstream trailers.
Below is a Dometic Penguin installed on a 1994 Excella


Below. Adapter and shim installed, ready for membrane sealant and then placing the AC.
 
#26 ·
The promise that DC air conditioners offer is that they can vary speed easily and slow down to just meet cooling requirement. This is most important at night because load should be a small fraction of load during middle of a sunny day, which is typically the condition used for sizing the A/C. If a van needs an 8,000 BTU/hr A/C, at night it probably needs less than 4,000 BTU/hr (especially later into night). By running at partial load, combined with less cooling load, electrical power requirement can drop off significantly.

Manufacturers could accomplish much of the same with an alternating current compressor if only they used a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) to reduce speed and cooling capacity, but that adds cost and is just now becoming more popular to save energy. The problem with RV air conditioners is that they generally don’t run enough hours to save enough energy to pay for the electrical upgrade. However, for people who want or need to run off batteries, the A/C’s energy savings affects the cost of batteries, chargers, solar, etc. far more than the cost of electricity if plugged in. That’s why we are seeing more RV air conditioners targeting very high efficiency. Reducing electrical cooling power in half can also reduce battery bank size by nearly half in some applications.
 
#31 ·
FWIW, we have just gone through this with my build.

I decided to skip air con and went with lots of insulation, a roof vent, full-length platform roof rack (Aluminess), awning (Fiama) and IR reflective film (3M) on the front windows and the stock dark-tint on the sliding door and rear doors.

I have now done 3 separate road trips each involving >>90F days and one which was 1300 miles in the NV desert. I am very pleased with my decision. I have found that this combination is more than adequate unless the goal is to sleep during the day, in the middle of the desert with the van parked in direct sun.

One pleasant surprise was that a full length platform rack creates significant shade for the roof. When I added the IR reflective film to the front windows, the heat load was reduced so much that when driving, the stock air conditioning is now too strong and we have to crack the heater open a little - even in the middle of the desert at >100F !!

With these builds, I think its very easy to get carried away with adding all the farkles, bells and whistles during the design stage - I have been there too often with other projects only to find that I have spent $000's on stuff I hardly use.

With this build, I decided to start by laying out detailed "use cases" to help sort out "needs" from "wants". For us, these use cases were: 1) toting my windsurfing kit to sailing locations and being a changing room and cafe, when I'm cold and done, 2) towing my race-bike trailer to and from the track and being sleeping and pit accommodation wile there, 3) off-grid wilderness camping - the big one!.

Once I had defined the uses, I planned the build in minimalist stages before committing to actual construction. So for example, we went camping out in the boonies for two nights with just insulation in the van, an air-bed on the floor and our tent camping stove. That gave us a pretty good idea of what we really wanted to improve and what was OK as was.

Here is my key thoughts for our particular uses as we went through the build:

1) the major goal is for us, was to be able to camp off-grid (e.g National Forest, National Park and BLM trails). I wanted to maximize off-road and/or towing capability so that meant keeping the weight down. So no wood, Corian or carpets. everything is aluminum, fabric and lightweight plastics.

2) when we are stopped and in camping mode, we pick shady spots (which could mess up any solar). During the day, at least the side door is open because we are sat under the awning (when we are not out hiking, sailing, riding etc.).

3) I really didn't want the hassle, weight, complication and risk, of a solar/battery/inverter system and we needed to plan for no shore power. The van came with dual AGM batteries and a 250A alternator - so I made that our starting point for power & energy limits.

4) we use propane for cooking and I built a roof rack mounted solar heater for hot water (10ft of 4" black ABS pipe). I also went with a $250 YETI knock-off instead of a refrigerator. We get 4-5 days on a single large bag of ice and its available everywhere. I'm working on a lightweight jet stove for additional cooking and heat - but that's more of a toy than a need (I used to be an aerospace combustion engineer).
 
#32 ·
I did just about the same thing using about 80% coverage of the roof in solar panels, heavy insulation and window covers. We can always get keep the van at the ambient air temperature and cooler than ambient until about noon when parked.

The key thing is air flow at night since the skin will soak up heat and try to heat up the van in the evening despite the air temperature being lower. To help this is installed two opening sail boat rectangular port holes in the rear door. With the roof fan running there is a significant breeze over the sleeping platform.

Despite all this, if you have trouble sleeping in what ever the night time temperature might be, you need to engage the wheels and find a cooler spot.

Ron
 
#33 ·
I did just about the same thing using about 80% coverage of the roof in solar panels, heavy insulation and window covers. We can always get keep the van at the ambient air temperature and cooler than ambient until about noon when parked.



The key thing is air flow at night since the skin will soak up heat and try to heat up the van in the evening despite the air temperature being lower. To help this is installed two opening sail boat rectangular port holes in the rear door. With the roof fan running there is a significant breeze over the sleeping platform.



Despite all this, if you have trouble sleeping in what ever the night time temperature might be, you need to engage the wheels and find a cooler spot.



Ron
Can you send a picture of your door port holes?

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk
 
#42 ·
I decided that I didn't need AC as I would just follow the weather. However, where did I go on my first trip this spring before the camper was even half done? To SC beaches where they had record heat (>100 for as least 4 days...lost count). I found that in the shade I could tolerate the heat with my max air fan and a wind tunnel fan from walmart just fine, but I hadn't even thought of bug screens. Just too focused on doing cabinets, layout, electr, you know!! anyway...the no-see-um gnats, biting flies, mosquitos, etc made life pretty miserable as I had to keep the back doors or the sliding door open d/t the heat. Bought netted curtain panels from ikea which worked pretty well with the mosquitos but were a hassle and fidgety every time i or the pup went in and out. So....a little room ac and a tarp from lowes hanging out the back door and supported by a storage tub made life heaven, but you do not want to get to the end of your build and find that this is your only solution. So...make sure you are prepared and have great bug screens that are built in and easy to use if you don't go with ac. The fans would have been adequate otherwise.
 
#43 ·
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top