Air Conditioner alternatives

[Lizbeth]

How about a Fantastic Vent. Three speed, sucks or blows. They are supposed to work great. I have one but haven't gotten around to the install yet.

[asianflava]

One of my buddies says the best way to beat the heat is to sleep with a cold wet washcloth on your chest. I've never tried it, but I like the idea of an air conditioner better!!!

Mike..

Or if you are one to sleep on your tummy, a damp hand towel on the back works great!!! I've used it several times in the summer here.

What if you sleep on your side?

[steve wolverton]

What if you sleep on your side?

[madjack]

...I am afraid, that here in the Deep South, that a damp washcloth used by itself(with or without fan) would be a soaked washcloth by morning. I have bought a fantastic vent for my tear but it will be insufficient for 4 or 5 months out of the year so I also bought a Fedders A/C from wallyworld.com. It was the smallest physically that I could find and had as high an efficiency as I found on anything else. It will be mounted Camp-Inn style

MtrngMan; I would love to know what type of run time you got off of the 2 battery setup w/inverter that you got with that unit

madjack

[Woody]

Even though I lost alot of storage because of the install of a 5200 btu A/C with remote. I would not have built it without it living in Florida. There is nothing better than a cool place to come back to after a hot day of fun while camping, hiking and fishing. Eat dinner, get cleaned up and sleep ever so blissfully. Ready for the next day of fun, Besides the wife is happy and then so am I. To each his own I guess, depends were you live

[mikeschn]

You're right, location plays a big factor, as does the kind of camping you plan on doing.

I expected to take the Lil Diner to SC and FL, therefore an air conditioner is a must.

But I also expect to do some rustic camping in MI. For those trips we plan on using the fantastic fan and shade to keep cool.

In MI we typically only have 2 weeks of unbearable hot weather a year, so if we are not out in that, we should be okay.

A couple years ago, in NY we happened to be camping during a really hot & humid spell, and at bed time the temp was in the mid 90s, and we were dripping wet. We did not sleep well that night because we were camping rustic, and couldn't plug in the AC. If we would have stayed we would have moved over to a modern site, but as it turns out the next morning the rains came, and the weather forcast was for a solid 3 days of rain. So we left!!!

But I think many people would benefit from some kind of an AC in their tear, even if the don't always need it. And it's cheap enough!!!

Mike...

[Woody]

That's the point for the money why not. Actually it was a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the expense of building the trailer and little to no effort to install once you got the diminsions. But what a return on the investment , the wife is happy , which in turn lets me be happy

[tjdale]

I am not worried about the cash. In fact I already have a small AC I could use. I am more concerned about even the smallest room AC being way too much for a TD. There has to be something smaller then a 5000 BTU out there somewhere!? I have a 25 foot travel trailer now with a conventional camper style AC in the roof. Don't recall the BTU's, but it is way too much for this unit! It'll freeze you out at night.

[madjack]

I am not worried about the cash. In fact I already have a small AC I could use. I am more concerned about even the smallest room AC being way too much for a TD. There has to be something smaller then a 5000 BTU out there somewhere!? I have a 25 foot travel trailer now with a conventional camper style AC in the roof. Don't recall the BTU's, but it is way too much for this unit! It'll freeze you out at night.

...tj, the alternatives are very pricey from around $500 and up, there is a 12v unit, made in the phillipines for somewhere between 500/800, nobody knows for sure because it has never been seen, there are split unit alternatives and wine cooler units that all cost 5+ times as much as that 5000btu unit, by the way 1000/2000 btu's will cool a tear quite well
madjack

[Q]

Buy one of those little $60 cube refrigerators. Take it apart and mount the condenser underneath the teardrop and the evaporator inside. Use a small fan to move air over the evaporator. I believe those little compressors draw about 50 watts.

Q

[tjdale]

OK, what about something like this? Design a tear with a roof vent/fan that draws cool air in from floor level through a compartment in the rear that houses a block of dry ice. It could be in conjunction with a cooler or not. Would air flowing over dry ice cool the inside of a tear? Are there any dangers to consider?

[madjack]

OK, what about something like this? Design a tear with a roof vent/fan that draws cool air in from floor level through a compartment in the rear that houses a block of dry ice. It could be in conjunction with a cooler or not. Would air flowing over dry ice cool the inside of a tear? Are there any dangers to consider?

...2 things to remember about dry ice...1rst, dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide, its temp is 110 degrees below 0, so extreme caution is needed in handling, it may also frezze ya up...literally. 2nd, carbon dioxide is heavier than air so it will settle in the lowest points and displace your air so ventilation in the proper areas is necessary , this is the same problem people have faced when camping in a closed up, tight TD, only worse...if you wanted to use this method, then a kooleraire unit would be a good choice to use.

Just remember whenever handling/using dry ice...CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION
madjack

[Arne]

I can see the headline now:

"Tear Drop Camper Owner found dead from CO2 poisoning in comfortably cool trailer"...

[SteveH]

And....as I remember, just about all the commercial camp grounds handle dry ice, don't they?