Installing a Dometic AC (Parking Cooler)

[VanIsledave]

Hola TD-Friends,

We've elected to install a Dometic RTX 1000 AC in our teardrop build. Dometic refers to the unit as a "parking cooler" and their market is for folks driving trucks/vans that need cooling while not plugged in to shore power and while not idling. Its a 12 volt DC unit. Since its marketed primarily to sprinter vans and the like the install has been "interesting" to figure out. Rather than installing the unit through a rough opening in the roof, securing it to exposed cross members and then installing the headliner - we're doing the opposite. We installed the headliner first (we're following the instructions in Tony's book) put in the metal braces for the AC then added the cross members. We'll be adding the roof in the next week or two.

I get that there are a lot of different points of view re. the need for AC, the type of AC, how best to supply amperage, etc. This is simply the route we've taken, your mileage may vary. But, should you decide to install one of these units, the blog post below describes how we've framed it. We'll add subsequent posts to detail other aspects of the install.

https://jamestraylortd.wordpress.com/2022/06/29/we-were-framed/


PS. If you want to know the "logic" behind how we've configure our electrical system we've described it (kinda) here: https://jamestraylortd.wordpress.com/2022/06/12/life-the-universe-and-our-electrical-system-part-1/ This forum has been of immense help, hope this can help someone in the future!