Silver Beatle - She's now with an old friend!

[Jim Edgerly]

I'm curious Tom, what makes someone take up residence inside of an oven? Up here in central Massachusetts we've had a lot of days this summer in the mid 90s with high humidity...nothing over 98 so far. Keep telling the wife if it gets much hotter we would have to consider an air conditioner.

Take care Tom, I will miss your words of encouragement and support.

[aggie79]

Take care Tom, I will miss your words of encouragement and support.

Jim,

Y'all have a great time on your voyage! I'll miss our conversations too.

Take care,
Tom


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[aggie79]

I finally had a chance to get back to the garage. The converter exchange is finished and working!



The new converter is not at wide as the old, so I need to fill the prior screw holes before snapping on the cover plate.

Next up - air conditioner replacement.

[rockinrobin]

I will be watching the A/C conversion with interest. My trailer has a pet cool in the tongue box. Still works, but has been repaired once already. Ronnie

[aggie79]

I will be watching the A/C conversion with interest. My trailer has a pet cool in the tongue box. Still works, but has been repaired once already. Ronnie

Ronnie,

I probably won't get to the A/C upgrade until November. I'm having minor surgery in mid-September and Linda's oldest son is getting married in late October. The bride and groom wanted to get married in Hawaii - - so we decided to take a week vacation while we're there.

The A/C conversion will be a "hack". I'll be replacing the controls that come on the window unit with a residential digital, non-programmable thermostat, 24v thermostat, relays/contactors to control the fan and compressor. I'm hoping to have that mocked up before we go to Hawaii. The "hack" will also include ducted supply and return air similar to my original installation of the PetCool.

Take care,
Tom

[Alan_H]

I will be watching the A/C conversion with interest. My trailer has a pet cool in the tongue box. Still works, but has been repaired once already. Ronnie

Ronnie,

I probably won't get to the A/C upgrade until November. I'm having minor surgery in mid-September and Linda's oldest son is getting married in late October. The bride and groom wanted to get married in Hawaii - - so we decided to take a week vacation while we're there.

The A/C conversion will be a "hack". I'll be replacing the controls that come on the window unit with a residential digital, non-programmable thermostat, 24v thermostat, relays/contactors to control the fan and compressor. I'm hoping to have that mocked up before we go to Hawaii. The "hack" will also include ducted supply and return air similar to my original installation of the PetCool.

Take care,
Tom

I'm already subscribed to your thread, so I'll be watching this intently. I have a petcool for my build, but if it fails, I'll be taking notes of your "hack" if I need a replacement as well. I'm hoping the petcool does the job though, as I like the idea of A/C and heat together in one unit.

[rockinrobin]

The pet cool works OK. It is great for dry comfortable sleeping on a warm humid night. But on a 100 degree day don't expect it to freeze you out. I have used the heater almost as much as the A/C. My return air duct was about a foot from the outlet. I ran a return air duct in the cellar down to the foot of the bed. Seemed to help a bit. Ronnie

[Curryfire]

Hey Tom, that is an incredible TD you've built. I've been dissecting your build for ideas and tips on the one that I am planning. I have a quick question, after you glued and screwed your plywood skin on the sides, roof, hatch, and front, why did you remove the screws and fill with the wood putty before you put on the aluminum skin? Why not just counter sink the screws, leave them in, and then smooth the surface over with the putty?

Thanks,

Annu

[aggie79]

Hey Tom, that is an incredible TD you've built. I've been dissecting your build for ideas and tips on the one that I am planning. I have a quick question, after you glued and screwed your plywood skin on the sides, roof, hatch, and front, why did you remove the screws and fill with the wood putty before you put on the aluminum skin? Why not just counter sink the screws, leave them in, and then smooth the surface over with the putty?

Thanks,

Annu

Annu,

Thank you for the nice complements. The primary reason that I didn't leave the screws in place was due to the thickness (thin-ness?) of my plywood skin. I used 3mm / 1/8" plywood. Countersunk screws would not have had much surface area to clamp the plywood skin to the framing. The PL Premium adhesive is plenty strong enough by itself. Removing the screws saved a little weight and I didn't have to worry about the screws backing out from vibration later on.

Take care,
Tom

[rockinrobin]

I will be watching the A/C conversion with interest. My trailer has a pet cool in the tongue box. Still works, but has been repaired once already. Ronnie

Ronnie,

I probably won't get to the A/C upgrade until November. I'm having minor surgery in mid-September and Linda's oldest son is getting married in late October. The bride and groom wanted to get married in Hawaii - - so we decided to take a week vacation while we're there.

The A/C conversion will be a "hack". I'll be replacing the controls that come on the window unit with a residential digital, non-programmable thermostat, 24v thermostat, relays/contactors to control the fan and compressor. I'm hoping to have that mocked up before we go to Hawaii. The "hack" will also include ducted supply and return air similar to my original installation of the PetCool.

Take care,
Tom

I'm already subscribed to your thread, so I'll be watching this intently. I have a petcool for my build, but if it fails, I'll be taking notes of your "hack" if I need a replacement as well. I'm hoping the petcool does the job though, as I like the idea of A/C and heat together in one unit.

Maybe I can see your A/C conversion at Beavers Bend.

[S. Heisley]

You just keep making it better!

[Curryfire]

Hey Tom,

How much did you notch your side walls for the galley seals?

Thanks,

Annu

[celtic fox]

Great build really looks good

[aggie79]

I finally freed up one day to work on the teardrop. I finished the electrical upgrade and started the replacement of my (non-working) PetCool with a standard window air conditioner.

My PetCool was mounted in the tongue box. The deconstruction took most of the day since:
a) The installation was built with "permanence" in mind and was never intended to be removed, and
b) The tongue box was more than just a transportation container for the PetCool.

The Petcool was mounted in the tongue box. Supply air was ducted through the back of the tongue box and through the front of the teardrop into the interior headboard cabinets. The return air was ducted from the galley wall, along the bottom of the teardrop, up to the bottom of the tongue box. The tongue box also had a 120v outlet to power the PetCool.

All of the above had to be removed so I can (hopefully) re-use the tongue box for the new window air conditioner. Below are some deconstruction photos:







Because the dimensions are tight, and you won't be able to access controls of the window unit, I plan to ditch the manual rotary switches and use a residential style digital thermostat to control the window unit. To use a residential thermostat, I purchases a 24v DC transformer and relays/contactors for the fan and compressor. I also am installing a "delay on break" relay for the compressor. If there is a power interruption - common at campsites - this relay will prevent startup of the compressor for a time period after power is restored. This is an added level of protection for the compressor.

I have all of the parts for the controls "hack". Next step is to mock it up and test it prior to installation.

[aggie79]

Had a few hours on Saturday to work on the replacement air conditioner project. My plan is to modify a window unit to permanently mount it in a tongue box and to change out the controls so that it can be thermostatically controlled from inside the teardrop.

The first step was to disassemble a perfectly good and working window AC unit that I had purchased. Similar to my original PetCool installation, I plan to duct the supply air and return air. The front plastic cover will be replaced with sheet metal plenum and ducts, so I removed the cover and put it in the trash bin.



The window unit had manual switches and controls that worked off of line voltage (120 volt AC). These won't work with the residential (24 volt DC) residential thermostat I plan to use, so the next step was to remove the window unit shroud so I can get to the controls.



In the picture, you can see the thermostat and fan speed controls. These will be removed and replaced. At the very top you can see the capacitor for the fan motor and compressor. Most likely I will remove this too and relocate it in the same project box where the 24 VDC transformer and motor and compressor contacts will be. (The project box will be accessible so that controls and capacitor could be serviced without removing the window unit.)

I didn't get a picture of it but I also started building a setup to test the thermostat, transformer and contactors before I start working on the plenum and ductwork. Hopefully I'll have something interesting to show next time.