Travel Trailer/Camper help

[Ecobalt]

Coleman "Low Profile" rooftop units and Dometic Penguin and Penguin-2 units are ten inches high. Low profile roof top units may be the best I can do. Carrier had a low profile RV AC, but they quit the RV market. Low Profile Air Conditioners on Sale - PPL Motor Homes

Sherwin Williams sells paint that reflects 90% of the sun's energy back into space. I am going to buy a trailer with an aluminum roof and paint it. I specified a 90% reflective membrane roof for our sun room remodeling project a few years ago. I doubt that is what the RV makers are using for roofs. If they were using a cool roof, they would promote it.

[skyking]

Originally Posted by Ecobalt

Coleman "Low Profile" rooftop units and Dometic Penguin and Penguin-2 units are ten inches high. Low profile roof top units may be the best I can do. Carrier had a low profile RV AC, but they quit the RV market. Low Profile Air Conditioners on Sale - PPL Motor Homes

Sherwin Williams sells paint that reflects 90% of the sun's energy back into space. I am going to buy a trailer with an aluminum roof and paint it. I specified a 90% reflective membrane roof for our sun room remodeling project a few years ago. I doubt that is what the RV makers are using for roofs. If they were using a cool roof, they would promote it.

Any rooftop unit that is faired in on the downwind side will be much better. So I'd leave your current unit in if it works, and do what orbywan is doing here.
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post250241

It can be screened or louvered to keep the flow attached but allow flow for the AC to work.
you could spends some $$ here for aero and end up saving, vs getting a new AC unit. A complicated electric door system would still be less expensive.
Many thanks to orby here.
Edit: sorry about that bad link.

[slowmover]

Well it is a bit more aerodynamic. most folks confuse entomo-dynamic with aerodynamic. If it collects fewer bugs then it must be good

Too funny.

Sure does sell those cab roof deflectors . . and for the guy who ran his hard tonneau cover open and propped up.

I imagine that any TT, 5'er or other RV is subject to potential aero improvment. Too few of them actually travel enough miles annually for it to appear to matter. But if one looks at the 10-year mark -- 5k annually x 10 -- a few mpg over 50,000 miles really would pay well.

[Ecobalt]

^We expect to tow our trailer 50,000 miles or more after we retire. Our last trip to Montana put 5,000 miles on the Cobalt, all in three weeks.

Originally Posted by skyking

Any rooftop unit that is faired in on the downwind side will be much better. So I'd leave your current unit in if it works, and do what orbywan is doing here.
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post250241

I don't have a trailer yet. We are going to specify a custom built trailer; I am debating whether to have the builder put an AC on the roof or as a wall unit. This brand has not done wall units as far as I know and I might meet some resistance to the idea. I also have to run the idea past the "aesthetics committee", the other member of which is my lovely wife.

If I built an after-fairing for the roof top AC, I would want to epoxy it to the aluminum roof. I am loathe to drill holes in the roof. Epoxy can be unbonded with a heat gun. It would leave some rough edges if I had to unglue the fairing.

[skyking]

I like bonding too. I used all sorts of epoxies in boat and now my truck bed construction.

[slowmover]

Originally Posted by Ecobalt

^We expect to tow our trailer 50,000 miles or more after we retire . . . . I don't have a trailer yet. We are going to specify a custom built trailer; .

What are the goals? There are owners of 25' and shorter Airstreams using Euro turbodiesel SUV's and some other who are seeing in the low to mid 20's for mpg while towing. Plenty of both new & used. No need to re-invent the wheel in other words. Not to mention standard building practice and nationwide service, tens of thousands of other owners, etc.

.

[Ecobalt]

It's gotta have a cat box in it! We went to the RV show for the first time a year ago and, frankly, we were not impressed with the products. Floor plans and kitchen designs were not efficient. There were workmanship problems with most of the brands, such as adhesives coming unglued, panels that did not align, etc. For that matter, most brands have slide-outs, which seem like a heavy way to add a modest amount of floor space.

We discovered Taylor Coach - Welcome and attended their camp-out where we toured a dozen of them. The product costs 40% more than the typical brands but there are no workmanship problems. They also feature lightweight framed cabinets instead of heavy cabinets made of chipboard. They are light in weight. They pan the bottom. Customers pay more for more features. The manufacturer will build it to order with the features we want, and that is why I call it a custom product. I expect to spend $21,000 for a 22 foot trailer that weighs 3100 pounds with full tanks.

Please tell me about the European turbo diesel tow vehicles. I had imagined that a Sprinter diesel would be a great tow vehicle, but that product is not really sold to typical motorists in America. At this point, I would buy a pickup truck with a V8 engine and expect 12 mpg towing and maybe 20 mpg driving in my patient and ponderous manner.

[skyking]

new, a euro diesel rig will cost upwards of 60K barebones. Personally, the nightmarish stores I read about fuel system failures in the late model VW/Audi diesels has me totally biased against them. They can and do fail and the manufacturers are blaming fuel contamination for everything, voiding warranty. The repairs go into 5 figures.

[slowmover]

Plenty of examples of folks using Porsche Cayenne, BMW M5, Mercedes 350, VW Touareg, etc over on Airstream Trailer & Motorhome Owners Community See all threads by JFScheck for recent experience with Euro TD's.

Here's a big dollar rig: a 30' A/S pulled by an ML320.

Still others using VW Jetta, etc. Still more using Cadillac sedans, Honda minivans, Jaguars, etc. A truck is hardly necessary (unless desired).

Here is a thread on the Eurovan as a TV.

Weight is not your concern when it comes to towing. If I can pull a 34' travel trailer and am still below some others at 16-mpg with similar 28-34' TT's weighing from 8k to 11k, it's about aerodynamic resistance being the determining factor.

As those little boxes in your link above are as non-aero a TT as I've ever seen then its' other virtues had best be quite high. White pine framing and corrugated aluminum is about as cheap a trailer construction method as there can be. Length of service is a real concern.

For $20k there is a big number of aero aluminum TT's that can meet the goals espoused in re 50k miles through retirement. My folks bought their TT new and used it 27-years spending next to nothing on it for repairs. The gulf between aluminum trailers and conventional white boxes is wide and deep. Used is fairly meaningless as a term.

Unless already in process I highly recommend looking around more. Ask here or PM me or others, I know I'd be happy to help hunt down some examples (discussion threads) of suitable TT's.

Finally, here is a thread asking about higher mpg tow vehicles for Airstream.

[Ecobalt]

Here is our new travel trailer. We could have afforded an Airstream, but we didn't want the complimentary NRA membership.