Camping Trailer A/C problem

[Gerald]

I bought a small used [20+ years old] camping trailer 2 weeks ago. The A/C was working when I bought the trailer and it worked the next day after I bought the trailer when connected to my house power.

Now, it will run for a few minutes and then the compressor shuts off and the fan keeps running. After 5+ minutes the compressor will start running again, but only for 1 or 2 minutes. It does the same thing when the fan speed is set on HI, Med, or Low. I tried setting the A/C thermostat to different settings..... but it does the same thing.

Anyone know what my problem might be...... or.... any suggestion on where I could take the trailer in the Lake Charles area to have the A/C repaired?

[Andy C]

Had it happen in horse trailers before on the generators, I am going to say the cord or the power supply is not heavy enuff, our trouble was allways the cord or adapter. Cause they would do the same thing!!

[Jcredeur]

My dad just had to change out the power supply on theirs.?something about the AC runs off shore power but the thermostat was 12v.


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[BananaTom]

The power cord is too small. Let's say it is 14 gauge orange extension cord. Rated for 15 amp. And that cords is 50 - 75 feet long. If you took a voltage meter, and read the voltage at the plug in for the camper, when the A/C comes one, you will see a voltage drop. It may even drop to 75 volts, instead of 110 to 120.

When this happens, the amperage draw increases, causing what is referred to has (Low Voltage, High Amperage).

This will over heat the compressor fast, and the internal over load opens, disallowing the compressor to run.

Increase the size of your power supply, and shorten as much as possible.
Or, use a 10 gauge extension cord.

[Quackhead62]

Sounds like you are for sure getting a voltage drop on power coming in. Try to run it off a shorter chord or get a larger gauge wire and that should solve the issues.


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[latravcha]

Mine did the same thing I made a cord out of 10/2 and was good to go.

[Gerald]

Trailer power cord in big.... 3- 10 ga wires rated for 30 amps. Breaker inside trailer is only 15 amps.

I think my extension cord is 12 ga.

I have also posted on another site and gotten more good advice.

Here is what I did today.....
This morning I took the tarp off the trailer to let the top dry so I could do all the caulking.

While waiting, I turned the A/C on about 8 AM. It ran good and cooled the trailer down good. After running about 15 minutes, the evaporator drain water started draining down the side of the trailer....this is normal. But, about 9 AM the compressor shut down.

After I completed the caulking, it was time to wash the A/C coils on the roof. First I straighten a few bent vanes on the coil...it was not very many. First I mixed up some soapy water for the first wash. This remove a fair amount of dirt.

I then sprayed down the coils with the coil cleaner solution. By the time I finished spraying, the solution was starting to foam. It foamed fairly good. I wish I would have had my phone to take a picture, but I was not going to climb down because it was almost time to wash the chemicals off.

This cleaning removed even more dirt. While washing it down [4 or 5 times.] I also cleaned behind the coils and got a bunch of leaves and crud washed out.

Success...... I ran the A/C for 2 hours during the hottest part of the day. It worked good. Outside temp was about 92-93 and the trailer was on the driveway in the sun.

A/C outlet temp was about 67 F at first and cooled down to 65 F after 30 minutes. The trailer got down to about 77 F after an hour. Edit.... A/C running for 3+ hours....at 6:45 PM, temp down to 70 F.

????.... the water from the evaporator coils never drained off the side of the trailer. Was this water evaporating that fast? I could see droplets of water on the evaporator coils.

The evaporator coil is still fairly dirty.... after I cleaned it with the vacuum cleaner. How should I clean this coil? Do I need to take the "control box" inside the trailer off to get to the coils better? I tried to remove 2 of the screws from the A/C cover on top of the trailer.... but they were rusted bad and did not move. Maybe if I hit on the screws with a hammer I could loosen them up.
Or... I might be able to get my hand up there to use a tooth brush and scrape off some [a lot ???] of the dirt.

Now the bad..... My caulking did not stop the water leak. I think I have narrowed the leak down to one small area. It looks sealed but somewhere it is leaking. I am letting it dry now before I get up there to do some more sealing.

[BananaTom]

Okay, so dirt is your problem, and is the largest killer of air conditioning systems.
With the condenser coils that dirty, it is like placing a piece of card over your vehicle radiator.

Same with the evaporator coil. It appears to be blocked with dirt, also restricting the transfer of heat from the air to the refrigerant.

Now, your question about condensation. Some of these types units use this water / condensation from the evaporator and drain it into a pan at the condenser coil. The fan blade has what is called a slinger wheel, which picks up the water and slings it on the condenser coils to help cool them off.

Most window units are manufactured that way now, and they do not drip condensation, it is evaporated on the hot condenser coils.

Make sure your coils are very clean, shiny clean, both of them. As dirt prohibits the transfer of heat.

I suspect that with you cleaning out all those leaves, the water can now fill the pan with water and evaporate .