Basement air questions

[Too Slow 90]

Originally Posted by corjaguar

Hi too slow 90
Have you ever gone into look at the a/c unit?, or are you aware that the compressor motor and bearing have lube points?......I found the reason my compressor motor went bad, it was never lubed, and nothing tells you, you should lube these point at least once a couple of years. And do you know if your squirrel cage fan is metal or plastic....... (Our coach is a 2010 and I believe the big reason for the plastic fan was that it didn't transmit all the noise the fan made in the rear of the coach.
My biggest wish is that they didn't use self sealed bearing, or made it possible to lubricate the motor and the shaft bearing from an accessible point.
I did make some changes to the new install, but for the time being, I will not elaborate on them till I have had some time evaluating how the new installation works out. However, I did install a length of 1/4 inch plastic tubing to the top of the a/c unit whereby I can squirt a few drops of oil once a year.

Good idea. I will check it out. Thanks.

[corjaguar]

Originally Posted by KIX

Take a look at changing the bearing out to "lifetime" lubed bearings. I did that about three years ago and happy since then.

KIX

the only problem is that when I replaced the compressor motor, the new motor only had a lube port......I attached the 1/4 inch plastic tube to the motor port, and drilled a small 1/4" hole through the top, and inserted a 1/4" flared copper sleeve and connected the hose the sleeve to gain access to the lube port. Wish it was a sealed bearing....oh well......life could be worse.

[michealwhela]

We have a 2003 Winne Adventurer 35U and love the unit. It has been trouble free and will freeze us out if we set it too cold. The best part is the efficiency of the heat pump portion. It only kicks on the bass furnace in the coldest conditions. That saves LP gas which is a good thing. The down side is getting used to the unit at night. It is located right below the bed. first time we actually used it at night (5 in the morning) was when I turned up the thermostat as the temperatures had dropped dramatically. That brought the DW from a dead sleep to full alert in seconds! Once used to it we were fine. But that morning I had coffee in the dog house.

[Ray,IN]

The reason MH builders stopped using basement units was because of the EPA engine requirements. Mfgrs. needed that space for all the equipment, some moved filters into that space too. New basement units are still sold, check the internet.
Which type roof or basement is best? Who can objectively say? I like my basement unit, I also liked my 5ers roof units (both heat pumps).

[NeilV]

My Basement Air is 13 years old now and still cools well and has been relatively trouble free. I camp mostly in very humid semi-tropical areas with little to no shade however I am a former AC tech, do maintain the unit, keep a good supply of quality air filters on hand replacing them as needed which with pets and when in dusty areas can be weekly especially if you do not regularly vacuum the carpets in the coach with a decent carpet vacuum (meaning it has a motorized brush roll and the suction of a full sized upright)

[edgray]

Originally Posted by 1ciderdog

Just my opinion but I think some of the cooling "issues" of basement air not being cool enough are related to larger RV's. I think the builders used the same unit on all size RVs. On my RV at 39'6" the basement air is marginal in very high outside temps. I added one roof AC to help the basement air when we are in hot areas where temp exceeds 95 or 100. Most of the time the basement air is sufficient and if I run both it'll freeze us out.

I agree. My 37F with FWS offers a LOT of CU. feet of air space to keep cool. I too added a roof-top unit at considerable expense, and don't "like" the un-ducted NOISE it makes, but the alternative was to dump the coach as it was unusable in hot weather.

[codgerbill]

We are currently having the Basement AC/Heat pump replaced. We have had the problem with the duct inside the rear cap having come apart. We have had the #1 compressor replaced twice (Once at the Winnebago factory). We had understood that Coleman no longer made the units.

The coach is at a place called "National RV" in Shipshiwana Indiana. The owner (Leon, who is an Amish fellow) has the unit out and on a cart in his shop. He indicated there was no Freon in the #1 compressor system and it had been leaking oil. The oil was an orangery brown color and the fluid, on a good compressor, should be clear. He indicated that the system might be contaminated with an acidic atmosphere and would need to be flushed. No guarantees that that would solve the problem. He could replace the #1 compressor but that still leaves us with a 10 year old system.

Leon called Coleman and Coleman said that they still manufacture the Basement Air/ Heat Pumps that were installed in the coaches but not in the same numbers as they are no longer put in new coaches.

We decided to replace the unit with a new unit. The cost to replace along with the diagnostics on the old unit will be just shy of $3000.