Basement A/C removal by Duner, can't find, need help.

[pyoots]

Hello Scott,

I speak for all the basement air owners for the ray of hope you gave us and the work you went through, and for the pictures. For me, owning 07 Voyage, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop but so far so good. My diy has been changing the filers religiously and rinsing off the condenser coil.

When I meet other RVers with basement air, they praise the dickens out of them. "Best thing Winnebago ever did".

Thanks again and stay in touch with your progress. I'm not sure I will have the resources to tackle this type of job myself, but I admire your courage to do it.

Phil

[FIRE UP]

Originally Posted by pyoots

Hello Scott,

I speak for all the basement air owners for the ray of hope you gave us and the work you went through, and for the pictures. For me, owning 07 Voyage, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop but so far so good. My diy has been changing the filers religiously and rinsing off the condenser coil.

When I meet other RVers with basement air, they praise the dickens out of them. "Best thing Winnebago ever did".

Thanks again and stay in touch with your progress. I'm not sure I will have the resources to tackle this type of job myself, but I admire your courage to do it.

Phil

Phil,
I certainly want to thank you for your praise. However, I most certainly was not the "pioneer" in this venture. I simply followed "Duners" same project. He also laid out pictures and, for the most part, my operation was very, very close to his. Only a few, minor differences. Without doing a few of these basement air units, it appears that there's some minor differences between them all but, between maybe Duners and my repairs, hopefully other DIY folks here can use the info if and when, the time comes for their/your units to be serviced and, parts replaced.

As for exactly what I did, you can too. The technical part of it, was really not very technical at all. It's a big box, sitting on a "tray", held in by four-3" bolts. Start turning the bolts and, the entire unit starts to descend. It only needs to descend enough so the top edge of the "box" has clearance enough to slide out of the tray, and onto whatever you've got waiting for it, so that you can service/repair it.

There's the main duct that attaches to the rear of it. You'll need a small, right/angle screw driver to get at some of the tight, close space area screws. There's not too many but, a couple can be a pain to extract. Once the duct it disconnected, there's enough wire in the 110V side to allow the entire unit to be slid out of the tray and, onto a set of saw horses or, what ever kind "work bench" you build there.

Once it's out on the work station, sitting alongside the coach, the rest is removal of sheet metal. That will expose at least one motor, shaft and, bronze bushing. From that point, it's an easy replacement of the bronze bushing with a regular, sealed, nice bearing. Ours is considerably quieter in operation now, than before it was replaced. Good luck and, be sure to ask or, PM me if and when you feel the need to jump into this project. Be glad to help.
Scott

[1ciderdog]

My basement air is getting very loud. We were in Nashville a couple of weeks ago and there were four other RV's with basement air running. They were all so very much quieter than mine. If I have only the fan running noise level is not bad but once the compressors kick in it is very loud. I guess that means I'll have to pull that unit and replace bearings or something. Oh, it does put out cold air. Suggestions or comments?

[FIRE UP]

Hey 1Ciderdog,
Well, noisy can mean a couple of things here. One and, most likely the cause of your noise is, at least one four bushings may be on its way to the bushing burial ground. If you've checked out my operation on this, you'd see it's not all that hard. And, even some of the boys have done it in a camp ground. But, if I could send any advice your way, it would be this.

There's four, 3" long, 1/2"-13 bolts, that thread up into, welded nuts, that are welded to a cradle that, supports the entire unit. Those bolts are the ones that you turn and therefore, start to lower that A/C towards the ground. Lowering it is nothing. But, as in my case, turning those bolts was a serious effort due to the age, the corrosion, rust, etc. I bathed them in Kroil and it helped but, it was still work. I felt several times, I was either going to break the bolts or, at the least break loose the welded nuts.

But, they all eventually came down, all the way. I replaced them with Stainless Steel versions and, put plenty of Anti-seize on them. My point, it you plan on doing this operation, start a day or two or three, ahead of time and soak those bolts/nuts with whatever penetrant you prefer. It will make your work a ton easier. Good luck.
Scott

[1ciderdog]

Scott, Thank you. It'll be roughly two or more months before I can tackle this job so I have bookmarked this thread. I did add a roof air conditioner a year or so ago and I'll probably not need to run the basement air since we plan on being way north for awhile.
Bob