Minnie Plus 29DDBH Cooling Problems

Eluwak · 07-20-2020, 05:44 PM

Hey all. We “upgraded” from a North Trail 28BRS to the Minnie Plus 29DDBH last June right before our 2 week vacation to Myrtle Beach, and it was miserable. The AC just couldn’t cool the trailer during the day and ran non-stop struggling the whole time. We had it looked at and the dealer adjusted something in the ceiling and made sure the unit is working properly. The rest of our camping was in cooler weather last year, and this week is the first time we have to use it this year for our 2 week vacation in Williamsburg, but it feels the same as last time where the meager amounts of air coming from the vents is cool, but just totally unable to cool the trailer below the mid to upper 80s when the sun is up. Our old trailer had a Coleman 13.5k unit and this one is supposedly a Dometic 15k unit and the trailer is only marginally larger which blows my mind that we never had any cooling problems in the old trailer in similar conditions. Do I really need to add a second unit or am I right in thinking something is wrong here?

**creativepart** · 07-20-2020, 06:47 PM

There is a heat wave in Williamsburg right now. Did you camp in 100 degree weather in your old, shorter, TT before?

Eluwak · 07-20-2020, 07:51 PM

Not sure if we hit 100, but the weather and site conditions at Myrtle Beach between the two trailers was identical. The old trailer is barely shorter and had a smaller unit. This trailer has an extra slide and a larger unit.

The Minnie Plus also has the extreme weather package if that matters. Kept us toasty in the fall/winter

Bones2003 · 07-20-2020, 07:57 PM

Eluwak, I'm not specifically familiar with that trailer but I looked at some pictures of a 2019 that was for sale. Looks like a very nice camper. You say that there are meager amounts of air coming out the vents. Weak airflow is a big clue. Are all the ceiling vents weak or just some of them? Does that air conditioner have grill vents that can be opened and closed and if so, does that make a difference? If you take off the A/C grill, does that change the airflow any? It could be that the A/C is working pretty hard but is sending the cool air directly outside because it is not mounted properly or the ceiling air ducts are blocked, disconnected, and/or defective. Did you try to remove any of the round ceiling vents to try and look into the ceiling ducts? There are many videos online about how to troubleshoot camper A/C cooling issues.

Edit: I forgot to answer your last question. I think something is wrong and that you probably don't need a second A/C unless you expect it to get down to 65 degrees inside when it is 100 degrees outside.

Eluwak · 07-20-2020, 08:08 PM

I haven’t purposely taken one of the vents out, but when the bathroom one broke it didn’t seem like there was anything behind it like a tube. I did take the grill off last summer and looked at the coils to see if maybe they iced over, but they looked ok. Only a couple of vents really have some oomph and the rest kind of just waif out cool air. I haven’t been on the roof while it’s running to see if any cool air is coming out around it, but I can try that tomorrow maybe.

Bones2003 · 07-20-2020, 08:20 PM

On many of the Winnebago motorhomes, there are no tubes connected to the ceiling vents - there are box like channels cut into the Styrofoam ceiling insulation. Also, on single A/C units, there is one channel that goes to half the vents and a second channel for the other half. I don't know about trailers but maybe there is something similar. In some of the troubleshooting videos I've seen assembly junk blocking the channels or chunks of Styrofoam missing so the air leaks into the gap between the roof and the ceiling surface. Also, once the A/C grill is off, you can remove a metal cover plate that lets you look into the area where the cold air should enter the ductwork. Maybe you could remove that cover and see how much cold air is blowing down from the A/C and if the ducts might be blocked in that area.

Edit: I've also seen where the air outlet from the A/C is not sealed properly to direct the cold air into the ducts. It was leaking so bad that the cold air would be sucked right into the warm air return section of the A/C just making a very small loop of recirculating air.

Eluwak · 07-23-2020, 11:49 AM

So we had a mobile repair guy come out to see what’s up. AC is working good, there were some openings here and there they sealed up. The problem is our extreme weather package equipped roof is not insulating very well and the thermal load is too high. There’s a 7 degree rise over about 6 ft (62 at unit and 69 at duct over kitchen). It’s currently 91 outside and 87 in the main living area with the thermostat set to 68 (never shuts off).