Basement A/C question

[Animalangel]

Thank you, Bob.

[Animalangel]

I agree that Bob C. really has gone over and above to help me and I truly appreciate it!! That's why I love RV forums.... everyone is SO VERY helpful!!!

Now about the answer in the appeal.... I can access that area where the refrigerated air is coming from. It's really filthy though so I'm not quite sure how well I can clean it up to seal it. I do have the silver duct tape, it's not gorilla but I think I have some of that (Gorilla all weather tape) around here too someplace.... or I did have. I'll have to look.

OMG.... I did turn the rv on, tuned on the dash ac and guess what? The fan DOES WORK!!!!!! Who knew? I'll be darned!!!! It must be that when I saw it running I had the motorhome turned on (come to think of it, I think I had just backed into my site and was checking to see how far back I could go!). It didn't occur to me that I had the RV on until I did it to test it in just the last few minutes.

THANK YOU SO MUCH, BOB C for all your help. And I'll try to track down the poster who gave you the information you passed along to me about that fan being for the dash a/c. So much to learn on these things.....

Like I mentioned earlier (or perhaps in another thread under a different topic, I went for 3 weeks with no hot water because I was out of propane and didn't realize my water heater ran on electric too!!! (I was afraid to break camp to go riding around looking for someplace to fill the propane but I have since found a place and my tank is now topped off once again.)

THANK YOU EVERYBODY FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE. You guys are great!

[BobC]

Let us know how things turn out after you seal the leaks. Good luck.

[Rcdukes]

The drivers side fan is for the dash air. Passenger side is the basement A/C.

[grtharris]

Animalangel, to answer your original question. The fans on the drivers side of the coach are the dash AC evaporator fans and they both should run at the same time. You either have a bad motor or loose wiring connection.

[NeilV]

Lot of stuff here however if the condenser fan is working there will be air flowing very obviously out the exhaust vent directly underneath the unit which is only about 2 feet wide. The basement air unit does not exhaust directly out to the drivers side as the outside airflow is in through the condenser coil (usually on the passenger side of the coach) and then down out the bottom to exhaust/discharge.

As for opening the service panel there should be a screw underneath the rearmost bottom corner of the panel and another towards the front which may be underneath or accessed on the face of the frame that is exposed when the basement door forward of the AC unit is opened. You will usually need a prop stick or a bungee cord to hold the panel open once the screws are removed. Once the service panel is opened toward the left of the basement air unit you should find the cover of the control box.

Operationally there has to be more than a few degrees temperature differential between the set point and current temperature inside the coach for the second compressor to start and the Powerline System must not be shedding the second compressor. On my 30 Amp Coach both compressors work at the same time unless there are other high current loads that are not managed by the system or other higher priority loads that are managed are taking priority. The Basement Air unit by design since at least the year 2000 was made to support running both compressors on a 30 amp service by staging their startup sequences and allowing compressor 1 to equalize to running pressure before starting compressor 2 and then allowing the condenser fan to jump to high speed. It will also work in single compressor mode on a 20 amp service however you have to manually set the Powerline System to 20 amp mode. I usually also turn off the breaker for the second compressor when on 20 amps since a momentary power fluctuation can flip the Powerline back to 30 amp mode causing an overdraw trip the breaker on the 20 amp service.

[Journey39n]

I just went through the worst possible a/c nightmare in May/June this year. In AZ, stuck because of the virus, and the temps just started a long run above 110. The cooling fan started making some odd intermittent noises, gradually slowed down and stopped. Took a week to find the right guy to fix it, another 6 days for parts and the repair (took 3 1/2 hours for the actual repair). Very happy for the repair, we had 13 days in excess of 110, with the final three days at 118 on the sun side of the RV. We gave it a day to test and run, and then headed north.

When all was fixed, measured the air temp at the return grill, and at the first ceiling vent, over 15 minutes it varied between 18-22 degree differential. Just to make sure, checked and no leakage at the back ductwork going up the rear cap.

Fan motor must have been slowing down over the last years, as it seems to work much better now than before. Upon inspection, it appeared the problem was inside the cooling fan motor itself, as the shaft seemed to have a little too much give to it, and the outside bearing spun fine and no slop at all. Just a guess on my part.

For my RV, the second compressor will kick on if there is more than a 2 degree differential on the thermostat, between the set point, and ambient air temp.

[CharlesMoore]

The rear fan on the port side (drivers side) is for the cabin airconditioner driven by the 12VDC/engine. The one on the rear stbd side (passenger side) is 110/220 VAC (the basement air): This A/C unit has two stages and all this has been explained elsewhere. I think this is what you might have meant - IMHO.

[lajuene]

Originally Posted by Animalangel

.

On the passenger side the a/c unit has all the fins so I cannot see the actual fan, but there IS a fan on the drivers side and that is not turning. My a/c IS on and working but shouldn't that fan be turning too?

Where do I look to fix this?

The driver side fan is not for the air conditioner. It is for the hydraulic engine cooling radiator. Air conditioner is only on passenger side.

[lajuene]

Originally Posted by Rcdukes

The drivers side fan is for the dash air. Passenger side is the basement A/C.

Not dash air, it's for engine cooling radiator.

[BobbyH]

On my 2005 Journey,one of the fans was locked up from sitting/rust.Freed it up by gradually freeing it up by hand.See if its free..Check power to it with a test light.Might have to replace it?

[BobC]

Thanks for all the responses, but the issue of the driver's side fan has long since been resolved.

See post #23.