Re: The Man In The Window Trailer
Bok Mull
I carry metal and mesh with me on my trailer. I can build, repair broken legs or rescreen on site. I keep corners and spline on the trailer along with a 6" mini chop saw. I fix quite a few screens every month
I raised my floor in my 20 ft van by 10 inches so I could add an 8 ft pull out table to do screens. I use the space underneath that for screen and other storage. I put closing bins on the two back doors to hold screen corners, springs, pull tabs etc. The screen frame is in three tubes inside the van above the table and in 8 tubes on top oc the van below my ladder rack. I can build screens on site and this keeps my customers happy.
We made the mistake of purchasing the one piece screens. My wife was able to install a heavy duty zipper in the middle, that zips from the bottom up. These are available pre installed from several manufacturers, and are the ones I would recommend.
Some people object to the screens, stating that it blocks a lot of the airflow through the windows. There has been some alternative discussion, of using equestrian fly screens, to protect the horse's eyes and ears from bugs and airborne sawdust, and leaving the windows open.
the problem is, i don't have bars! it's a 96 sooner. it's either let them ride almost enclosed with a small window open or buy window screens to let the air come through. i just didn't know if one screen was better than the other, or if anyone had any good or bad experiences with a particluar type. thanks for the replies so far
gard: we treated/preserved our aluminum trailer floor using the instructions you had posted a while back. it turned out great!!! and i feel so much better knowing it is protected! thanks for all the useful info! =]
I have window screens on mine, as it's a '94 logan gn. I have never had issues with them. I have more issues with the tourist going 100 mph up in the sierras and riding my butt acting like I can go faster down a steep grade, then they pass me on a really blind curve and a 15 mph curve to boot! Anyways,... I bought the Pro. choice, but were not very good, make sure you measure your window openings to see if the screens they sell in catalogs online will fit. I had to have mine special made due to the trailer being older and bigger windows. Here's the link below of the folks that made mine, really nice people....
Originally written by DustFlyin on 2009-04-17 10:15 AM
i bought a used 3H gooseneck last november. it has drop windows, but no bars to keep heads inside where they belong. it gets really hot here in the summer (gotta love florida), and i don't think 1/2 a windows worth of air will be enough to keep them comfortable. the trailer does have roof vents too. has anyone bought the window screens (most catalogs sell them, i have been looking at the prof. choice ones) and have any good/bad/ugly thoughts about them. how well do they attach to the trailer? do your horses try and pop/push them out at all? thanks for any input =]
It took me about 10 mins per window to install them. We have 1 horse that tries to stick his nose out the edge of the screen but he can't do it. The only thing with the Sundowner is they have larger windows (40" wide inside frame) than most trailers and we have about a 1/2" gap or so around the egde. And for $20. buck each we bought 2 extras to incase.
My Logan trailer has bars on all windows, But it also comes with a screen for each. The screen is kinda like a fitted sheet. The four corners fit over the edge of the bars. These come from the factory with the trailer. See photo below.
I realize you don't have bars. So to answer your question the screens letting in enough air. They seem to let plenty of air into the trailer. The Logan comes with drop down windows Head and Butt. With the same bars and screens on both side of the trailer. In the winter I leave the window up and just open the slide vents enough. In the summer when it's 100*, I drop all head and butt windows and leave the bars and screens closed. If your trailer has smaller bus type butt windows, maybe the screens will not let enough air in. If you have slats on the butt side and drops on the head, You shoyld have plent of air movement. Also you are in Florida. You have way more humidity than I do. So even when it's 100* here, the humidity is only 7-10%. That will affect how much air movement you need.
im going to enclose the rear exhaust section of the unit and send it outside through a pair of large vents. Is there any reason I need to vent outside air into the condenser intake? Or can I let it just intake air from inside the trailer?
I plan to collect the condensation and drain it outside. People have done this successfully on the camper forums. But on the build I'm looking at, the guy is piping in outside air for the condenser intake. I'm not sure that's necessary.
Using conditioned air can make the condenser side more efficient, but the air pulled through the condenser has to be replaced. It is replaced by unconditioned air pulled in through gaps around the doors/seals in the walls. Yes using colder air helps the condenser, but the unconditioned air that replaces it hurts the indoor temperature causing the unit to work harder to compensate resulting in more energy use than if you use outside air through the condenser.
I'll start by saying that 10k btu would not cool my 20' enclosed trailer if the sun was out or the temps were above 85 degrees. The pictured unit is likely too small to do much good unless you add lots of insulation. A 15k BTU roof unit would work much better.
Next, any air sucked out of the trailer has to be replaced by air sucked in. If you are pulling 90 degree air in to replace what is used across the condensor coil, you have lost any gain you might have gotten by using cooler air to start with. The unit is designed to use warm air so I would plumb it accordingly.
What's the motivation? Is it just a unit you already have? Seems like an awful lot of work to end up with something that doesn't work as well as an AC designed for trailer use -- either a roof unit or a mini-split.
I'd say the main motivation is cost. This unit cost $130. Those rooftop units are significantly more expensive (about $500 at a minimum is what I'm seeing) and they require cutting a big hole in the roof of the trailer. Its really not a lot of work to build a shelf, cut a few vent holes and get the thing mounted. I just want the interior comfortable to sleep in at night, I don't need the interior frosty on a hot summer day. And if the unit ever goes bad, grab a new one at walmart. No $500 replacements and no leaky roof.
If I were doing this with this AC, I would completely separate the AC at the "window line" - that part with the L bracket, and where you slide in the accordion sliders in. Put that entire back section in its own space, have it be as air tight as you possibly can (even though the AC itself is likely not air tight), use some pink foam board. Put in an exhaust fan from that space to the outdoors - that part may be overkill.
The AC is not pulling in air from the outside. It pulls air in from the front, cools it, and pushes the cool air back out the front. It is also not creating cold - it is really a zero sum game, with an equal and opposite reaction creating hotter air. So keep the back, where it is creating that hot air, vented and completely separate from the front of the machine and the air that you're trying to keep cool.
I did the window A/C unit on my black 6x12 enclosed and when I bumped up to the 8k BTU model, it kept the trailer a nice 70 degrees even when it was 100+ and humid outside. I ended up cutting a hole in the front of the trailer and used the cutout to make a door that I would clamp in place while traveling and would remove and put the A/C unit when parked.
I chose the window unit because it was much cheaper than the roof mounts (I saw $1000+) and they always seemed to be riddled with problems. At the track, everyone I knew with a roof unit would end up dropping $500 or more on it every year to get it fixed. One guy had a 6x12 like I did with a 10K unit on his and it couldn't keep it nearly as cool as my little window unit did. He replaced it twice in three years. I kinda figured if mine crapped out, it was less than $200 at any big box store to replace, but it never did in 5+ years of use. Still works as I have in the bedroom of my house today since my central A/C went out last night.
FWIW, I bought some roof reflective paint from Home Depot and coated the roof and put foam core insulation between the inside and outside walls of the trailer. The roof paint seemed to make the biggest difference.
I went with a stand up unit for the van. Just vent and drain out the floor, keeps it down right frosty at the track and no holes in your trailer wall. You could hang a tarp curtain to keep the sleeping area separate from the whole trailer.
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