RV Air Conditioner Died

[Too Many Toys]

I think my compressor my have seized up on the air conditioner on my holiday trailer. 10 years old. Anyone deal with any air conditioner repair shops. Would like to pull it out myself and take it in to get looked at rather than just dropping it off at the RV dealer.

 

[treemongrol]

It's possibly the capacitor, they usually fail before the compressor. Where are you located.

 

[Summiteer]

Can you pull it without releasing the refrigerant? Reefer dude will (hopefully)
save it for recycling or whatever they do with it.

 

[Too Many Toys]

It's possibly the capacitor, they usually fail before the compressor. Where are you located.

I'm located in edmonton. when i plugged it into the generator and had an amp meter on the cord it pulled 40 amps before tripping the breaker. It shouldn't have pulled any more than 20 amps. any ideas?

 

[Summiteer]

I'm located in edmonton. when i plugged it into the generator and had an amp meter on the cord it pulled 40 amps before tripping the breaker. It shouldn't have pulled any more than 20 amps. any ideas?

Either the motor or compressor seized...or start capacitor is shot, prolly. Capacitor usually leaks or pops when it fails, though not always.

 

[Sofa king]

I am in the HVAC industry, don't know anything about rv units but what i can tell you is that their ac and heating equipment costs about 5 times what anyone else would charge. Personally i would try and get a refridge guy to come have a look. Also you prolly already know but capacitors hold a charge even when there is no power to the unit, if you short the leads you could get a nasty suprise.

 

[Too Many Toys]

Thanks for the info guys. Will try and talk to someone this week or next and maybe pull it out after the long weekend to hopefully get it looked at.

 

[Too Many Toys]

Well the air conditioner didn't fix itself over the winter so called my brother(ticketed electrician) to come over and have another look at it. I changed both capacitors($50 from electrical wholesale),did nothing.Got to be the compressor he says. So he takes one of my heavier extension cords,pulls the ends off.Takes off the cover to expose the electrical junction box, on the a/c unit inside the trailer,and hardwired one end of the cord into it. The other end into the 220 volt breaker for my welder. I said "are you sure you know what your doing".He goes into the trailer,turns on the a/c for one second, thats it. He then unhooks the extension cord,rewires the a/c unit back up and plugs the trailer into the generator and turns on the a/c and IT WORKS!!. She just needed a little extra shot of juice to kick start the compressor he said. You see, I haven't used the a/c for about 4 years because I didn't have a generator big enough to run it. Last year I bought a Honda EU 3000 so I could, and then the a/c wouldn't work. Don't try this at home,but it worked for me.

 

[RMK Junky]

It's another good idea is to make sure the AC unit is covered when stored over winter. Some do this...some don't.

 

[Too Many Toys]

I did cover my trailer with a tarp a few years ago and the heavy snow on the tarp ended up cracking the plastic cover on the a/c unit, so be careful. I would build a box out of wood and cover it that way just for storing.

 

[RMK Junky]

I did cover my trailer with a tarp a few years ago and the heavy snow on the tarp ended up cracking the plastic cover on the a/c unit, so be careful. I would build a box out of wood and cover it that way just for storing.

I have a small cover for the AC unit alone. Shoveled snow off it three times this winter and now I have a busted vent :d My trailer is an '05 and so far so good with the AC but I'm not one for heat so it gets used to chill the