dumb questions

[pump7167]

at least to those who know. i recently purchased a 2005 with CC conversion. there seems to be a lot i don t know. i bought it thru a broker so i didn t get the instructions and info that i would have recieved from a dealer. with that asside one my first question for now will be about the AC i have a dash air which i understand i also have 2 units underneath listed as drivers side and passenger side. i also have a belt driven generator which the control is on the dash. my question is will that generator or the convertors run one of the bay AC's or do i have to run the desiel generator ?

[Jon Wehrenberg]

There are no dumb questions, but on this forum we have dumb answers like this one.

All kidding aside, there is a large number of CC owners on this forum and although you won't get any help from the converter you will find it available here. All you have to do is sort out the dumb answers from the good ones.

[eureka]

I have a 98 cc and had a 90 prior to this one. You are welcome to give me a call and I'll try to answer your questions. John 707-845-0375

[Steve Bennett]

Country Coach used 2 RVAC A/C systems, my understanding is that each side has 2 compressors, and that you can run 1 compressor on each side off of the engine driven generator. I can't remember how it was switched, I believe it is listed on your main breaker panel.

[Kenj]

at least to those who know. i recently purchased a 2005 with CC conversion. there seems to be a lot i don t know. i bought it thru a broker so i didn t get the instructions and info that i would have recieved from a dealer. with that asside one my first question for now will be about the AC i have a dash air which i understand i also have 2 units underneath listed as drivers side and passenger side. i also have a belt driven generator which the control is on the dash. my question is will that generator or the convertors run one of the bay AC's or do i have to run the desiel generator ?

Its a very good question. I have a 2008 CC conversion, bought from a dealer (second owner) and I do have all the manuals. Unfortunately, the manuals don't explain the system very well. If your bus is set up like mine then you can run both a/c basement units, as well as all other electrical equipment, except for 220, off the bus engine. My bus has two alternators powered by the bus engine, a 500 amp for house and 75 amp for chassis. There is no need to run the genset. The only thing you need to be aware of is if you are idling for a while in traffic or parked is to push the toggle switch for high engine idle. This sets engine idle at 1,000 rpm. At 1,000 rpm + there is no voltage loss whatsoever. Hope this helps.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I'm going to jump in and maybe start something. Generally speaking we never consider how we power AC units when driving. It seems to be an accepted fact that if the bus engine is running the AC units should be powered either by the engine or through inverters, which are supplied with power through the batteries which are charged by the engine.

Anytime we need a lot of cooling it just makes sense to fire up the generator and have the freedom to run anything necessary to remain comfortable.

Loading up a big alternator robs power to climb hills and as the loads on the alternator increase the heat produced goes into the oil which cools the big alternators. Sometimes the loads are so great the batteries do not get the charge they typically will get from the bus alternator(s).

We do not run our generators often enough or under enough loads. An entertainer coach generator is running almost from the minute the coach starts moving until it is back in the barn. Those generators are run hard and a life of 30,000 hours or more is common. Just a comment for those wondering how many AC's they can run while driving and the answer is every single one.

[Neal&Carla]

We have owned 2004 Country Coach #L004 since April 2009. The dash air runs when the engine is on. We run the passenger side A/C with both stage 1 & 2 on with the engine powered Auragen. My Auragen switch is located on the dash below the dash air controls to the right side of the steering. We use the passenger side A/C as first choice due to better air flow since the driver side slides are somewhat in the way of that side A/C. On occasions such driving last week in Tennessee and Texas headed into late afternoon sun the dash air plus 1 A/C would not keep the coach to our desires, we turn on the generator, turn off the Auargen, and run both A/Cs. This worked quite well to keep us cool. There is no reason you couldn't run one A/C with the generator on, other than a question of fuel consumption which I'm not inclined to try to calculate. We have been advised not to run the Auragen when in large mountain passes so at not to over rev it on a steep downgrade to the point it would need to be reset. The Auragen may decrease the engine output by about 50 h.p. so it could decrease performance for up grades. Feel free to call or private message if you have other questions.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

A generator running about 26,000 BTUs of AC, plus keeping the HW heater functioning plus maintaining the battery charge on the house plus using the BBQ at night, TV, etc. runs about .4 GPH. That is based on data from last years Oshkosh where only the generator fuel usage was measured. The average total amps at 120 volts was likely around 25 to 30 amps.