maiden voyage

Paul,

Does your frigidmobile have shutters?

Truk,

Yes, we have forward shutters.....and they default to open unless I close 'em, at least that's my understanding.

To be clear(?), the shutters are for the Cruise-Airs, two of which are behind the front bumper next to the electrical compartment below the driver's seat (on an H3, anyway). When traveling and using only the OTR, the shutters are to be closed. The OTR condensor is aft of the third bay (fourth bay), so the shutters do not do anything for the OTR. When parked and using the Cruise-Airs, the shutters should be opened to permit cooling air to circulate back to the Cruise-Air condensors. On our coach, the default is OPEN, and when they are closed, an indicator light/message is illuminated on the dash with the message 'shutters closed', which is the 'normal' mode of travel if using the OTR.

Trust me, please, when I say it is better to travel with the shutters closed (not use the Cruise-Airs), unless you want a million grasshopper, bee, butterfly carcasses wedged into the area behind the shutters, in the shutters, and up against the 2 front Cruise air housings and in the electrical compartment/steering arm bay. But if you do not have OTR, I realize you do what you have to do.

I know what they are for.

Our first coach did not have shutters. Of course Liberty had to provide for air flow to the Cruise Airs so behind the bumper there were ventilation slots.

We drove a lot in the winter and I can tell you that cold air would blow into the coach and your legs would freeze. I don't think the seated Prevost coach had openings so there would not be that cold air blowing in. I stuffed insulation in every opening inside the coach that I could find and the cold air still found a way to get in, but it was much less after my efforts to seal off the flow.

I'm sure those shutters are to close off the air flow in cold temperatures.

Closing the shutters while running the OTR air is something I haven't thought about, but makes sense.

I'll try it next time.

Thanks for the tip!

While at Joe's, we dropped the bumper and cleaned the Cruise Airs and the entire compartment. Now I'll be keeping my shutters closed while traveling. Nice thing ... when the ignition is off the shutters open, then close again when the ignition is on.

On the Marathon, does the "circulate fresh air" switch provide the same type function? I keep it closed to facilitate better OTR cooling when traveling but perhaps should open it when parked and using Cruiseairs if that is what it is for. My assumption was that it was like a car A/C with the re-circulate for maximum cooling option.

Ok, my Marathon doesn't have shutters. Thanks Steve........

Jon,

I noticed while looking behind the drop down bumper (this is on an H3, remember), trying to shovel out west Texas grasshopper corpses the size of rats, if I looked up but in front of the shutters, and on either side the slots, which are apparently for ventilation and lead to some ducting/pathway to somewhere, duct tape had been used and painted over to block them. I think your story fits into this somehow: maybe the ducts are for fresh air on coaches that do not have OTR, but this might be a bad guess.

Note: Our Liberty manual says the shutters should be closed when traveling and using the OTR. It says the shutters must be open when using the cruise-airs. With the (shutter) switch depressed (engaged), the shutters will close when the ignition is on.