Air Conditioning/Inside the Pipes

[matsprt]

Jim,

Great questions that really hit on the confusion one encounters while shopping for a bus.

Jon,

Great answers that address your Liberty. It does point out that there appear to be any number of combinations that are controlled by both Prevost (on the original chassis build out) and then the converter.

For those of us hunting the used market it seems that the best we can do is accumulate a good understanding of each system, strengths and weaknesses, and then try to make a good decision. There really no right or wrong answer that I can see.

Were I to buy a bus with 4 roof airs and the standard "drivers heating and A/C system" I would have a couple of ways to heat/cool the bus. That may be the best that one can hope for ??

Michael

[Jerry Winchester]

I would echo Jon's comments about the use of Cruisairs when running down the road. If you want sweat running down your Lewcrack, that is a good way to get it started.

To the rest of the conversation.........

Plenty of Storage Space - Way Good
Plenty of Cooling Capactiy - Outstandingly Good

I don't care if I can stuff an army of pigmys under the coach, if it becomes a sweat filled torture chamber while running down the road, no one will care how much extra stuff resides in the bowels. Living in South Texas, it is highly unlikely that I will own a coach without OTR air and that cooling has to comes from somewhere, so taking X many BTU's, however you get it there, will cost you something.

If someone wants to take the time to figure out all the energy / efficiency / cost numbers for using roof air / cruisair / Webasto / driver air / OTR air, then so be it. It just looks like a math equation to me and I am comfortable with the use of space vs having to have an onboard HVAC person to keep it all sorted out.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Thank you Jon, Very well done. JIM

[Just Plain Jeff]

Prevost Car, after many years of research, developed an over-the-road air conditioning and heating (OTR) system designed to keep 48+menopausal French Canadian women from complaining constantly.

Get the OTR.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

And those fine ladies were on tour in Arizona in August.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Thank you everyone for organizing the confusion. I can see that, where, when, and by whom the bus will be used all figure into the equation. The coach and converters seem to have covered all bases. That leaves the decision up to the purchaser and the used equipment available at any particular time. JIM

[Joe Cannarozzi]

What a GREAT CLUB

[truk4u]

Jim

Opinions are like..... well you know the rest of that.

I like the Cruisairs and have had no problem while driving, although I rarely have to run one. I can run two going down the road off the inverters and haven't experienced the need to do that. I like the clean look on the roof, the highest thing on mine is the flat top dish that's about 6 inches tall.

I just had my 3 cruisairs checked for freon, there all behind the front bumper, and asked the Tech his opinion on roof or cruisairs. He hated the roof airs from a maintenance standpoint and preferred the cruisairs saying they were commercial grade in his opinion.

Mine is 40' and if I had OTR, my bay storage capacity would be ziltch. Also, the last thing you ever want to happen is someone at Camping World or some of these other useless RV repair facilities on the roof of your Prevost.

[Just Plain Jeff]

Part of the deal about heating and air conditioning systems is how they are set up and how you use your rig.

Our Angola had OTR and I thought it was overkill. Then, one afternon in some God-forsaken place, I think it was near Jamestown, NY, in late October, it was starting to sleet and the inside of the coach was getting mighty cold. We flipped on the OTR heat and were glad that we had it. Conversely, when driving in fundamentally hot environs, the OTR air is the trick to keeping the coach cool.

One thing not covered here is that if you begin the day with a cool coach it is a heck of a lot easier to keep it cool. Just a side note.

Our current OTR set up has rheostats (for Lew) for both the dash air and bus air. In addition, the temp is adjustable for each and you can set adjust recirculation/fresh air for the sytem. Further, with the warm/cool air running up through the walls of the coach from the baseboard exchangers, there is likely kind of a passive heating/cooling thing going on which is pretty comfy.

As to the loss of storage space due to OTR, it means that The Boss can't buy as much stuff along the way as she wants.

Everyone wins.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Boy you really konw how to hurt a guy. I was thinking of setting up my garage in Jamestown. It's not god-forsaken just depressed, with a lot of cheap realestate. JIM