AC cooling issues with 379FL Solitude

[Cogswelld]

I am having issues keeping my 42' Solitude cool with the 13.5 unit in the front overhead and the 15.0 in the rear bedroom.
I am looking at adding a third unit in the kitchen area removing the fantastic fan and replacing it with a 13.5 or a 15.0 unit.
I am planning on adding a non ducted unit ( to avoid trying to tie into the other units duct work)
Is this location in the kitchen pre wired for another ac unit?
If anybody has done this please share your learnings and how to with me.
I plan on self performing this work.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mdm9111]

I'm thinking we are not the only ones having trouble keeping cool.
I have noted that being in shade makes a huge difference.
While a 3rd unit may solve problem if 50 amp available I am worried about summer temperatures and 30 amp.
If you install 3rd please post results.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[LCBoyer]

I installed Carefree pull down window shades on outside of my 3 large windows. That makes a big difference in cooling

[pnoetzel]

I am a new owner of a 2017 reflection 29RS.
This year in February we were down on the Colorado river at willow Beach Az , temp hit 95+
The single air conditioner ran all day trying to keep temp at 79.
Not camping in summertime much and never seeing temperatures like that, I don't know if I have a problem, or that is the normal for a single air conditioner in a 29 at that temp.
Any thoughts?

[Cogswelld]

I installed Carefree pull down window shades on outside of my 3 large windows. That makes a big difference in cooling

We are located in South Texas and we have covered all of our windows but when the temps hit 90+ degrees it gets too hot in the rv.
I haven't had any replies back on adding the third AC to my 379FL yet so I will try to deal with my rv dealer but that's another whole unpleasant story.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[379FLD-Max]

We added a third ac to our ‘16 379FL and it made a huge difference. I actually moved the front 13.5 to the bedroom, the bedroom to kitchen and put a 15 penguin in the front to keep the same height. This gave more cooling capacity in the main area and allowed the bedroom to run longer and support more cooling from the rear pushing forward. The kitchen ac is mounted in front of the overhead island lights (basically inline with the door) and I tied it into the ducting. All wire wires through the ceiling using the air grille locations as access to pull wires and go down to the basement through the rectangle wood trim box next to the stairs. I did have to pull a the phone line style wire from kitchen ac to front ac so I could use my CCC2 t-stat. Fish tape works wonders. I did not tie into the existing fuse box because I wanted all three to run at the same time, so I added a circuit breaker box and a male plug end in a covered box that I can plug an extension cord into. The male end plug in the covered box was to keep it clean and not hit the prongs if I am working in there. It would be like having a power cord attached to the ac but it is all fixed mounted instead. Overall it took me one day to do it all and the most work is fishing wires, adding the framing to support the load and cutting the holes to tie into the existing duct work. Not difficult just time consuming because it is tight areas.

[The Bone]

You8 could also close off areas you are not using that way the ac only has to cool the room you are in. It would appear that these ac units don't cool so well in high heat. You could tint the windows to help. The walls get hot on the inside which doesn't help

[KirbyRVA]

We are located in South Texas and we have covered all of our windows but when the temps hit 90+ degrees it gets too hot in the rv.
I haven't had any replies back on adding the third AC to my 379FL yet so I will try to deal with my rv dealer but that's another whole unpleasant story.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We have a 2019 and GD did not prewire for a third AC. If they had, I would have added a unit last summer. We have two 15,000 BTU units and they cannot adequately cool the rig when the outside temps get above 90F. We are on a permanent site with two shade trees, we keep both awnings out, and I have installed Shade Pro black sun blocking screens on the six windows on the west facing side of the coach. Still no joy. We have single pane windows and I think that is the main issue, along with the absolute fact that most any RV over 40' long needs 3 AC units. This may not be true with custom built units with thicker sidewalls and more insulation but I think it is true for most mass produced RV's. Alliance RV has figured it out since they put 3 AC units on all their 5th wheels. Grand Design has seen the light and now offer a 3rd AC as an option on 2020 models.

I've measured temps of the walls, ceiling and windows when it gets hot. Actually the walls and ceiling seem to deal with it well. The single pane windows, however, really don't block the heat well, even with the Shade Pro shades. I may look into installing awnings on the west facing windows.