Best mechanism for controlling temps when driving

**montana-todd** · 07-07-2022, 08:26 PM

Hi All,
We purchased a 350G a month ago and we’ve used it 2 times. We live in Montana at higher altitudes, so the sun is intense. I’ve found that when driving, the trailer can get very warm, even with all the window shades down. This makes it tough to get the kids to sleep when we arrive. Especially if we arrive later at night.

Our unit only has 1 window in the main compartment that opens when the slides are in. As a result, the airflow isn’t great. I’ve tried a few things, but nothing seems ideal.

1. Just open the windows. This is easy, but since we’ve had a lot of intermittent rain, I don’t want to get water in the trailer while driving.

2. Run the AC. We have 1,140 Watts of solar (go power AE-6), 2 3000 watt inverters and 1000 ampH of lithium batteries. I’ve found on low auto the AC will keep the interior at 72, but it burns a lot of battery power. We drained all of the battery capacity and I had to jump the generator from my truck the next morning. Fun fact, if there isn’t 11.4V present in the batteries, the solar charge controller won’t charge them.

3. I haven’t tried this yet, but just running the fan in the AC units on low or high. I’m not sure if this requires AC Power, or if the fans can be run on the DC system.

When I was a kid, we’d just open the roof vents and the windows a crack. The driving would create enough airflow to keep the interior cool. However, I just don’t have that type of vent in my unit.

Any experience that’s worked for you would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Todd

**MoonShadow_1911** · 07-07-2022, 08:33 PM

Originally Posted by montana-todd

Hi All,
We purchased a 350G a month ago and we’ve used it 2 times. We live in Montana at higher altitudes, so the sun is intense. I’ve found that when driving, the trailer can get very warm, even with all the window shades down. This makes it tough to get the kids to sleep when we arrive. Especially if we arrive later at night.

Our unit only has 1 window in the main compartment that opens when the slides are in. As a result, the airflow isn’t great. I’ve tried a few things, but nothing seems ideal.

1. Just open the windows. This is easy, but since we’ve had a lot of intermittent rain, I don’t want to get water in the trailer while driving.

2. Run the AC. We have 1,140 Watts of solar (go power AE-6), 2 3000 watt inverters and 1000 ampH of lithium batteries. I’ve found on low auto the AC will keep the interior at 72, but it burns a lot of battery power. We killed the whole system and I had to jump the generator from my truck last time.

3. I haven’t tried this yet, but just running the fan on low or high. I’m not sure if this requires AC Power, or if the fans can be run on the DC system.

When I was a kid, we’d just open the roof vents and the windows a crack. The driving would create enough airflow to keep the interior cool. However, I just don’t have that type of vent in my unit.
Any experience that’s worked for you would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Todd

I put the MaxxAir vent covers over each of the fans. I open both vents and turn the MaxxAir Fantastic fan in the kitchen on and let it run. It keeps the interior near 85°-90°. Which is better than the 110° it's gotten to in the New Mexico heat.

The fans are DC.

**Cahriad** · 07-08-2022, 12:48 AM

Have you thought about a DC to DC charger while you are on the move?

**FT4NOW** · 07-08-2022, 05:53 AM

Do you have the on board generator? Could run the AC off of that while driving, we did it frequently when we had our 399.

**huntr70** · 07-08-2022, 06:13 AM

Ditto what FT4NOW said... run the genny if you have one.

**TerryH** · 07-08-2022, 07:12 PM

Another vote for running the generator. We do it all the time. So nice to get to the spot and have a cool trailer.

**Butcher** · 07-09-2022, 09:36 AM

Not certain how long your drive time is, but anyway you can just turn on the A/C on the last hour or so of driving? Get a bluetooth thermostat and you may not even have to stop.

**montana-todd** · 07-12-2022, 10:26 AM

So this week I finally figured out what we need to do. I keep my unit plugged in at home and run the AC on high to turn it down to 70. Once I get the trailer hooked up, I turn the AC units on cool low auto, and run them off the inverter. If we're driving during the day when it's sunny, we have more than enough capacity to keep them running. We boondocked on a 4 day trip over the weekend, and we were able to always have enough power to last the whole trip. I had an 80A disconnect between the charge controller and my batteries. One of the terminals had vibrated loose, so the charge controllers weren't charging the batteries on our last trip. That explains why they drained so fast! Once I pulled the panel off and fixed it, we have had a lot of success with our solar this trip. Thanks everyone for the input!