Originally Posted by
RJ
You have discovered the dirty little secret of Class B RVs.
Your choices generally run as follows:
- Camp / Live in temperate, low humidity areas of the country. This includes Rockies in the Spring, Southern California, a few weeks in the desert Southwest in spring and fall, and the Pacific Northwest in the drier part of the year. You can open the windows, turn on the Fantastic Fan on 12V battery power, and enjoy a comfortable, quiet night's sleep. It's awesome when it happens.
Otherwise, you need power, and lots of it, to run the A/C. Choices are:
1) Plug in to 30VAC RV pedestal. House 110VAC will not work. There is simply too much current need to run the A/C on a house adapter. So you are pulling into a campground at night (or plugging into a custom RV power outlet at your house.) And paying the fee ($40-$80) a night. But at least you are cool. Of course, the problem with Class B RV AC units is...they are right above your head. Advanced and bigger designs such as Airstream ducted air and generally larger units (ours was 30') means travel trailers can be quieter. But in a Class B? It sucks. But this is not nearly as bad as...
2) Running the gennie. What most salesman don't show you is the RV with the gennie running. Which they don't, because the typical unit is...right under the bed. It's like a gigantic vibrator under where you sleep...all...night...long. But at least you have power. I would hazard that not more than 1% of people new to Class B RVing pay any attention to this. If you can solve, or at least deal with, the A/C problem, you are vastly better prepared for the van experience than almost anyone else in the market.
For us, we are waiting for:
- A new chassis (2020) 144" 2500 Transit platform with all the refinements
- Equipped with a Pro Air 12VDC AC unit
- Packed with sufficient LiFe battery capacity to run it 8 hours (2 kW)
- And supported by sufficient solar charging to replenish that (400W)
- By an outfitter with acceptable reputation, warranty and build quality
Right now that coach does not exist. The closest is the Coachmen 22C, but that is on the older 2019 Transit 3500, and is both not new, and longer than I want (I want the 20', 2500. The difference in manuvering a 22' vs 20' van is startlingly large.)
When we get a chance we are going to go to see the Coachmen unit to get an idea of the AC noise when in operation. So far I like what I see, but I am unsure of the Coachmen build quality (vs. LTV, or Pleasureway) and also the user reviews / robustness of the ProAir 12VDC AC unit.