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Main condensor

Anybody have the main condensor on the engine let go ?
It seems to me that that is only a radiator with fins for cooling the freon and dissipating the heat taken out of the air.
How much did the condensor costs ?

The Foretravel is a 2000 36 ft U270

Don

Don

Re: Main condensor

Reply #1 –
Quote from: Donmystic1 –
It seems to me that that is only a radiator with fins for cooling the freon and dissipating the heat taken out of the air.
Well, not quite.  The condenser needs to be able to take the high pressures developed in the system's compressor as opposed to the coolant systems relatively low pressures.
Peter
Peter & Beth Martin
No Forrest? What have you done?
MC# 15890 until Dec 2016; FMCA #F329677
Cincinnati, OH

Re: Main condensor

Reply #2 –
The best source for info is James Trina at FT, second did this coach spend a lot of time in snow country.
The selected media item is not currently available.Bill&Doris 97 U270 36'
University of Parris Island Class of 66
Semper Fi  Build# 5174 MC#17094

Re: Main condensor

Reply #3 –
You may be able to find the A/C parts you need at NAPA, or any heavy truck parts stores. Most of the mechanical parts condenser, dryer, compressor are generic.
Bruce, Linda, and Macy
Zoey RIP 1/20/19
1999 U295 40' build #5400
2017 silver Jeep Wrangler, 1260 watts of solar on top
Moving around the country

Re: Main condensor

Reply #4 –
Not sure about the 2000 U270, but for our 99 U270, when someone punched a hole in ours about 2 years ago, the AC condenser was not available from anyone I could find.  Foretravel Parts didn't have one and tried to find one but was also unsuccessful.  All of the available condensers that would fit the opening were much less thick (and therefore had much lower heat rejection capability.) I ended up making one out of a sandwich of two available NAPA units in parallel, and it's been fine for two years.
Dave and Nancy
1999/2013 U270 36' Xtreme
Motorcade # 16774
2013 Subaru Outback
KD0NIM

Re: Main condensor

Reply #5 –
Dave, we wondered how your dual condenser worked out. Glad to hear it was a success.

How did you work it out with one inlet an one outlet? Are they in series or parallel? It seems that both ways could work.

Why does you photo show one aluminum & one black colored condensers stacked? Looks like you ended up using the same electric fan and made your own mounting brackets.

Re: Main condensor

Reply #6 –
Dave, nice !  For me, I would go with. The later larger condenser, as Xtreme is to make the side covers for. Both Condenser and radiator on hinge, so Rance can make a nice louvered setup.
I just like the idea of a larger Condenser and easy open louvered area.  Might take second or larger fan ?
Dave M

Re: Main condensor

Reply #7 –
Dave,

Nice work!
John Duld
1995 U320C SE 40'

Re: Main condensor

Reply #8 –
Hi Dave,
  Real nice solution. It has been said, necessity is the mother of invention! Great work.
Raymond
Raymond & Babette Jordan
1997 U 320
1998 Ford Explorer XLT

Re: Main condensor

Reply #9 –
Quote from: Barry & Cindy –
Dave, we wondered how your dual condenser worked out. Glad to hear it was a success.

How did you work it out with one inlet an one outlet? Are they in series or parallel? It seems that both ways could work.

Why does you photo show one aluminum & one black colored condensers stacked? Looks like you ended up using the same electric fan and made your own mounting brackets.

Thanks for complements!  Considering how frustrating it was to try to find the components (much steam from the ears...), it actually came out pretty well.  Next time I would definitely find a competent AC shop to do everything but siamese the condensers and the fan and make mounting brackets.

I could make up some story about the black one being for better radiation cooling, but they're  actually just what the local NAPA store in rural VA could come up with after I borrowed their catalogs and found condensers of the right height and width.  I built the stack of condensers & mounting in my brother's driveway, and then connected them up in Elkhart IN.  Couldn't find an AC place that was able to make the adapter hoses to parallel the two condensers into the old hoses, so I cut the fittings in the picture off, fitted flare nuts, flared the ends, and then brazed adapters together to connect into the old hoses.  I wasn't comfortable with the aluminum tubing in flare fittings, so I put some JB Weld epoxy on the flare connections before tightening.
Figured the parts were cheap enough that I could replace with a custom condenser at some later time if needed, but it's held upquite well, and I think the performance may be better than the original. 

I did use the old fan, and made new brackets, as shown in the photo.

Clearly the larger condensers that later coaches use would be easier to source (and a lot less work), but that would have required modifying the side grill (and much more $$), and we weren't going to be anywhere near Xtreme for a long time.
Dave and Nancy
1999/2013 U270 36' Xtreme
Motorcade # 16774
2013 Subaru Outback
KD0NIM

Re: Main condensor

Reply #10 –
Dave,

Does your brazed fitting connect the two condenser's newly flared fittings together? And does one condenser have the 'in' hose and the other condenser have the 'out' hose, making the condenser pair connected in 'series'?

What a nice project you did to trail blaze where no man has treaded before. That is one "cool" job.

Re: Main condensor

Reply #11 –
Barry,

No, both "in" fittings are connected together, and both "out" fittings are connected together (condensers are in parallel), since I wanted to have as much flow capacity as possible.  The input connectors are larger than the output ones, since the input freon from he compressor is in vapor state, and the output is liquid, but I figured that the coach needed a much larger flow than the small car the replacement condensers were originally sourced for.  If I could have used a full-size AC condenser (which goes across a large radiator), it would have probably had enough flow capacity, but I didn't have a large enough louvered opening, so had to use two small car condensers.
Dave and Nancy
1999/2013 U270 36' Xtreme
Motorcade # 16774
2013 Subaru Outback
KD0NIM