staying cool

Wednesday we picked up our mail and had gotten the newest sale flier from Camping World. They had air conditioners on sale and we had been talking about adding a second a/c for about 2 years now. We talked it over and I did a little research on the internet just to make sure the price was decent. Saturday morning I called them and made sure the model I was looking for was in stock.

We wanted a low profile unit since it would mount over our bedroom and would extend our height and we both felt a full size one would cause some extra worry on low clearances.

Camping World is south of Indianapolis in the suburb city of Greenwood and sits right off Interstate 65. The drive took us a little over an hour and the parking lot was pretty full when we arrived. I was supposed to ask for Barbara who I had talked to on the phone and was holding the last Dometic Penguin they had in stock for me.

Babara had everything ready for us and we were able to avoid most of the crowd wandering the aisles. We paid the bill and drove to the back of the service area where they were waiting for us with the a/c on a fork lift. We got it loaded up and headed back home. Let the fun begin! Now we get to install this sucker!

The first step was to remove the crank up vent which the air conditioner would replace. I took the trim off the interior and then got the ladder out and headed up onto the roof. Of course I didn't bring the right tools with me but Rudee came to my rescue and brought up what I needed. The vent is about 18" x 18" and was attached to the roof with 32 screws! I guess they didn't want it falling off! :-)

Once the vent was off we cleaned the old sealer off the roof and then it was time to carry the air conditioner up. Hmmmmmm, this should be interesting :-).

I tied a rope around the unit and sent Rudee back up onto the roof. The plan was for her to pull with the rope while I climbed the ladder while pushing the unit up ahead of me. Now this thing weighs probably 50 lbs and is pretty big so it's not going to be easy.

With Rudee pulling I started climbing. The first 10' went pretty easy but then the higher I got the "bouncy-er" the ladder got :-O. Rudee kept pulling and I made it to the edge of the roof. Now we just had to hoist the a/c over onto the roof. I'm not sure exactly how we did it but somehow the a/c made it over the top of the ladder and was now sitting on top of Rudee who was flat on her back on the roof!

I was able to climb around her, the a/c and the ladder to get onto the roof we were able to move it off of her. Whew! That was a big job!

We got the a/c positioned over the hole where the vent had been and headed back down. All the rest of the installation could be done from the inside.

Our 5th wheel came "pre-wired" for a second a/c unit which means the factory had already ran the power wires and there was a breaker for them in the breaker box. That made my job a lot easier. I just had to hook up the wires in the ceiling to the wires in the air conditioner and attach the control unit to the bedroom ceiling. The a/c is held onto the roof by 3 long bolts that are inserted from the inside and compress a gasket which gives you a weather tight seal.

With Rudee's help I got it wired and bolted down. We positioned and attached the control unit and turned the breaker on. Hooray, no smoke or fire! Best of all the a/c works! Whoo Hoo.

We got the tools and ladder cleaned up and headed for the pool to get cooled down. We both felt pretty good about our accomplishment. We had never installed an air conditioner before and sometimes our little "projects" turn into nightmares :-). This one went really well and we make a pretty good team:-).

No big plans for this week, just working to get another week closer to retirement. I'll keep you posted.