Geronimo John

Vic and Wanda: Please also update your signature line with your trailer and tow vehicle info. This makes it less time consuming in answering questions. See mine below, or Mike and Carrol's: Thank you and great to have you on board! GJ

It's tough getting older. My replacement knees and thinner butt makes suspension maintenance a lot less fun than it used to be. But having a nice bucket and one of these really helps it to be a lot less of a PITA! Seriously. 🙂 I store my boat throw cushion as a pad to my Honda EU2200. The generator is lashed down in the curbside rear corner of the truck bed. The cushion sets vertically between the side of the generator and the side of the truck bed. Best part is I can remember where I put it! GJ

Closed always when not occupied to reduce UV damage is my recommendation. GJ

For sure. Would be interesting to know if there are any other Houghton owners with a Set 1 (Fan turns off with the compressor cycling) and when they purchased theirs. But this post and a few above would be better included into SteveCr's thread "Houghton Humidity Issues" thread. CJ

For sure. Would be interesting to know if there are any other Houghton owners with a Set 1 (Fan turns off with the compressor cycling) and when they purchased theirs.

Might be worth the question. But if it as half as complex as the drip plans have turned out to be, it's not worth the effort. But then it may just be swapping a wire on a relay. GJ

As it was designed to do. However, for owners traveling to MUCH warmer states, where summers see temperatures often in the 100's and at times well over 110 degrees, a 9K BTU unit in an OE2 would not work well at all. Hence the middle ground of 11K Btu recommendation for trailers with the upgraded? insulation package and owners that don't go out there where it is real hot. As an owner with an "Older" 2018 that does not have the rumored (Yet to be confirmed) insulation upgrade, that is "out there" all the time where it gets real hot, even 11K BTU unit likely is undersized. Hence my decision to go with the 13K BTU Houghton. As has been said before, each owner's relevant experience is based upon their use of their trailer. My hope is that those looking to go with a different A/C is to take our recommendations with knowing where and what we expect to see in heat loads to the AC when making their decisions. Thanks for your point of view. PS: Sure wish I knew in detail what that rumored insulation "update" is. It may even sway me to ponder for a second or two about a 11K BTU in 110+ areas where I have shore power that can allow me to run the unit 24/7. But then, an hour or two to cool down then would need to be considered too. I hope you are not now as confused as I am. 🙂 GJ

Likely for sure. But I best not start "Another" project. Besides I think you were the BEST and most knowledgeable person to post on this thread! Just look at those pictures of your second spare unit! 🙂 Gotcha! GJ

LOL. I know the feeling as the husband of a Masters level Electrical Engineer. She is a special rare bird in our vintage.

This was discussed in a previous thread. For hot summers, likely a 9.5 unit would be too small for most owners. A perfect solution would be an 11K BTU unit, but Houghton does not have a low profile one. But the fan would need to be cycled with the compressor regardless. Part of that discussion included thoughts concerning insulation changes OTT made recently. I would love to know some specific's about that topic! As far as energy consumption, a smaller "right sized" unit running longer will provide better humidity control than a larger unit run/stop. ESPECIALLY if it is a Set 2 Houghton unit! And in doing so generally uses less energy.

I call your attention to the last paragraph of my late December post: So it appears we all pretty much agree that the problem is humidity evaporating off the coil due to the fan running continuously. The cause is a design change by Houghton, likely to benefit Aussie owners who have far less of a humidity issue than we do in the USA. Since the question can not be answered by RecPro, time to bypass them and ask Houghton directly what specifically needs to be done to switch our Type 2 units to Type 1? I'm focused on the condensate issue. Someone want to tackle this issue directly? GJ

duplicate post deleted GJ

The picture seems to indicate this fixture is below the overhead cabinets. IF so, when the cabinet doors are closed, that area can become quite cool when the hull is cold. That could cause cold to chill the light and get it cooler than the inside of Ollie. And that could cause condensation in the fixture. If I am imagining their location properly, can you open up the cabinets to let them warm up and see if it stops. Our cabinets got REAL wet inside during a 99% humidity time in cool weather in N.C. during the summer. Opened the glass cabinet doors, problem went away.

Roger we are on the same page, and I prefer your terminology: SHIMS: The Shims are basically to shore up the support bracket as you stated. As such, I suspect they are located adjacent to the roof penetration. If correct, I have some concern about trailer suspension impacts flexing the A/C base outside of the support bracket (Picture breaking a ruler over your knee. To mitigate this, how about running a PVC support strip just outside of the two upper and lower gold circled drain holes (See Clark's large color picture above showing 20 drain holes). Such PVC support strips would provide support to that A/C, and if sealed to the roof could also divert the condensation from flowing down the side windows. We would need to take into consideration that the OE2 roof slopes at the rear of the trailer. Likely these shims would need to be flexible to track the roof down sloping camber at the rear. For the rear most area, due to the downward roof camber, their height could be augmented with additional shims to still provide weight support. I envision these shims as being about an 1 1/2" wide, and adhered directly to either Ollie. DOMETIC SPACER BLOCKS: Mossey: Thanks for the post. It confirms what Clark and I were thinking. The spacer blocks provide altitude for the 1/2" drain to pass back into the roof penetration, and also support for the aft end of the A/C. Nice to have the picture! As evaluated above, the clearance available for the drain tube is less than the tube OD. As such, I'm thinking we would want to use the Dometic kit spacer blocks plus an additional 1/4" thick spacer to gain that height for the two drain tubes trip to the hull drain tube. CONDENSATE DRAIN PANS: This would allow using two Dometic drain pans on each side of the trailer connected via a "T". I had previously considered running one side around the roof penetration, but as soon as I recalled that trailers are not always perfectly level. Tilt. If I had gone with one penetration and all four pans interconnected, eventually the if the curb side was low, the water would not flow up hill to the street side pans and then to the drain below. So my rethink is four drain pans, two penetrations just as Dometic and Ollie did. That said, the path in the Ceiling plenum zone will have to take into account the duct within a duct design of the Houghton. Comments and thoughts very much appreciated. GJ PS: If any of our Houghton DYI installers still have their Dometic Drain Kits, I would love to acquire them to mock up our approach. If so, please give me a PM. Thanks 2X!

For the F-150, here is a video for the process. Sort of a PITA. Doing so on short life span bulbs would be a commitment. Certainly worth for some. I think that the "Bambi Mod" worked well enough for our purposes. GJ

I think that JD and Patriot both have valid points. I also agree that both were a bit disrespectful and could have handled it better. In the several months we have had a deluge of posts that frankly were not germane to the majority of owners. These travel, administrative, and leisure postings to some owners are a distraction from the technical aspects needed by most owners. Some of us actually resented them. And more than one of us were madder than heck about the volume of them. An analogy would be having to watch 30 minutes commercials in the middle of your favorite TV show. Personally I think it would be better for travel, administrative, and leisure postings (Examples: what are you listening to, what are you reading, campsite cooking, etc.) to be separated from the technical postings. Also that they not be sent out to 100% of the owners every time. Sort of like having notification settings on our cell phones.....Those that want them every time great. Others could elect to not select them for forced consumption. So, I do believe they should have a place on the forum. Just not in the same place as the Technical is. From my very small corner here, I would love it if the admin and leisure topics were available and searchable as they can be real handy when we choose to find them. Is this reasonable to solution/request?

Wow X2! First, these are the four "Black Shims" that I was referring to. They would be necessary to support the aft end of the Houghton. Likely are also .4" thick, keeping it at the same level above the OTT roof as the RSB. It makes sense as the long a/c with the condenser on the aft end is quite heavy. Combined with the RSB, it appears to provide space outside of the roof 14 X 14 penetration for evaporator condensate drain and pressure relief as you mentioned. More on this below. Some good info with this. To provide a high % of condensate capture, only the four sets of 2 larger holes would need to be "Captured". From their web site: "The adapter is curved on one side the match the roof and flat on the top to accommodate the foam seal of the air conditioner. The adapter also spreads out the weight of the AC over a larger area reducing stress on the roof." I'm not convinced that a mat, such as above would work for our Houghton. I am thinking that the Houghton is designed to be supported by the RSB and the four black "Shims" (See Above). Doing so would, along with some roof side slope, would give the Houghton some clearance for the 20 drain/vent holes to function. Installing a true flat mat under the entire unit would likely prevent such functions. Your thoughts? If my premise about the RSB and 4 shims carrying by design the weight of the Houghton is not correct, then, once again I have found myself in the wrong tree (Barking up the wrong tree). Does the Houghton install instructions require shimming? Regardless, I would want to shim the unit to provide additional support as did you. What did you use? Again, I thank you for your taking the time for myself, and other owners who are interested in buying and installing a Houghton. GJ

Clark: Thank you for the great response. Extremely helpful! I can now understand why we just live with it as is. The benefit of quiet is 1000X better than the condensate concern. None the less, worth a bit of brain effort to comprehend what I am seeing. Some brain teasers: UNIT DRAIN HOLES: It appears that there are 20 each drain holes. As they are in a pattern by design, I am thinking that not all 20 of them are for evaporator condensate. If they were, Houghton would need an exotic air containment system for higher pressure Supply Air from the coil than the pressure outside the unit (atmosphere). Without such a design feature, there would be a LOT of cold Supply Air leaking out those many holes. It is possible that many of them are drain ports for rain, snow or splash that has entered the condenser coil area or when traveling? If so, we would not need to capture that rain water. Just let it flow over the side. If that's the case, can we determine which ones are actually evaporator coil condensate drains? That could simplify the collection of actual cold condensate. ROOF SUPPORT BRACKET (RSB): The four main anchoring bolts in the corners of the RSB are on 13.5" centers. As such, it appears that the RSB OD is about 14 .5" square roughly. Am I correct in assuming that the RSB and the four black "shims together support the unit on our "flat" Ollie roof? As stated the RSB raises the A/C about 10 mm (+/- .4") above the roof itself providing "not much clearance" between the roof and A/C. If I were to add a 1" thick spacer over the existing roof penetration (along with 1" spacers over the four black supports (also shown to the right in the white plastic), then .4" of the elevated space would be consumed. That would leave .6" of clearance to get a .5" drain tube back into the unit. Basically we would need a path forward with both of the above ideas to proceed further. What am I missing? JPR

HOUGHTON 13.5 KBTU Owners: If you have easy access to your unit, I would very much appreciate knowing the number and location of the condensate drain holes. thank you, GJ

Another way is to turn on your pump and open the shower valve, and spray the shower stream out the bathroom window, or into the toilet.

YES! Taking any kind of compensation puts you in a different legal class when torts are committed or occur. In non legal terms, an amateur (One not paid or compensated) is far less likely to be behind an 8-ball than a professional (One that got paid for the effort that went wrong). Just about anything of value can be considered compensation. Points, free stay, a turkey at Christmas...... Fankly I would not ever take anything from anybody involved with showing or selling OTTs. Just opens up a can of worms.

For sure when this Dometic blows up, I'll be buying a Thetford as you both are suggesting. Which specific model number are you each using?

Chuck: That height tilt got me as well. I'm thinking I'm all "flushed out" on this brand. In the mean time, maybe a few Sears and Roebuck catalogs can be found for foot rests. 😞 Please do advise on what you figure out about this dung home cover. OLLIE OWNERS: Are there other brands that are maintainable out there we could migrate to? thanks GJ

If you have 120v power, get a converter plug to fix your garage duplex outlet and the 30 amp shore power plug that comes with your Ollie. Both are single phase so no worries. If your OTT provided 30 amp 120V single phase cord is too short, I recommend getting a running a 12 AWG extension cord (up to 20' long to get to your house power. With that, you can manage power to only use 16 or so amps at a time, assuming your house power circuit is a 20 amp breaker. If it is a 15 amp, then you can play safely with 10 amps or so long term. GJ.

As Mike stated "slow down and pay attention!" for sure. When I-70 towing across Wyoming in the summer, we just about always encounter thunder boomers. When I see the first one, I turn on my rear view camera to be better aware of any approaching high speed idiots coming up from behind. The thunder boomers there tend to set up on alternating sides of the interstate about every ten miles. When their broadside gust fronts hit us, I have found it much less of a "white knuckle" event by also "going slower, paying attention, and practicing active driving. Broadside, those gust fronts can easily move our loaded F-150 and Ollie sideways a few feet or more. In traffic you have no choice but to fight it and to stay in your lane. This is when having a TV rated for 1/3 more than being towed, a properly loaded Oliver Trailer, and our Anderson combine to provide peace of mind. That said, when the road is disserted and if you are anticipating the arrival of the next cumulonimbus gust front based upon which side of the road it is on. Once I clear an encounter, I will move into the lane towards where I can see the next thunderboomer developing. When you have a 95% probability of being able to anticipate a gust front's direction, you can relax just a bit. When it hits, I know the traffic situation around us, and if clear, I can safely act to somewhat depower the gust front by drifting with it into the vacant down wind adjacent lane. This is what I meant by active driving when it is safe to do so. GJ