Installing Pioneer Inverter AC

[Treasure Coast Vault]

Hello this is my first post! I am removing the Dometic AC that came with my 2021 LE 2. I bought a Pioneer Inverter AC/Heat Pump 13,500 BTU. Any tips on removal and installation will be gratefully accepted!

[CRM]

5 minutes ago, Treasure Coast Vault said:

Hello this is my first post! I am removing the Dometic AC that came with my 2021 LE 2. I bought a Pioneer Inverter AC/Heat Pump 13,500 BTU. Any tips on removal and installation will be gratefully accepted!

Looks like a re-badged Greenland/Turbro and I think you'll be the first one here to install one of these. Planning on buying one myself if/when the price comes back down. 

[jd1923]

On 6/3/2025 at 3:31 PM, Treasure Coast Vault said:

Hello this is my first post! I am removing the Dometic AC that came with my 2021 LE 2. I bought a Pioneer Inverter AC/Heat Pump 13,500 BTU. Any tips on removal and installation will be gratefully accepted!

Awesome! Keep us posted. Welcome to our community!

[SeaDawg]

I'd guess you are pioneering the Pioneer install. Yes, it looks identical to the Gree/Turbro Greenland. I think you will enjoy the energy savings and quiet of an inverter compressor ac. Glad to see they are FINALLY becoming available here in the USA. 

The biggest challenge in our swap from the Dometic Dinosaur unit to our littler Hougton was getting units off, and on the roof. 

We used 3 people, safety ropes,,and two ladders. Used carpet, upside down, to slide the new unit forward, after getting it to the top.

Install on our Houghton was pretty straightforward.  All these are set for the standard 14 x 14 approximate  openening. We did have to fare out the opening a bit of some jagged edges. I'll bet you find the same.

Have you seen the install manual? Is it possible to connect the condensate line? We could not with our houghton.

Are you planning to resell the dometic you remove?

 

 

[Ronbrink]

On 6/3/2025 at 5:31 PM, Treasure Coast Vault said:

Hello this is my first post! I am removing the Dometic AC that came with my 2021 LE 2. I bought a Pioneer Inverter AC/Heat Pump 13,500 BTU. Any tips on removal and installation will be gratefully accepted!

Removal made easy, used moving blankets to protect the gel coat. I detailed my a/c swap in Dreiha Atmos 4.4 Home Install/Ollie Modifications; follow your installation manual, the process should be very similar in general. 

Edited June 11 by Ronbrink

[CRM]

10 hours ago, SeaDawg said:

I'd guess you are pioneering the Pioneer install. Yes, it looks identical to the Gree/Turbro Greenland.

They definitely look identical, but what is interesting is that the Pioneer has a 3 year warranty while the Turbro only has 1. 

[Treasure Coast Vault]

Good morning Folks. I have a friend who has a car lift in his Mancave at Treasure Coast Vault and we are going to use that to lift the units on and off. I am giving him the Dometic for his Race Car Trailer for installing the unit. I ordered a 2 wire Honeywell battery powered thermostat for the Gas Heater so that I can give him the control box for the Dometic.

I am thinking the drain will prolly be abandoned.

 

 

[Treasure Coast Vault]

I installed the Pioneer A/C. Went very smooth. They make it easy. All the foam insulating collar and vibration pads are adhered to the unit. Just clean up the residue from the old unit and install it. Much quieter than the Dometic. Draws anywhere from 64 watts on fan and 500 to 700 watts when the compressor kicks on. Runs effortlessly on my inverter with no shore power.

[CRM]

2 hours ago, Treasure Coast Vault said:

I installed the Pioneer A/C. Went very smooth. They make it easy. All the foam insulating collar and vibration pads are adhered to the unit. Just clean up the residue from the old unit and install it. Much quieter than the Dometic. Draws anywhere from 64 watts on fan and 500 to 700 watts when the compressor kicks on. Runs effortlessly on my inverter with no shore power.

 

Wow, that's a pretty low draw and I'm now leaning even harder towards purchasing one of these myself.

If you ever get the chance to run it on a lower temp night (in the 70's or so with humidity on the high side) I'd love to know how it manages controlling the humidity. I'm hoping the invertor compressor will able to throttle down low enough to continue running and remove humidity without cycling the compressor on and off.  

[Treasure Coast Vault]

It has a DeHumidifier Mode. Have not tried it yet.

[jd1923]

7 hours ago, Treasure Coast Vault said:

Runs effortlessly on my inverter with no shore power.

Could you let us know what model inverter, Ah LiFePO4 and if possible could you show your app pic showing the -A draw with the compressor running?

Also btw, quieter than the Dometic P2 is a lot like stating, “lighter than an elephant!” I know it’s near impossible to measure sound volume, forget the bad apps that attempt to do so. 🤣

Like @CRM I’m leaning towards the inverter A/C vs. some of the others. Running longer on batteries to me is more important than whisper quiet now, if it’s amply quiet enough.

Thank you so much for posting this!

[CRM]

12 hours ago, jd1923 said:

 if possible could you show your app pic showing the -A draw with the compressor running?

 

I would like to see this too. The specs for that unit call for cooling input power of  850 ~ 1500W so I'm guessing the compressor was operating at the lower end of it's capacity with the low watts he was seeing. Don't see how it's possible to get 13500 BTU's from 500-700 watts but I'd love to be wrong on that! The EER rating would need to be the the 20 range for that low of a watt draw. 

[Treasure Coast Vault]

I have the Xantrex XC 3000 as shown in pics and 2 LifeBlue 200 AH Batteries.

Here is with AC Compressor running and the lower wattage is compressor cycled off and fan running. It will drop down to near 500 watts as it cycles. It starts up around 200 watts and ramps up to 720 and settles in a few seconds just under 700 watts on start.

 

[CRM]

1 hour ago, Treasure Coast Vault said:

I have the Xantrex XC 3000 as shown in pics and 2 LifeBlue 200 AH Batteries.

Here is with AC Compressor running and the lower wattage is compressor cycled off and fan running. It will drop down to near 500 watts as it cycles. It starts up around 200 watts and ramps up to 720 and settles in a few seconds just under 700 watts on start.

 

Your watt numbers closely match those seen in this test of the Turbro unit (which I assume is the same as the Pioneer) when it is throttled down into the 8000 BTU range. It has a crazy good EER of 18 at that BTU range and I bet it will run at that lower level in an LE2 in most situations once set temperature is met. They only recorded a max watt draw of 1100 watts while running at full capacity which is also a crazy good number. 

Thanks for sharing this info... I'm just waiting and hoping for a sale on one now. 

[dewdev]

@Treasure Coast Vault

So glad you posted this AC unit. Were you able to use the existing condensate line on the Ollie?

A step by step description of your install would be very help for us folks thing of making the same modification.

Did you have to modify the existing opening after removing the old AC?

Thanks

Edited Saturday at 11:46 PM by dewdev

[Ronbrink]

18 hours ago, CRM said:

Your watt numbers closely match those seen in this test of the Turbro unit (which I assume is the same as the Pioneer) when it is throttled down into the 8000 BTU range. It has a crazy good EER of 18 at that BTU range and I bet it will run at that lower level in an LE2 in most situations once set temperature is met. They only recorded a max watt draw of 1100 watts while running at full capacity which is also a crazy good number. 

Thanks for sharing this info... I'm just waiting and hoping for a sale on one now. 

Watched the video, very interesting. In reading through the comments it appears the inverter compressor runs continuously, as in never shuts down. It was also reported that the TG only reached 12.5K BTUs in the tests, shy of its 13.5K rating. Although humidity concerns were not discussed, it would seem there could be benefit in the compressor running continuously; however longevity may be compromised. Perhaps the OP can provide comment on observations made regarding cabin humidity conditions. 

[CRM]

23 minutes ago, Ronbrink said:

Watched the video, very interesting. In reading through the comments it appears the inverter compressor runs continuously, as in never shuts down. It was also reported that the TG only reached 12.5K BTUs in the tests, shy of its 13.5K rating. Although humidity concerns were not discussed, it would seem there could be benefit in the compressor running continuously; however longevity may be compromised. Perhaps the OP can provide comment on observations made regarding cabin humidity conditions. 

I think it is purposely designed to run continuously the majority of the time and to keep a steady temp / humidity level which is exactly what I've been looking for. The mostly steady state running at a MUCH lower watts *should* equate to less stress on the unit as compared to the typical non-invertor AC's frequent start/stop of the compressor and the surge amps encountered each time. Being fairly new there's really no way to know the reliability yet for sure, but a 3 year warranty makes the gamble worth it to me. 

Personally, I also don't worry about the unit testing a little low on BTU's at max since I'm running a Coleman Mach 9600 BTU unit that has no problem keeping our LE2 cool and humidity low. It also tested higher than the Dometic that he replaced. 

 

[Treasure Coast Vault]

Turn off AC Breaker and Remove Furnace Fuse

Step 1 Remove Interior Trims and Screws. 

Step 2 Remove the 4 Mounting bolts from Inside cabin.

Step 3 Take a picture of the wiring

Step 4 Disconnect all wiring to the Control Box and disconnect drain hose

Step 5 use a little Braid fishing line up on the roof to cut the seal on 1 corner of the AC mounting gasket.

Step 6 Break loose the unit by picking up on the Braid loosened corner then working your way to each corner until unil is no longer attached

Step 7 Remove old rooftop unit

Step 8 Clean the residue from the old gasket with any type of oil even vegetable or olive will work, Scrub the oil off after.

Step 9 set the roof top unit in place. All the foam seal and leveling is attached don't overthink it just mount it. Hole is perfect size already.

Step 10 Open Dometic Furnace and use a continuity tester to ID the 2 wire from the Furnace. They were blue on the Furnace but changed to blue and green somewhere before arriving up at the interior hole on my Ollie

Step 11 Remove Dometic Thermostat and ID the wires to the Interior hole. I had a 3 wire Green, Red, White.

Step 12 wire 2 wires from Furnace to Red and white going to ThermoStat. Push the wires into the channel the wires are in up top to get them out of the way

Step 13 Cut off drain pipe even with opening. No longer needed

Step 14 Eye up 4 mounting bolt holes in the square hole and make them even spaced to each corner. Mine used the 2 inch one.

Step 15 Apply the correct thickness foam seal to the Unit or bottom bracket.

Step 16 Mount the bracket make be sure to feed the wires through the big opening.

Step 17 Connect the connectors and hook up power wire

Step 18 Torque the bolts to 3.5 lbs

Step 19 Install the trims

Step 20 Install the batteries in the remote.

Turn on the breaker and fire it up

Refrain from using the LED lights for at least a day the Joy of the New AC and then the lights will be too much for your body to take in 1 sitting!

Get a 2 wire Heat Only Thermostat for the Furnace. I will post the one I got later. Wire it up and install the fuse.

Enjoy

I may of forgotten a few things but you Geniuses can help me with that. ;^))

The Interior trim is much smaller than the Dometic, There will be 2 screw holes showing, I am thinking just get 2 screws with finish washers and fill the hole. Let me know if there's an easier fix.

 

 

 

[jd1923]

1 hour ago, CRM said:

AC's frequent start/stop of the compressor and the surge amps encountered each time. Being fairly new there's really no way to know the reliability yet for sure, but a 3 year warranty makes the gamble worth it to me. 

Personally, I also don't worry about the unit testing a little low on BTU's

 Very well stated, to which I wholeheartedly agree! 9K BTU should be enough for the Cu Ft of an Oliver.

Of course, I have less concerns re humidity than the two of you from Houston and Tampa!

We are 4 weeks into our longest Oliver trip and there's been a heat wave, thank Goodness it just ended. Had to run the awful Dometic P2 over 4 nights and likely a couple more as we approach AZ.

Noise was my greatest concern, but now it’s 2nd to Ah consumption. I ran it while towing for 90 min (see my post) and used 216 Ah. I could only afford to do so since we were driving to a campsite with electric.

Given the Inverter A/C numbers hold true, we could do the same likely using <100 Ah and would be able to continue A/C use for a few hours at a dry campsite.

The Atmos/Tosot may be quieter, but either choice has got to be half the dBs of the P2!

So @CRM, I’m counting on you being next! I’m now strongly in this camp and will upgrade prior to getting stuck on the next trip in a heat wave. You guys are always in a humid heatwave!

[CRM]

2 hours ago, jd1923 said:

So @CRM, I’m counting on you being next! I’m now strongly in this camp and will upgrade prior to getting stuck on the next trip in a heat wave. You guys are always in a humid heatwave!

I'll be picking one up for sure as soon as I see the price drop a little. I really should have picked one up when they were in the $1,200 dollar range based on the inverter technology alone...

One thing for certain, the second I buy one another even more efficient one will hit the market!