2014 Big Horn 2nd A/C option

When you opt for the 2nd a/c in the bedroom, is it fully ducted to augment the existing living room a/c or is it an isolated unit only supplying cooling for the bedroom?

Is it noisy?

I see the traditional a/c grate with the quick-cool slider in pictures and this has me concerned about the noise level. The a/c in our current trailer with this set up is annoyingly loud.

It is now fully ducted and integrated with living. We have on new BC. I did make sure it was spelled out in our order.

When run on low it's not noisy. There is no dump grate as there is in living just an input. Suggestion is to run living at night on high and bedroom on low. We're getting some vibration we're going to check.

It's also suggested to run rear on low and front on high during the day. That only worked so well for us. At 85 or higher rear needs to be on high. We then put front on low.

Overall bedroom worked great. I even turned on for a bit during the evening after shutting off and it cooled it right down. Thermostat on closet wall by bed is handy.

How's the noise level in both the living room and bedroom?

Living is noisy on high especially when quick cool vent is opened. Bedroom is ok on low. But again we're feeling some vibration.

Your talking Bighorn vs Big Country and their are differences, I don't know if Bighorn has made the transition to Ducted Bedroom AC. Would be nice if someone with a 2014 would chime in. I think a lot has to do with the brand AC's that are being used. We have a low profile Penquin that sounds like a freight train. No way could be use it during the night so we have been using the Living Room on low at night, but we haven't had temps in the upper 80's at night while in Florida. Nor do we have ducted AC in the bedroom. That's a feature I would love to have but I don't see a new Bighorn in the future.

I just had one installed in my BC last month. It was prewired and the ducts are combined with the front. It is just a noisy as the front one but it sure makes a difference on the cooling. I have separate thermo stats for each of them. Mine has the quick coll vents just like the front one.

I've read online that Airxcel (Coleman Mach) AC's have models that are real quiet, they have just brought them out in the US but they have been used for years in Australia, they have a low speed that is real quiet and the units don't draw as much electricity when running. If I win the lottery I might pull of my Penquin, sell it on Ebay and try one of Airxcel's models.

When I had a vibration in my LR a/c the problem was the rubber compressor mounts. Dometic used the wrong mounts and replaced the mounts and most all of the vibration went away.
Don

Right now we're only using our current trailer for weekends/vacations. The a/c vibration and noise is so annoying that I never want another rv with this problem. The ducted a/c in our previous Mobile Suites was excellent. I would spend the money for another DRV just to avoid a repeat of a bad a/c arrangement.

If the BC and BH are having noise issues then I cannot see us purchasing one. We need to check out the LM's quiet cool set up. Every LM we've looked at on dealer lots have not been hooked up to electrical service so we've not been able to judge the noise level.

Thanks for all the replies. Great forum!

I'll let Joe know to check on this.

donr827 said:

When I had a vibration in my LR a/c the problem was the rubber compressor mounts. Dometic used the wrong mounts and replaced the mounts and most all of the vibration went away.
Don

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I wasn't aware that you could add an AC in the bedroom and have it join the ducting in the bedroom and living....was that part of the prepping? I thought the bedroom AC's were stand alone, low-profile...

I feel very sure that the BH made the transition to ducted bedroom AC - it's even indicated as an option for the 2014 BH (that's what brought it to my attention). (I was concerned that BC might not and that is the reason that I had it spelled out so specifically - I was still concerned until we ran it during our PDI.) We would not have ordered the BC if it did not have that feature. We have two 15K AC's (bedroom is not low profile nor does it have the cool vent) - the ACs are integrated.

It was interesting "playing" with these for the first time during the Goshen rally as that was our first trip that required AC. We just loved the bedroom AC and how well it cooled the living area as well. On days that were less than 85 or so and not too sunny, we ran just the bedroom AC on high. It's not as loud as the living because it doesn't have the cool vent.

The living worked just as our BH had. There was a day when it got pretty warm in the rear - we began to worry that the bedroom AC was overpowering the living. So we experimeted by running the living on high and the bedroom on low - much better in the living - actually got cold while we were at the factory tour. We also closed the bath door because the air just pours in there and the thermostat is right outside the bath. We're going to get a cover for the bath ac vent.

This am while we were packing up and it was already getting close to 80, we just used the bedroom AC and it was very comfortable - it's amazing how well the bedroom AC can cool the living.

We are going to speak with service regarding the living AC - it just doesn't seem to be cooling correctly. They did do some fixes to it during the rally.

Theresa

Westwind said:

Your talking Bighorn vs Big Country and their are differences, I don't know if Bighorn has made the transition to Ducted Bedroom AC. Would be nice if someone with a 2014 would chime in. I think a lot has to do with the brand AC's that are being used. We have a low profile Penquin that sounds like a freight train. No way could be use it during the night so we have been using the Living Room on low at night, but we haven't had temps in the upper 80's at night while in Florida. Nor do we have ducted AC in the bedroom. That's a feature I would love to have but I don't see a new Bighorn in the future.

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Have you considered the heat pumps? I also heard something being discussed about the 2014 BH's getting quieter ACs... I suggest checking with Heartland itself.

jbbdc said:

Right now we're only using our current trailer for weekends/vacations. The a/c vibration and noise is so annoying that I never want another rv with this problem. The ducted a/c in our previous Mobile Suites was excellent. I would spend the money for another DRV just to avoid a repeat of a bad a/c arrangement.

If the BC and BH are having noise issues then I cannot see us purchasing one. We need to check out the LM's quiet cool set up. Every LM we've looked at on dealer lots have not been hooked up to electrical service so we've not been able to judge the noise level.

Thanks for all the replies. Great forum!

Click to expand...

We won't be getting heat pumps. We're going to add a hybrid gas/electric system which will enable us to run the furnace on electric. It will heat at any temperature and not be limited to around 39-40 degrees as with heat pumps.

My understanding is the heat pumps are used for AC. Reason I mentioned.

jbbdc said:

We won't be getting heat pumps. We're going to add a hybrid gas/electric system which will enable us to run the furnace on electric. It will heat at any temperature and not be limited to around 39-40 degrees as with heat pumps.

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Theresau said:

My understanding is the heat pumps are used for AC. Reason I mentioned.

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Heat pumps essentially run the Air Conditioner backwards, extracting heat from outside and moving it inside to warm the coach. When outside temps get down to 40 degrees, the heat pump shuts off and the furnace comes on.

Don't they also cool the trailer?

danemayer said:

Heat pumps essentially run the Air Conditioner backwards, extracting heat from outside and moving it inside to warm the coach. When outside temps get down to 40 degrees, the heat pump shuts off and the furnace comes on.

Click to expand...

No...the heat pump portion of the A/C only heats...

Ok - thanks. Reason I thought it cooled as well is that MH's come with that option for cooling and heating. We never investigated when ordering the new BC.

kakampers said:

No...the heat pump portion of the A/C only heats...

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The system does also cool, but it uses the A/C portion. It uses a reversing valve and the system will switch from heat pump to A/C when the thermostat is set on auto. It is one unit with both A/C and a heat pump added. The heat pump heats and the A/C cools..