We have a 2006 Discovery 39L with two 13500 BTU Coleman noisemakers on the roof. The work ok but are so darn noisy it makes watching TV less than fun...'What did she say'.
After seeing a friends installation of a mini-split in his 5th wheel, I decided to put one in the pusher. However, I wanted to hide the outside unit as much as possible and not just hang it on the rear bumper like my friend did. I've seen other 5th wheels and tag-a-longs with it on the rear bumper also.
So where to put it. I didn't want to put it in a slideout and that meant that unless I wanted to run really long refrigerant lines, it needed to be up front. My inside unit is going in the center of the coach in the overhead above the dash. This lets it blow right down the length of the coach.
On most all pushers, there is a basement in front of the drivers front wheel. In my case, this has a plastic tub that is fastened to the structure of the frame. A few screws and off it came. I had previously looked under the coach and determined it would work.
I had to fabricate a support that bolted to some existing structure and a 1/8" aluminum floor. I also made and installed (after everything was hooked up) a 1/8" aluminum inner fender the shields the unit from road debris and water thrown by the tires.
The outside unit installed with a hole cut for the exhaust fan looks like this:
The inside unit went where our TV originally was. Last year, I threw out the crappy loveseat and built a cabinet, with 8 drawers, fireplace, pull out dining table, and a 52" smart TV on a televator. The old table and chairs was donated to another Discovery owner, the couch moved down, and Euro recliners face the TV. We never watched the old TV so I had converted it to storage.
The new unit fit perfectly in the opening:
The refrigerant lines, drain, and electrical all went behind the plastic cover on the 'A Pillar'...windshield corner...and through holes drilled in the overhead. Very clean installation with nothing visible.
The area below the unit is a BIG drawer. Above the unit are louvers for the return air that I made to block the view of the unfinished cabinet and direct the airflow down.
This unit far surpasses my expectation. FAR! Today was 95 and 90 percent humidity. It was 79 in the coach when I turned it on. Two hours later it was 70 in the front and 75 in the bedroom. Better than the Colemans do together. The rooftop units still work if I ever needed them.
In addition to be VERY efficient, it is almost silent. 50DB vs 79DB for a single Coleman...every 10 DB doubles volume so it's right at 4 times quieter. Plus there is no water dripping off the roof splashing on the mirror or steps.
I did run a new 120V line and used a duplex circuit breaker (two breakers in a single space). This unit is soft start and only pulls 6 amps flat out. It is smart inverter technology so the compressor and fan is variable speed. Made in China of course. I purchased a Senville brand because a friend in the business recommends them. It was about 800 bucks with free delivery. That said, I expect they are all made in the same factory or at least the same city in China. I downloaded a few manuals and they are 95% identical.
Some folks have run these off the inverter if you have enough solar. We don't dry camp or have solar so we won't. If we need AC while driving, I'll run the rooftops. I'm concerned about road debris and spray hitting the exhaust fan if we ran it while moving. I've also made shields to protect the coils while driving, although the dash AC condenser is right there also and has held up fine for 14 years.
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