I am active duty Air Force and my girlfriend and myself are always taking trips to both her home and mine both of which are 1000+ mile trips. We now have pets and are trying to figure out how to transport them. I would like to add and electric heat/Air conditioning unit to the bed of my truck for the pets on the long trips. The product info sheet says it draws 12.2 amps. would I have to upgrade my trucks electrical system for it?

here is a link to the unit
http://www.partdeal.com/red-dot-duct...FQ2OaQodz-0B_g

 

Should be no problem. To put it in perspective, the light bars you see people running around with can draw 20+ amps (for a 50 inch one) and those folks aren't upgrading their electrical systems. You have a lot more than 12 amps of margin/buffer, thankfully.

P.S. Thanks for your service!

 

I'd be less concerned about upgrading the electrical system than with upgrading the AC compressor and condenser. With as many people complaining about AC performance, I'm not convinced the stock unit can handle a second evaporator. I'm not sure where you could attach a 2nd compressor on the front of the engine either.

Heating mode would probably be fine as long as you can identify an easy place to tap into the coolant supply and return.

--Rick

 

All you have here is an evaporator coil with a heating element. the 12.2 amps is probably the max draw on the heating element plus fan.

To have this operate as an AC unit, you still need the compressor, condensing coil, expansion valve and all the tubing to go along with that. The existing parts on your truck will not work, as they are not designed to run a dual system.
Also to keep in mind the bed of the truck with a cap on it is about 3x the size of the cab, so that system you picked out might not be up to the task.


Get an RV 120V 15A AC unit and a hitch mounted Generator to power it. Heck you can even use that if you ever go camping in death valley in the middle of August.

OR

This will be hillbilly as heck, find an old small car with working AC, strip all the interior from it, put it on a trailer and tow it behind you. That's what my neighbor did.

 

Thanks for the help. I found a 12 VDC R134a AC Compressor would that work? Then I would just need a condenser a valve and a water removing what-ya-call-it that work with it right? Sorry for all the questions, I not very familiar with automotive AC.

 

Have you thought about putting a cap on the back, and mounting a AC/heater from a camper to it?

 

Sounds like your best bet.
The 'adding a compressor' path will be extremely costly and probably won't fit all.

 

Complete unit;
http://www.campingworld.com/shopping...e-shroud/72717
Now you need a small generator to run this;
https://www.briggsandstratton.com/us...ors/powersmart

 

A 12V DC compressor big enough is going to draw a LOT of current (i.e. >100A). I did a quick search and the 12V units I found are called Micro Cooling. They pull about 15A at 12V, but only provide about 2K BTU of cooling. The evaporator you found earler was for 18K BTU cooling so you would need 9 of the above units.

Unless you put the pets in the cab, as several others have mentioned by now, your cleanest option is going to be a roof mounted RV AC unit and find some place to mount a 120V generator to power it.

--Rick

 

As everyone has pointed out so far, the system you are looking to install is going to be very expensive and complicated. and with the compressor that you are thinking off, way under-powered.

The compressor that you will need to provide the 10K+ BTUs needed to keep that truck bed cool will probably draw about 100 Amps, will be in the $2k price range, and that is before you add a big alternator and possibly a second battery to power it. You are probably better off just adding a pulley compressor at that point.