I had a second low-pro installed by my dealer after a lot of drama (including putting the wrong unit on first). I wanted it ducted in, but they said the a/c units would fight each other. So they put a Dometic penguin II in with a non-ducted celing kit.

I'm over all not impressed with the installation. There is a pre-wire for a thermostat at the light switch for the bedroom and I was fully expecting ducted with a proper thermostat. The non-ducted ceiling kit is just on/off, with no thermostat it seems. It just runs all the time.

Should I put a standard air return on it and duct it back into the celing with a thermostat? In FL this year with both A/C's running the Bedroom was ICE cold, but the main living area had trouble drawing the temp down during the peak heat of the day.

In the pictures of my trailer from the manufacturer it shows a ducted a/c return in the master bedroom. I have zero faith in the dealership to make any correct decisions which is why I'm questioning this.

 

They would fight each other? Are they joking or just inexperienced. Dual ac units have shared ducting every since they came to be. Duct it and use a t-stat the way it was intended. What do yo have, a Reflection?

Steve

 

I have fought with this dealership since I bought my trailer. It's been extremely frustrating. The most simple of tasks eludes them, but they were a dealer, and I had no experience with a second ducted A/C unit. I deferred to their judgement despite how terrible it was going against my gut feeling.

They quoted me 1500 and 4 days to install a low profile 13.5k Penguin II back in June. Three weeks after the promised delivery date, I recieved my trailer with the wrong A/C unit (A Standard profile 13.5k unit), no thermostat, and missing the weather stripping gasket. It leaked, I got a promise to "Make it right" after I returned from a one month excursion.

They did eventually get the right A/C unit on there, after telling me they were losing money on the deal (In all fairness, they did fire the idiot service manager that said that). There are other more simple warranty items that I need to get fixed that at this point (minor re-sealing/caulking around the City water connection port and alignment of the sliding glass door) I feel like would be way easier for me to just fix on my own.

The dealer was HitchRV in Delaware which I'm going to guess my experience is average as far as dealers go. I had low expectations when I started my purchase, they have painfully exceeded that low bar. I have a 2017 Wolfpack 325Pack13.

 

I have two a/c, ducted into the entire trailer.


Both run by separate thermostats. I have not seen any blood from them fighting each other.

 

The silly thing about this is doing it correctly is really not that much more work. They did save some money, however by going with the ceiling controls. For a ducted system with t-stat installed correctly, considering they had to get the caulking off the roof vent opening first and they had to install two air conditioners, they ate a couple hours of shop time plus getting two ACs shipped in. I doubt they lost money, but they didn't make a lot either. Unless you order in bulk from Dometic, their markup is pretty darn slim!

Steve

 

Other than the dealer issues you are experiencing what do you think of your 325pack13? Quality and durability? I'm looking into purchasing a toy hauler next summer and I'm very interested in the 325pack13. I haven't got to look at one in person yet because the nearest dealer that has one in stock is about 4-5 hours away. I have a Can Am Maverick Max that i'll be hauling and need the 13' garage. I assume your hauling with a super duty, I have a 2012 F250 6.7. What can I expect?

 

I'm hauling with a 6.2 gasser and 4.30 gears. It does the job, but gets terrible gas mileage compared to a diesel truck.

*Deep Breath*

Please take the following review as an indictment against the RV industry as a whole. I got what I paid for, but only because there was no alternative choice to what I needed and what I was willing to afford. I needed to haul two motorcycles or ATVs and four kids comfortably for 6-8 weeks every summer. I do not ever plan to fulltime in this unit, and I absolutely would have paid premiums for a higher quality product if I were going to do that. I wanted to have these memories with my kids. That meant buying something I could afford, while not yet at retirement age, that was going to see ~60 nights per year of use. I like the way the trailer is laid out. I needed two bathrooms. I have four boys. It's big enough and has all the feature we need.

Quality.... Well, It's a mass produced unit. I think the best way I heard it put by a sales person is that it's the "Working mans ToyHauler". Which means you're gonna get what you're paying for and nothing more. It's a 40,000 dollar 5th wheel toyhauler. I consider it a base model version of an XLR/Nitro, it doesn't have any of the fancy accouterments (Fancy stereo/Electronics packages) or the bedroom slide like a higher end Forest River Toyhauler, but it's built to the same level of quality assurance, which sucks in my opinion.

Warranty/Build Quality Problems:

There are welds on the Non structural part of the rear bumper that look like they handed the welder to a 12 year old and told him to figure it out. Also, I guess he could be trusted with a welder, but not a grinder as there are pieces of wire sticking out of the powder coat. I'd be embarrassed to put my name on that job. Not a Lippert fault there, but more likely something a forest river employee jacked up. Some parts of the trailer are assembled great! Other parts looks like they were wrapping up on a Friday at 3pm. The cap has gaps in the caulking, the bedroom has some interior paneling that's not glued flat, the door way.

The Dinette broke as soon as we converted to a bed the first time. The ledge that holds the table was not anchored to anything structural and tore through the balsa wood material immediately. I fixed that with a couple pieces of scrap wood from home depot. Sturdier than a warranty fix.

The storage and propane doors are all bowed in. Not even sure if that's fixable. The doors don't leak, and everything lines up around the seal. Is it supposed to be that way because it looks like crap.

Upgrades/fixes:

Immediately there are some modifications that need to be done. The stock suspension on the trailer is woefully inadequate and at minimum needs a mor-ryde sre suspension installed (I've already done this). One Ducted A/C unit doesn't get the job done at all. Not even up north. Plan on a second A/C unit.

I wish it had a skylight in the kitchen area and the garage. It stays very dark in those areas during the day. I think I may convert my storm screen doors to plexi glass to help with this during the summer months. I'm really not crazy about the awning design, but that's more of a thing you have to deal with when you have a curb side slide out.

I wish they would have done a better job with storage as there is a massive area of empty space directly under the master bedroom that could have been used for additional basement storage. (I'm cooking up ideas on how to make this happen). Slide toppers should be a factory option, I'm going to be adding them shortly.

The bedroom has these goofy tap lights in the nook over the head of the mattress. They're completely unusable as reading lights because they're way too bright. They are re-purposed ceiling lights. Even though I have a 2017 model trailer, it looks like they've already updated the design for these lights in the brochure.

Lastly: The Blue LED's are a gimmick. If the salesman turns them on, smack 'em

 

Following up on this as Im doing the shakedown run at Delaware seashore state park this week.

Finally pulled the front a/c cover and yes, they actually taped over the ducts. I can't seem to find the bedroom thermostat wire. My unit was prewired for a second a/c so the thermostat wire should be here somewhere. I pulled the bedroom light switch and as far as I can tell it was not taped up behind the switch. I have seen other models that have had the thermostat installed in the bedroom and it is right above the light switch.

There's no thermostat wiring at the ac unit either. As far as I can tell unless the dealer taped it up out of the way. Fishing a new thermostat wire is going to be a pain in the butt.

Here is the model of the domestic control unit they installed. Sorry it's upside down. It appears to have a second plug that I'm assuming goes to the thermostat relay which will give it a the standard three wire output to the thermostat. Again never happy with the job or the parts used by the dealership.

 

Being prewired for an air conditioner does not automatically mean it is wired for a wall thermostat. It just means the 120 VAC is there. Is your AC unit ducted or does it have controls on the air box at the ceiling?

Steve

 

It has controls on the unit. The unit has a built in temp probe for the air intake and two six wire plugs.

 

If there are controls on the unit that is all you have. If it had a thermostat or was wired for one, all you would have at the ceiling would be the air box for the ducted air i.e. no controls. That is not an unusual setup.

STeve

 

If I wanted to, could I just swap the control panel out for a ducted panel and get the thermostat relay then fish the wires? Or does that require some additional work?

 

In theory you can do that although you gain almost nothing (in my opinion) in doing that other than expense and work. You are cooling a very small area and having the control at the ceiling is not a hardship (pretty much the way it was done even on high end rigs for decades). Not sure how you will fish the wires across the ceiling. Normally when I had to do that I fished down ductwork until I could get into cabinet.

If you are sure you want to do it, plan all that out first to make sure you can do it without tearing your rig apart.

Steve

 

That's good info. I do have the unit now ducted into the main duct work for the rest of the trailer by removing the foil tape that had been covering the ducts. My goal was to add to the cooling in the rest of the trailer as the front ac does an overkill job on the front bedroom and the 15k unit struggles will the garage and main living area when we're in Florida.

If adding a remote thermostat does nothing to add to that goal then I'll just leave it be as it is now.

 

My thought would be to try dealing with distribution and ductwork issues first. If you can't distribute the cooling where you need it, it doesn't help much to change thermostat location. Try the least complicated solution first, then if that doesn't do it, plan out the next step. I often times saw folks doing things to "improve" things that struck me as achieving very little, so I tend to move slowly in modifying.

Steve