Air conditioner in Jayco Flamingo camper

Not quite an answer to your question, but i thought i'd mention it anyway,

Its very common around here in the Pilbara to put portable A/C's in camper trailers.

You can get a top quality one for $700 - no doubt cheaper if your near a city. They sit on the bench or floor - depending on their size. The hot air duct can be temporarily poked out the window - or you can install a more permanent outlet in the floor.
If your buying one, be sure its not too tall to store in the Jayco when its closed up.

There mainly used for cooling the camper when sleeping at night, but you will be able to drop the temp enough on a hot day for the kids to have a good sleep. You will get more than 32 to 27. More like 35-25 with curtains shut camped in the shade. There also noisy.

have fun

I've seen people with the roof top unit in this type of van.

I think you'll find it will work pretty well. I'd go for the roof top as it's out of the way, doesn't take up already limited cupboard space or space on the floor etc and you'll get a Jayco Warranty, which from all accounts is pretty good.

thanks for these comments. I'm definitely considering all options (roof top, fitted reverse cycle and portable). Room is a big issue though for the portable. I've seen them and unfortunately they are quite big.

I guess it would be good to know if anyone has experienced any or all of the three options so I can lean towards one. I wouldn't as an example want to do the roof top if a split system is way better (and cheaper). then again, in the shade may be a roof top one could work a treat....

:)

We were in Darwin recently and looked at getting a Dometic Roof Top air cond fitted to our poptop van.....around the $2k mark supply and install and luckily we couldnt get one into the installer in time as we had to push on....

Anyways since then (we are on a lap of oz currently) we have spoken to many owners of such models on the roof of the poptops (the lighter weighted model air cond's they all had) and most of them are onto their 2nd and 3rd and 4th units as they are prone to break down and not have any affect at all in the warm temps up north and out west....

So just be careful and make sure you have all your warranty paperwork with you if you choose to go for this particular van....from what others told us they wish they never bothered having them installed at all because of all the hassles they have had with them....

We have 2 small kids and we managed OK without the air cond...we were in the warm/hot weather for four months....just used a couple of box fans....one for the parents end and one for the kids end....

Happy Travels
Just Goin....

We have a split system in the pop top. I've seen one in a older camper like yours at Middlemount QLD theirs was in the front boot and the air came out under the table worked for them. The split system I have is noisy on the inside but hey if its hot or freezing who cares. You'll only get the ones with out them winging. Spent a month out on a property near Innamincka last year in summer. Had the air on, it made the van a haven to escape the heat. We use to have a Jayco Hawk and would be a bit weary on putting extra weight on the roof especially if a storm blows up and starts swaying.

thanks so much for the feedback and it sounds as though we should lean towards the split system. It's going to cost ~ $800 to get this installed (gas bottles moved etc) apparently.

Different models obviously have variations in dba and although the Kelvinator is the cheapest 'good' model I can find, it's like 31DBA as oppose to Fujitsu etc which is around 25DBA. We can live with the noise as you said if it's hot but wouldn't want complaints in a van park and have to turn it off.... hmm...or may be we just think 'bugger them' and save ourselves a few hundred dollars and go for the kelvinator
:)

Hi Sarah
I have a Coromal 380 off roader wind up and i removed the wardrobe and use that space to sit my portable air con. I looked around and found one that is 400 X 400 mm x 700 tall and is 45000btu I think. Got it from the good guys in SA.
On start up the temp went from 45c in the van to around 23c in an hour
The only down side is it is a little noisy but it works well and much cheaper.
I looked at a roof top one as well and the installer was reluctant to install one on the wind ups roof.
Patrolmann