Honda 2000i VS Dometic 13,500 Air Conditioner w/ Micro-Air EasyStart

My new Wolf Pup travel trailer came with a Dometic 13,500 BTU rooftop air conditioner.

The Honda 2000i I had been using with the 9,000 BTU window unit on my van would not get the Pup's air conditioner going. My initial fix was to parallel the 2000i with a 1000i I had on hand and I had no reservations about this dual generator system - well except maybe, that it took two generators.

The trailer tray was designed to handle the 2000i The van's window unit can bee seen above the hitch mounted 2000i.

I'd heard about gizmos that would help the 2000i getting the 13,500 a/c going but was skeptical because they involved what seemed to be complicated wiring and some of them didn't have a good track record. Then I stumbled on Micro-Air EasyStart

What sold me on giving this unit a try, was the follow ups by the Micro-Air guy on several different forums. The responses were timely, sincere and informative...so I ordered one.

I'd seen the instructions and schematics on the Micro-Air web site, but when I got into my rooftop a/c I got a little nervous about where the four wires on the EasyStart were supposed to go.

I sent an email to the Micro-Air folks and got a reply in a matter of hours. This diagram helped me immensely.

 For starters, this diagram told me there is a white, blue and red wire coming from the compressor, and the compressor was the key to locating all the connections for the EasyStart. Each of these three wires is a player in the connections. I easily found the compressor because those 3 wires were bundled coming from a 'tower'.

If you follow the fat black wire coming out of the left side of the tower you will see the red, white and blue wires are just peeking out from the loom as it bends in toward the fan motor.

Now for the connections:
Trace the white wire back to the capacitor. It will be one of the white wires on top of this can.

Make sure you have the correct white wire. Now disconnect it remembering what pin it was attached to. Connect the brown wire from the EasyStart to the disconnected white wire. The instructions will say to use a butt splice but I used a male solderless terminal.

 Now connect the white EasyStart wire to the terminal that is now open from the removed traced compressor wire (that is now connected to the brown EasyStart wire).

Connect the orange EasyStart wire to the top of the same can where the red wire from the compressor is attached (as seen in the above pic).

The black wire from the EasyStart gets connected to the blue compressor wire. I used a yellow Posi-tap for this connection - it's not recommended on the instructions and doesn't follow 'code' but I wanted a way to easily remove the EasyStart and relocate it to a different air conditioner.

I then made a relief in the capacitor cover for the EasyStart wire bundle.

And to finish up, I laid the EasyStart alongside the capacitor cover and secured it with zip ties.

I may need to make a weather enclosure for the EasyStart unit, but this will do for testing and an initial road trip.

So, was all of this worthwhile? No question about it. The Micro-Air EasyStart easily gets the job done from eco-throttle.
Micro-Air EasyStart In Action


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Wolf Pup - First Outing

We purchased the trailer at a dealer 400 miles from home to save $2,700. It was freezing when we went to pick it up and freezing when we brought it home. The new Wolf Pup was stored under cover next to our houseboat when we got her home.

The first thing we noticed when bringing her home, was that the door wouldn't close. We'd mentioned this to the salesman and they told me they fixed it, but it wasn't fixed...just made to work temporarily. They snugged the screws in the frame latch which was good for about 2 closings...

Tiny sheet metal screw vs stainless machine screw.

I tapped the now buggered up sheet metal screw holes and used machine screws for a proper fix.

Then about 20 miles into our first outing from SC to FL I stopped to torque the trailer lug nuts and check inside the trailer. The trailer floor was covered in water, as was the galley counter and water was was dripping out of the cabinet overhead. This was very puzzling as the trailer had never been exposed to rain of any kind. The only thing I can figure was that the water was in the roof or wall when we took delivery and it wasn't until we were on the road in temps above freezing that it became a problem. Then again, the folks at the dealership did mention Dicor self leveling lap sealant several times?

I'm not getting ballistic about the water -- I'll come to grips with the problem, but it is a shame that when the compressed sawdust they use for interior wood gets wet, the printed grain on it bubbles.

 

On that first stop, we noticed when flushing the head, that we got a lot of hissing and sputtering. The other fixtures were the same, but I figured after flushing the antifreeze out of the system there was residual air that needed to be purged so we decided to just let it run it's course and because the water pump would never shut off automatically, we threw the switch unless we needed water.

This video was taken after we returned home and ran the pump for 20 minutes.

On the second night, when we wanted to take showers, we got very little water out of the tub faucet, just a hissing mist. Thankfully our first stop in Florida was a friend who let us use their shower. While there, I refilled the water tank, but with the same hissing results. My wife has MS, uses a wheelchair and didn't need any complications, and we had two more stops before heading home so we decided to just live with the problem until we got home. We bought half dozen "Bath Bags" (like moistened wipes but designed for giving baths to bedridden patients) to use for the remainder of the trip.

Another thing we noticed when we got to Florida was that the 50psi we put in the tires at home, was now 58psi and the tires were showing wear typical of overly inflated tires. Having traveled to Alaska twice, we were prepared to monitor the single axle tires with a TPMS system.

The top numbers are for the back tires of the van. The bottom numbers are for the trailer.

I dropped the hot pressure of the trailer tires back to 50psi, which made them read 46 when cold, but the center rib wear pattern was no longer evident.

So now back home, I decided to find out what the plumbing problem is. I disassembled the galley cabinet and divider, then watched the filter when the faucet was hissing. There didn't seem to be any air in the system at that point, but just to be sure I took the plate off at the tub and followed the hose back to the tank - sure enough, an uncomplicated run. I gandered at the hose/tank junction while the faucet was hissing and still couldn't see bubbles. To me, this meant the pump had to come out.

Getting the pump out requires contortion and patience. The electrical connections and plumbing hoses have to be executed while lying in the isle with ones arms stretched under the cabinet. This is complicated by not knowing what kind of fasteners were used to mount the pump, and further by those fasteners not being used in the allotted holes, especially when everything has to be done by feel.

Close, but no cigar. There were two like this.

With the pump out, the problem was obvious.

Evidently, someone was in a hurry when the filter assembly was attached.

So now, we'll see if we can get any satisfaction from the dealer in respect for my troubles. Hopefully a new pump and at least what he'd pay his mechanics to do the repairs?