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Cooling down a camper shell for dog?

Bigbore500r

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I want to start taking my dog with me to the river, but my crew cab truck would be a tight fit with 2 kids in car seats and Mama up front. I'm thinking a nice camper shell and portable AC of some sort to put in the bed?

The truck has a sliding rear window so we can leave that open too.

I was looking at one of these ice chest AC setups...seems real simple
Image1460216289.672682.jpg

Thoughts?
 

Coleblooded

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Should be good, I would just check on the dog on a regular basis and make sure the bed is getting adequate airflow. We travel sometimes with the dogs in the back (but usually not across the desert.
 

Riverbound

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Subscribed. I have gotten to the point I'm looking to do an rv type AC on the top.
 

Backlash

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I haven't heard much about these coolers other than they don't work "That great."

I was in the same exact position you are in where our vehicles were getting to be "Tight." I contemplated the same thing but just didn't feel comfortable tossing my Bulldog in the bed of a truck for the trek out and back. I ended up snagging a Suburban and now she can ride in the comfort of an air-conditioned vehicle. ;)
 

LargeOrangeFont

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There is another one on Amazon for $100 less, same style construction with an igloo marine cooler. You could make it yourself for under $100 with a better quality cooler.
 

Bigbore500r

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I haven't heard much about these coolers other than they don't work "That great."

I was in the same exact position you are in where our vehicles were getting to be "Tight." I contemplated the same thing but just didn't feel comfortable tossing my Bulldog in the bed of a truck for the trek out and back. I ended up snagging a Suburban and now she can ride in the comfort of an air-conditioned vehicle. ;)

I thought about getting a burb and selling the truck, but the truck runs and drives great and pink is in hand, not sure I want to roll the dice and sell it. It's a good truck.

Plus there are times when I haul stuff that might require taking a shell off (few and far between)
 

rivergames

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I just ordered a 12v fan off Amazon. I am going to install it on the window and blow the cold air from the cab into the camper shell for my dog.

It's going to work good!
 

LargeOrangeFont

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Well you are just trying to keep the camper hospitable, not necessarily 70 degrees right?

A fan like referenced above might work well.
 

Lunatic Fringe

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If you're thinking of a camper shell just for the dog, maybe get a sleeper shell with a boot between the windows and insulate the interior well. Your truck A/C would probably keep the dog comfortable enough.
 

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Riverbound

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I just ordered a 12v fan off Amazon. I am going to install it on the window and blow the cold air from the cab into the camper shell for my dog.

It's going to work good!

I do that now. It's better than nothing. When I was a kid my parents had an actual second AC Installed in the shell of our truck and that's where all of us kids Road in back-and-forth to the river. I've been scouring the Internet looking for something like that and just come up empty. At 120 pounds my dog is just too big to ride in the cab with us now, going to a suburban isn't an option either as they don't have the towing capacity we need for the trailer.
 

MalibuKen

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Chatted with a guy at the river once who had the "ice cooler" setup in his camper shell and he said the cooler along with leaving the slider open, kept the back at a decent temp for his dog. It def was not as cool as the cab, but it made it comfortable. He added some streamers to the exhaust vent so he could tell at a glance the fan was still working, just in case.
 

Backlash

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I thought about getting a burb and selling the truck, but the truck runs and drives great and pink is in hand, not sure I want to roll the dice and sell it. It's a good truck.

Plus there are times when I haul stuff that might require taking a shell off (few and far between)


I know what you mean. I took a chance buying this sled and have been pretty happy. I actually thought of you yesterday on the way back from Long Beach. The truck was running a little off like a plug was fouled or it was missing. The check engine light came on saying "Service engine soon." OK. So I pulled over near the 605/10 and let it idle for a second. Put the truck back in drive and off we went. Light went off and no more rough idle or anything. Weird. Got up this morning and it ran great. So I don't know. Sorry to get off topic from your A/C venture. ;)
 

VoodooMedMan

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Hey check this out. I just happened upon this today. Was at a buddy's this morning and he's selling this.

He's a medically retired police detective and now running investigations and other similar business.

He would use this for surveillance without having to run the car. Says he could be comfortable all day with it. Fill with ice and then it runs off car battery.

He just can't sit all day with his back anymore.

Make me a reasonable offer I can present to him. It was over 400 new so way better than the Amazon dealio posted.

View attachment 476679 View attachment 476680 View attachment 476681 View attachment 476682
 

Riverbound

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Hey check this out. I just happened upon this today. Was at a buddy's this morning and he's selling this.

He's a medically retired police detective and now running investigations and other similar business.

He would use this for surveillance without having to run the car. Says he could be comfortable all day with it. Fill with ice and then it runs off car battery.

He just can't sit all day with his back anymore.

Make me a reasonable offer I can present to him. It was over 400 new so way better than the Amazon dealio posted.

View attachment 476679 View attachment 476680 View attachment 476681 View attachment 476682

I'm interested for sure.
 

Big B Hova

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I think if your dogs survive the summers outside in the sun/heat in the valley, a camper shell with the windows open and a fan blowing will be just fine. Only thing I'd worry about is sitting in traffic in the desert.
 

2Driver

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I would think a swamp type cooler would make it miserable based on the humidity. Id leave the windows open for max air flow and measure the temp and see what it gets up to, then decide. You can always do some insulation on the inside of the shell to help with radiant heat transfer.
 

Riverbound

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I would think a swamp type cooler would make it miserable based on the humidity. Id leave the windows open for max air flow and measure the temp and see what it gets up to, then decide. You can always do some insulation on the inside of the shell to help with radiant heat transfer.

On one of our trips home from the river last year it was 113 inside the Shell 120 outside)This was with the window from the Open and and a fan blowing air from the cab to the bed. We ended up pulling over in although it was extremely cramped putting all the dogs in the Cab With us. Trying to avoid a similar situation this year.
 

VoodooMedMan

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I would think a swamp type cooler would make it miserable based on the humidity. Id leave the windows open for max air flow and measure the temp and see what it gets up to, then decide. You can always do some insulation on the inside of the shell to help with radiant heat transfer.

Maybe in Florida where it's already silly humid. Not in the dry desert. Go see how many homes in Havasu are running swampers.
 

pronstar

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A camper shell has a big volume of air, which takes a lot more energy to cool than what you're going to get from a 12v power outlet/cig lighter. So it's not surprising these units don't work all that well.

A 12v setup will need a lot of help, like ice as noted above. Or get a big inverter so you can draw significantly more power for the cooling unit.
 

fmo24

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They make cool beds for dogs that you fill with water. Maybe figure out some way to circulate cool water thru it from a tank with ice?
 

2Driver

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On one of our trips home from the river last year it was 113 inside the Shell 120 outside)This was with the window from the Open and and a fan blowing air from the cab to the bed. We ended up pulling over in although it was extremely cramped putting all the dogs in the Cab With us. Trying to avoid a similar situation this year.

Yeah, did the same one year coming home late.

Put him in the back seat of the truck. He crashed hard. About an hour from home I reached back to give him a friendly pat and apparently he had no idea where he was and it was dark. Needless to say we had to divert to get my hand stitched up at the ER. :cool
 

Ziggy

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The back window of the shell not a good idea to leave open, exhaust fumes get pulled in. We had sliding side windows that gave it a ton of circulation. Plenty of water for them to drink and wet or very damp towels. The air flow would cool the towels. Last stop when leaving havasu was always the lake to let dogs take a swim.
 

Riverbound

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The back window of the shell not a good idea to leave open, exhaust fumes get pulled in. We had sliding side windows that gave it a ton of circulation. Plenty of water for them to drink and wet or very damp towels. The air flow would cool the towels. Last stop when leaving havasu was always the lake to let dogs take a swim.

We leave the window from cab to shell open and have a rubber boot between.
 

Ziggy

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We leave the window from cab to shell open and have a rubber boot between.
Lol, Yeah we'd open our windows to the shell and they'd stick their heads in for a minute then go lay back down. ....I think they thought they were getting a treat[emoji1]
 

Riverbound

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Lol, Yeah we'd open our windows to the shell and they'd stick their heads in for a minute then go lay back down. ....I think they thought they were getting a treat[emoji1]

Watching a 120lb Rottweiler climb over the aux tank and try and squeeze through the window is quite the scene at 80mph driving down the freeway.
 

76 Hondo

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bachman@turbokool.com

These 12v evap. coolers work pretty good, had a Pla-Cool on my old River van plumbed the reservoir to the ice chests and it would freeze you out. Only problem if you are towing some deposits from water spray will hit your boat or trailer.
 

Ibeplumbing

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Went through all this. Ended up with an excursion. Seemed to work best for me
 

Oso Viejo

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Have you considered one of the 12V rear AC units they put into van conversions? Kind of pricey since mine was almost $700 back in 94 or so but they worked well and were isolated in the rear of the box so the ducting was short and sweet.
 

Riverbound

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Have you considered one of the 12V rear AC units they put into van conversions? Kind of pricey since mine was almost $700 back in 94 or so but they worked well and were isolated in the rear of the box so the ducting was short and sweet.

That's another thing I'm starting to look into
 

rivergames

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Watching a 120lb Rottweiler climb over the aux tank and try and squeeze through the window is quite the scene at 80mph driving down the freeway.
That's what my 135lb Cooter does if the window is all the way open. I'm going to put a screen so he won't go through
 

Pivot

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My lab rides in the shell. I throw a wag bag in. Build a igloo around with about 5 ice blocks. Dog freezes her ass off. Typically lays against the ice. Soaks the bag also which soaks the dog then the wind blows thru. Zero issues
 

sfury

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Had Excursions until I had to buy a truck for transporting our dogs to the river so this was my solution . ImageUploadedByTapatalk1460250152.523148.jpg ImageUploadedByTapatalk1460250166.311783.jpg ImageUploadedByTapatalk1460250175.935781.jpg

Separate evap unit in shell tapped into truck ac system and controlled by dash switches. Damn dogs live the life![emoji190][emoji106]
 

sfury

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Who did it and how much?

I did at my shop. The unit is what they put in back hoes/tractors. The rest of the theory is based on rear ac units in excursions and suburbans. I just used the dash switches to turn the rear unit on or off. If I did it for rdp peeps I would guess 1500.00. Retail 2500.00. It takes a lot of time.

But our kids are worth every penny [emoji3]
 

sfury

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A picture is worth a thousand words ImageUploadedByTapatalk1460251709.089971.jpg ImageUploadedByTapatalk1460251864.098572.jpg ImageUploadedByTapatalk1460251972.651671.jpg
 

Riverbound

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I did at my shop. The unit is what they put in back hoes/tractors. The rest of the theory is based on rear ac units in excursions and suburbans. I just used the dash switches to turn the rear unit on or off. If I did it for rdp peeps I would guess 1500.00. Retail 2500.00. It takes a lot of time.

But our kids are worth every penny [emoji3]

I like that idea...a lot. No issues with the capacity of the compressor? How many miles or how long have you had it? That's pretty much exactly what I'm looking for.
 

sfury

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I had two excursions with 300k miles plus with rear ac units on most of the time for the dogs. I clean the rear unit a lot because of the hair. I finally had to retire the last excursion and switch to a truck w/shell so this is what I came up with. I have 16,000 miles on the truck with this unit and no problems. I leave the rear fan on high and sometimes think the dogs are too cold but then again they have fur coats[emoji190]
 

Riverbound

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I had two excursions with 300k miles plus with rear ac units on most of the time for the dogs. I clean the rear unit a lot because of the hair. I finally had to retire the last excursion and switch to a truck w/shell so this is what I came up with. I have 16,000 miles on the truck with this unit and no problems. I leave the rear fan on high and sometimes think the dogs are too cold but then again they have fur coats[emoji190]

So you added AC like this to them? Or the factory AC?

This is similar to what my parents had when we're kids in the back of our truck. I vaguely remember compressor issues but then again this was decades ago.
 

Ibeplumbing

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I had two excursions with 300k miles plus with rear ac units on most of the time for the dogs. I clean the rear unit a lot because of the hair. I finally had to retire the last excursion and switch to a truck w/shell so this is what I came up with. I have 16,000 miles on the truck with this unit and no problems. I leave the rear fan on high and sometimes think the dogs are too cold but then again they have fur coats[emoji190]

Just got an excursion. Where and how do you clean the rear unit?
 

Halvecto

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If you're thinking of a camper shell just for the dog, maybe get a sleeper shell with a boot between the windows and insulate the interior well. Your truck A/C would probably keep the dog comfortable enough.

This would be my first choice. Doesn't completely eliminate use of the bed and should be fine for dogs. This sight has various types: http://www.cowtownsleepers.com/sleepers.html
 
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