Meet Your Coach Air Conditioning System

This series ran in FRONT-LINE, and is included in our website to acquaint you with all the features and components of your motor coach air conditioning system. You may copy these pages and retain for your service personnel. It will help them tremendously in maintaining your coach systems. The basic air conditioning system in coaches consist of a compressor - to pump refrigerant - a condenser - to remove heat from the refrigerant - an evaporator coil - to absorb heat from the coach interior, the blowers and fans to move air, and the necessary valves, hoses, switches and mechanical devices such as clutches and belts to make it work and to control its operation. Also all coaches have what is known as a reheat system, whereby the temperature is controlled by hot water from the engine, thus a heater coil with its inherent control valves and hoses becomes a necessary part of the complete air conditioning system. It is incorrect to say that one component is more important than the other, they all must work together, all parts must work properly or the system simply does not do its job. For a technician to maintain the system, they must know each component, its function and how to test and maintain it. As part of our business model, we are dedicated to helping you in understanding the details of the system as well as supplying components for maintaining your coach AC system.

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MEET YOUR AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM - the Whole System!

Lets look at the air conditioning system in total and try to understand just how the process works. Unfortunately we cannot just bottle up some super-cold arctic air and meter it out slowly to cool our paying passengers... we have to use the A/C process which really is a heat-removing process that results in a cooling action. Lets start with the refrigerant (which is used simply as a medium to absorb and dissipate heat...) in a liquid form as it enters the expansion valve, which meters it just right in order for it to expand many times its entering size... and as it does it cools. Lets say the refrigerant enters the expansion valve at 110, as it expands it might cool down to 40. Now as air ows over the evaporator coil with this cold refrigerant in it, it absorbs heat. Lets say the air over it from inside the coach is 80. As the air ows over the coil, it might cool down to 65. (These are just approximate, relative numbers, as conditions change, numbers will change.) NOW we have something useful to cool the passengers! BUT we have refrigerant that has been heated from 40 to say 50. (This differential is called SUPERHEAT... its really not heated very super... its a relative thing.) The compressor then pumps the refrigerant to a much higher pressure resulting in a high temperature perhaps of 140 or 150. It then ows through the condenser coil, with outside air, lets say at 90over it, and it cools the refrigerant from 150 down to 110. We can then start the whole process all over again! Look at it this way, each cubic inch of refrigerant in liquid form contains a relative amount of heat... allow it to expand to occupy 15 or 20 cubic inches and the heat in it is reduced accordingly, and can be used to cool the evaporator coil. Then we compress it, packing all that heat back into a small space which raises its temperature way above the outside air owing over the condenser coil, which removes heat from it, then starts all over again. Look over the drawing (borrowed from MCIs maintenance manual... Thanks!), and you can follow the refrigerant through the process. Now you can see the importance of each part of the system. It takes it all! If any fan slows or quits, heat exchange slows or quits, if the compressor pumps less with broken valves etc., heat exchange is less. If either coil is dirty or corroded, heat exchange is less and net cooling capacity is reduced.

Weve looked at the condenser coil, now the entire system as a process. Next well look at the expansion valve, then the evaporator coil. Stay tuned!

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650 Red Oak Road STOCKBRIDGE, GA. 30281

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Your Air Conditioning System -- The Evaporator Coil

The EVAPORATOR COIL in your coach air conditioner has a fairly simple job: Transfer heat from the air blown over it to the refrigerant. Follow its course: The air transfers heat to the ns, the ns transfer to the tubes, the tubes transfer to the refrigerant. Generally evaporator coils have 4 or more rows of 3/8 tubes on 1 centers, with approximately 12 ns per inch. This is one area that is neglected, they are out of sight, and often are left in a coach for its lifetime. The following photos will show an extreme example of why they should receive more attention. My personal belief is, this explains a lot of why some coaches just dont cool well, no matter what else you do. At least, clean it regularly and keep a good air lter in the coach to keep it from being clogged up.

This is an evaporator coil removed from a 1993 Prevost H340 coach that obviously was not cooling well. It was not leaking refrigerant, but for some reason just didnt cool very good. Wonder why? Compliments of

This is the new evaporator coil replacing the one pictured. Which one do you think will cool better? Foolish question, right?

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Your AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM - The EXPANSION VALVE

Your coach air conditioning system has at least one thermal expansion valve to control the ow of refrigerant through the evaporator coils. Flow must be regulated because of many variable factors. First,there is the pressure of the refrigerant, which variestremendously according to outside temperature. On an 80 day, it might enter the expansion valve at 115. But on a 95 day, it might be 140. These numbers are only an approximation; depending on the condition of the condenser, speed of the condenser fan and speed and condition of the compressor. Then there is the variable of the inside temperature of the coach. When a very hot coach is rst cranked, the system demands a lot of refrigerant, and whenthe coach has cooled well, the ow is reduced. The expansion valve is designed in such a way as to control the DIFFERENTIAL between refrigerant temperature ENTERING and LEAVING the evaporator coil. This differential temperature is called SUPERHEAT. For R-22 system on coaches a fairly high superheat of 15 to 18 is needed. For R-12 and R-134A systems, a much lower superheat of 12-14 is needed. We wont go into all the reasons for these gures. These are industry standards that work. Also, it is difcult for the average shop to get accurate readings of these temperatures. Alco valves accomplish this control by means of a diaphragm and a spring assembly which controls a tapered valve to control ow. The diaphram is powered by the pressure of the refrigerant on one side, and a pressure from the BULB which changes with the temperature of the outlet tube of the evaporator coil on the other side. The spring tension is used as a controlling variable in order to maintain the approximate superheat desired. When a valve is shipped from Alco, it is set at a nominal superheat for electric driven compressors, which is WRONG for a coach system. At Welch Industries we have experimented a lot, and we PRE-SET the valves at a good optimum value for the refrigerant used. Your rst thought might be, OPEN the expansion valve a lot to allow a lot of refrigerant to ow, but this is not correct. First of all, to do so, would ood the compressor, possibly breaking valves, and causing oil to foam up and out into the system cutting cooling capacity drastically. To close the valve more, makes the refrigerant leave the valve colder, BUT it cuts the net capacity of the system, so a happy medium must be used.

Alco TCLE series valves as used in most motor coaches are made so that the CAGE, the inside assembly of the valve determines its capacity. The power head may be stamped with a tonnage, but the CAGE inside determines its capacity. AND the capacity is not a xed value. It is a nominal value and varies widely depending on conditions. For instance a 7 1/2 ton valve commonly used may vary from 5 tons to 10 or more depending on conditions. Not many coaches really have a 7 1/2 ton capacity and is generally speaking just about too big, especially for R-134A. We typically recommend a 6 ton valve for R-134A, and 7 1/2 for R-22; the difference in operation is hardly detectable. Cooling really is the same and there is less chance of damage to the compressor and the system. One side note, we highly recommend changing the expansion valves when converting from R-12 to R-134A; it seems to be more sensitive to valve size and adjustment and generally speaking, coach will cool much better with a new valve of the right size and adjustment. The bottom line? Install the right one for your system and refrigerant and leave it alone! Also, expansion valves are almost a life-time thing,if left alone, they rarely fail. The superheat value doesnot change, so no adjustment is needed once theyare installed correctly.

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650 Red Oak Road Stockbridge, GA. 30281770-474-1150

Your AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM - The COMPRESSOR

Your AC Compressor is component that has a simple description, simply to PUMP REFRIGERANT. But the demands make that job more complicated than its job title suggests. You have the variables of temperature and humidity, empty-to-full coach capacity variable, plus window and door seals, insulation, and the list goes on. Early mornings you may need 2 tons of air conditioning, and that afternoon 6 or 7 tons! Your compressor has to run along at engine speed regardless, and is expected to stay together and support both extremes of demand. . . sound tough? It is... The 05G Carrier, either 37 c.i. or 41 c.i. is a 6 cylinder radial design, with provisions to UNLOAD (literally stop pumping) the outside two banks of cylinders. This is done either with PRESSURE unloaders, or with ELECTRIC unloaders using pressure switches to operate them. (We prefer pressure unloaders... if for no other reason to simplify installation and maintenance.) The only real advantage of electric is, they can be operated by high and/or low pressure switches. It is a necessity that unloaders be installed and operable because of load changes of the system. Early mornings, late nights or when its just not hot, the system simply cannot use the capacity of the compressor; if not unloaded, the evaporator coil will probably freeze over. The temperature control system also must operate properly to reheat; the operation of this will be covered in a later article. An infrared non-contact thermometer can be used effectively to check compressor operation; when pumping good, the top head is hot almost all over, but the side heads will have at least 25 difference from top of head to bottom of head. Broken valves or unloader failure is indicated by less differential or same temperature. The 05G compressor is a good design, though its been around for quite a few years, but has some limitations... the unloaders in my opinion are not the very best design, although generally dependable, they will fail too often. The crank-shaft seal assembly must be replacedperiodically, is straight-forward and not difcult to do. Very early models had a clutch mounted directly on crank-shaft, and was much improved with the hub-mount later. Rarely does one of the older type show up, and the hub can be added to older compressors in order to use the late-type hub mount clutch. It does require a new seal to be installed.

The CLUTCH and hub are necessary of course for operation, and should be installed correctly. The pressure switches operating clutch should be correct according to refrigerant used. Common switches are: for R-134A, low pr - 10-25, high pr - 350-250. This means, low switch turn clutch off at 10 PSI, back on at 25 PSI, high off at 350, on again at 250. For R-22, low pr 25-80, high pr - 450-350. One note; most clutches fail because of OTHER PROBLEMS in the AC system; not for clutch failure itself. Low refrigerant, or a stopped-up lter-drier for instance will cause clutch to cycle, and a dirty, corroded condenser, or faulty condenser motor will allow high pressure switch to cycle clutch, often causing clutch failure. Just imagine heat build-up with clutch continually cycling off and on! The 05G should NEVER be charged using liquid refrigerant at the compressor, nor should it be operated with oil above 1/4 the sight glass; both of which can break valves. Anytime a compressor or clutch is replaced, the system should be checked over carefully: most often failure is caused by problems other than compressor or clutch!

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Your AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM - Temperature Controls

IN ORDER to maintain a comfortable environment for your passengers, your air conditioning system requires a fairly complicated system of temperature controls. On a very warm day with a full load, a coach requires just about all the system can produce. But if they leave early AM or drive late PM, the cooling load may be cut in half. The problem is, the compressor runs at a speed relative to engine speed, not cooling load, so other means have to be used to control capacity. Some older automobile and even some present day mini-bus systems use a simple comprssor on-off cycle control, but this would not work on the typical coach A/C system.
So, in order for a coach to have temperature control, the water valves have to be kept open YEAR-ROUND. The problem is, some coach operators simply dont believe the valves should be left open, and many instances of system failure and problems have resulted because of this one fact. Coaches have come into our shop on a very hot day with the evaporator coil frozen over solid! Not cooling, of course, and with no air ow! Most have been coaches using R-22. Passengers were not very happy, and the operator usually simply does not believe he brought Modern coaches have solid-state digital the problem on by closing the water valve in controls, consisting of a thermister, located an attempt to get better cooling. in the return air duct system to sense the temperature, and a digital control system to So to make a long story short and simple, monitor this temperature and send voltage air conditioning temperature is not really to a water valve control to open and close controlled by the air conditioning part of the the valve in order to control heat. Computer system. The compressor, fans, coils etc. opcontrols that monitor system pressure, inside erate constantly, with temperature controlled and outside temperature, and thermostat set- by ADDING HEAT as necssary in order to maintain the desired temperature. tings are common on new equipment. The unloaders on the 05G Carrier comprssor help to control capacity by simply turning off either 2 or 4 of the 6 cylinders as necessary for less capacity. This is usually done relative to suction pressure in the system, which under normal conditions equate to temperature. But for precise temperature control, all coaches use a system of re-heat to give accurate and dependable temperature in the coach. This simply means that in addition to cooling from the A/C system, heat from the engien coolant is used to control capacity. Call and BUY Something Today!

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REFRIGERANTS for motor coach air conditioning systems for years consisted of R-12. It was cheap, efcient and universally avail-

Your Air Conditioning System -- the Refrigerant

able. Now we must nd a gas that will work under the same design considerations. The nature of a motor coach A/C system, having a large capacity, the necessity of exible hoses, the lubrication requirements of the compressor, and universal availability all enter into our choice of a refrigerant. R-134A is generally considered the replacement for R-12 in mobile A/C systems, although others are available. Any suitable refrigerant must operate within the design parameters of the system, and be compatible with the hoses and lubricants, and any necessary changes specied clearly. Two types of refrigerants that meet the requirements are: R-134A, and several others made from a mixture of R-22 and other gases, mixed so as to work within very similar temperature and pressure characteristics as R-12. The R-22 mixes include R-401A (MP39), R-409A, R-416A, R-414B (also known as Hot Shot), and possibly a number or two weve missed. One other gas sold as Maxi-Frig, Duracool and other names is a hydrocarbon gas, basically isopropane and isobutane and should not under any condition be used in a bus. It cooks good hamburgers, its illegal, most insurance companies would cancel your coverage instantly; nothing more need be said about it... The problem with all of the R-22 mixed refrigerants is the requirement that all exible hoses be changed, and it is not universally available and accepted in the motor coach industry.. The R-22 component because of its molecular size simply goes through most common R-12 type hoses; it may take several days, but they all have a very noticeable leak-rate in typical hoses. Some of these gases will cool well, not noticeably better than R-134A, (when the conversion is done properly.) R-22 is a very good refrigerant, although it is NOT a replacement for R-12. Even though there are many coaches that use it successfully, there are signicant differences in its characteristics that must be considered. Compare some relevant numbers: An evaporator temperature of 40 F is considered ideal for air conditioning, to accomplish this with R-12 and R134A, a suction pressure of 30 to 35 PSI is necessary. A discharge pressure on an 80 day is around 160-185 PSI, possibly slightly more. To attain these temperatures using R-22, a suction pressure of 55 to 65 PSI works, with a discharge of 250 PSI and up. On a very hot day, R-134A may run at most 230 or 240, but R22 may go well over 300 PSI, and with a corroded or dirty condenser, as much as 400, and thats difcult

to maintain on a coach. The only problem is, at these operating conditions using R-22, the compressor produces about 40% MORE CAPACITY than it did with R-12 and R-134A, so with the same condenser and evaporator, what happens to the extra cooling capacity? It complicates things considerably. In an attempt to cut capacity back, the expansion valves must be closed down resulting in a much higher superheat, the compressor unloaders must be adjusted and operate close to perfect, and the reheat system of the coach must be maintained in perfect order, or evaporator freezing happens almost without fail. R-22 also is considered dangerous to the environment and will be phased out, although plentiful supplies are expected for at least ten years or more. There are excellent substitues for it available, but at this time, we do not advocate changing. Most coaches that use R-22 will probably be out of commercial service before R-22 needs to be replaced. The conclusion? For most coaches, conversion done properly to R-134A results in a serviceable, well-cooling coach. The expansion valves need to be changed, the compressor oil should be changed to polyolester type, and most hoses changed, more for age than compatibility. We highly recommend using stainless steel hoses (stainless inner and outer, not teon hoses with stainless steel outer mesh); they cost very little more, and insure compability with any refrigerant and oil. MC9 and previous MCI coaches, Eagle Coaches and most older Prevost coaches should not be converted to R-22 in my opinion. The condenser does not have sufcient capacity. Later MCIs with the long condenser with the sub-cooler circuit (condenser with 4 hoses), can run R-22 provided it is done very carefully, and the entire cooling and heating system controls are maintained in excellent condition. Although on a very hot day, the system is running at its absolute maximum capacity, with head-pressure very high, and has a much greater likelihood of failure than a system using R-134A. The air conditioning system on a coach need not be a troublesome and expensive part of operation. When done properly and system maintained well, it should operate basically trouble-free with little expense year after year. If neglected though, not only will customers complain, and often use that as an excuse to shop for other carriers, the long-term cost will be much higher than if done right. There are no shortcuts or bargains! This series of articles is available on our web-site.

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Your A/C System -- Fittings, Tubes and Hoses

Your coach A/C system is made up of a lot of tubes, hoses and ttings connecting all the components. The tubes, mostly copper, are intended to be installed for a lifetime, and if youre lucky, youll not have to do much with them. Occasionally though, a grommet breaks or wears out, or a joint that probably wasnt soldered right from the factory comes loose and you have a challenge, particularly if its nestled in among the other air and water lines that run the length of the coach. Skill (and luck) is the order of your day. . .
Stainless steel hose, the inside liner is a wavy shaped, very thin exible tube, with a woven stinless steel protective cover. Often a anti-chang cover is added also. Fittings are welded on. It will work on any system.

Flexible hoses are sometimes a challenge... For many years Aeroquip 1540 hose or an equal, typically red cloth covered and did a good job with R-12, and does a fair job with R-134A. It is typically used with reusable and crimp-type ttings. It will NOT contain R-22 well, not because of the pressure, because of the molecular nature of R-22. It simply goes through the pores of the hose. Nylon and teon core exible hose does a fairly good job, although in my opinion stainless steel hose is a better choice. At this present time, we know of NO exible hose that will contain R22 that can be used with reusable ttings. There is a hose available today specically for R-134A, Aeroquip FC558. It is a butyl rubber liner hose with a wire reinforcement and cloth cover similar to the old 1540 hose. The problem with this hose is that old-style mineral oil based refrigerant oil DESTROYS the hose! In my opinion it should not be used for conversion because all the old oil cannot be removed, and the possibility of someone accidentally or ignorantly putting more back in. Again, my preference of stainless steel hoses will cover all the bases.

Above is a are-to-pipe adapter tting, typical of what is used in some locations on your compressor or receiver tank. The are tting (1) seals by a mating surface on the female tting matching the angle of the male, with the threads simply providing the squeeze to hold pressure. An o-ring groove is added to the are face to enhance the seal. The pipe tting (2) seals by the tapered threads simply tightening in the female until there is literally no space between threads. This is one of the oldest types of ttings, although more modern types seal more effectively. Flat-face o-ring ttings are a very good choice. The seal is accomplished by a at steel surface pressed against the o-ring, with threads providing the clamping force. These are beginning to show up on newer coaches.

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