Beeping noise when ignition running and roof up

[Glenn Odell]

Is there anyway of silencing the beeping noise when running the engine with the roof up. I was running the air conditioning to cool down so switched on the engine. I know its alerting you not to drive away with the roof up but just wondered if there was a way if running the engine and having the roof up without the bells and whistles!

 

[Ian Chadwick]

This is a very good post, I have often wondered if you can use the air con when its hot like the heater when its cold, does it drain the battery or do you have to have the engine
running so as not to drain the battery or if you do use the air con does the battery charge up if your connected to the mains supply

 

[Simon Fletcher]

We are currently away, the van has been roasting at night due to the 35 degree temperatures in the day so much so we have struggled to sleep.

We have used the rest button which ran the vents for a short period of time, not really sure where this ventilation is generated from. We have the water heater in our van, we have run this at night on the lowest temperature, this has run just as a fan but only for 50mins at a time. That said, after using both of these methods we still went out to buy a table top fan to enable night long air circulation, this has helped but still isn't ideal.

So, looking forward to reading others thoughts or findings regarding the air con and whether its possible to run through the night. If not, I will look to buy a unit for future summer holidays as at the moment this is where the van has fallen short on our 3 week French trip

 

[The.dunnster]

Hi. Just back from North W France. 4 hot days and 3 not so.

Found the temp dropped quite a lot at night on hot days which was well received.

We don’t have the heater option or mosi nets, but our solution was to keep the side door open (to the Vango awning / tent) and the small window + also used 2 small clip on fans that ran on the electric (electric pitch so 240v). By no means aircon, but the breeze was well received.

Got a portable air con at home. I say portable it’s the size of a juvenile dalek so not suitable for the van but works well for medium sized room. Down side is it’s proper noisy and the exhaust needs quite a wide opening at the window.

Be great to hear what others are doing or thinking of though. But in the mean time and if weather stays this way thepriority is to work out how to fix the awning / tent to the van securely enough to stop the rain coming in. As mentioned on another post the Thule roll out awning is cleverly mounted into the Kador (god the iPhone spelling loves that word) strip - meaning you have to attach the tent to the strip on bottom of Thule awning. = gap!!

 

[Kirk Trewin]

Hello All,

Unfortunately the Air Conditioning system can only operate when the engine is running as it is driven by the engine as opposed to being a stand alone unit or electrically driven. Would be great if that wasn't the case but unfortunately is!

I honestly think the only way to cool the van down when the temperatures are as high as they recently have been is going to be using desktop fans, dehumidifiers, etc. Portable AC units are not even an option unless you have a side awning tent (preferably without a gap which will defeat the object as @The.dunnster states) and house it in there and by using the 240V shore line.

Incidentally we are looking to buy a Thule Awning tent which looks better than the ones I've seen on here (retailing at £399.99) see below. I just need to contact Thule to see if it will fit 100% the website i found this on was:

https://www.qualitycaravanawnings.c...MI0Yrh8eTq3AIVTbDtCh0n4Q3OEAQYASABEgIkG_D_BwE

 

[mptripsaway]

Hello All,

Unfortunately the Air Conditioning system can only operate when the engine is running as it is driven by the engine as opposed to being a stand alone unit or electrically driven. Would be great if that wasn't the case but unfortunately is!

I honestly think the only way to cool the van down when the temperatures are as high as they recently have been is going to be using desktop fans, dehumidifiers, etc. Portable AC units are not even an option unless you have a side awning tent (preferably without a gap which will defeat the object as @The.dunnster states) and house it in there and by using the 240V shore line.

Incidentally we are looking to buy a Thule Awning tent which looks better than the ones I've seen on here (retailing at £399.99) see below. I just need to contact Thule to see if it will fit 100% the website i found this on was:

https://www.qualitycaravanawnings.c...MI0Yrh8eTq3AIVTbDtCh0n4Q3OEAQYASABEgIkG_D_BwE

The tech spec on the awning gives a minimum mounting height of 2.25 metres so, if my understanding is correct the walls will be about 25cm to long.

 

[GeorgeG]

Hello All,

Unfortunately the Air Conditioning system can only operate when the engine is running as it is driven by the engine as opposed to being a stand alone unit or electrically driven. Would be great if that wasn't the case but unfortunately is!

As far as I understand it, the Diesel auxiliary water heater is a separate unit (like the auxiliary air heater) which runs independently to the engine. It uses fuel from the diesel tank, but does not require the main vehicle engine to be running. It will only operate for up to 50 minutes at a time because it uses the ‘starter’ battery to fire it up and run the fan and this time limit is to ensire you have enough ‘juice’ left to start the engine. I have run it at home and discovered it operates as an a/c unit so will cool the vehicle interior. I imagine this could be quite useful, but I’ve yet to try it in a real holiday situation so can’t comment on how effective, or not, it may be.

 

[mptripsaway]

As far as I understand it, the Diesel auxiliary water heater is a separate unit (like the auxiliary air heater) which runs independently to the engine. It uses fuel from the diesel tank, but does not require the main vehicle engine to be running. It will only operate for up to 50 minutes at a time because it uses the ‘starter’ battery to fire it up and run the fan and this time limit is to ensire you have enough ‘juice’ left to start the engine. I have run it at home and discovered it operates as an a/c unit so will cool the vehicle interior. I imagine this could be quite useful, but I’ve yet to try it in a real holiday situation so can’t comment on how effective, or not, it may be.

The water heater does indeed provide ventilation in the MP and will depending on the temperature setting automatically switch between heating (red indicator light on the switch) or ventilation (blue indicator light on the switch) and will provide ventilation to the interior but will only do so to the exterior ambient air temperature. Having said that I have used it on many occasions during the recent hot weather and it has done a good job at keeping the interior cool (ish) at night.