Summer RTT Camping A/C Hack for the Win

SeattleSteve · Jul 12, 2023

Rivian R1T R1S Summer RTT Camping A/C Hack for the Win PXL_20230713_025019614

I'm currently 5,000 miles, and 11 days, in on a road trip. This A/C setup has helped me survive summer sleeping from Wyoming to Alabama and now Moab.

I bought the used 5,000 BTU window air conditioner off of Craigslist for $75 and spent $25 on the dryer hose, clamp, and self-tapping screws.

Running the A/C all night long only uses 3% of the Rivian's battery charge.

tylerdurden03 · Jul 12, 2023

Thats hilarious…and puts my usb chargeable camping fan (that I hang from RTT) to shame

VSG · Jul 12, 2023

Good for you, I'm sure that's making your trip a lot more comfortable. It's amazing how your perspective and the possibilities can change when you have that much power available to you. If you had a hookup it would be even better, because then you could also charge overnight.

But like @tylerdurden03, my first reaction was that's hilarious.

SilverII · Jul 13, 2023

Nice. Would it be better to turn the ac unit around and let it exhaust the hot air out back rather than under the tent?

SeattleSteve · Jul 13, 2023

SilverII said:
Nice. Would it be better to turn the ac unit around and let it exhaust the hot air out back rather than under the tent?

That's an interesting idea! One thing that I like about the orientation as-is is that I can reach down and adjust the A/C fan speed or temp from the tent.

It's been fun seeing people's reaction to seeing the setup...it is a funny solution! I love that you can see that the A/C vent is blocked off by a cutout of cardboard from a Costco garbage bag box?

SolartoEV · Jul 13, 2023

SeattleSteve said:
That's an interesting idea! One thing that I like about the orientation as-is is that I can reach down and adjust the A/C fan speed or temp from the tent.

It's been fun seeing people's reaction to seeing the setup...it is a funny solution! I love that you can see that the A/C vent is blocked off by a cutout of cardboard from a Costco garbage bag box?

This is awesome. I have done a couple different projects that I wanted to remotely control temperature and these work great. Can be used for high or low temperature adjustment. Control right from your phone

https://a.co/d/cggneFj

Inkbird WiFi ITC-308 Digital Temperature Controller Thermostat Remote Monitoring Controlling Home Brewing Fermentation Breeding Incubation Greenhouse https://a.co/d/cggneFj

LivingInKaos · Jul 13, 2023

Now just plumb the intake to pull from another spot on the RTT and you're golden.... well, insulate the piping as well....

Bf3 · Jul 13, 2023

The new Roofnest tents coming out have ducting for this sort of thing built in. I know it seems a bit silly to air condition your tent, but it really would make summer camping infinitely more enjoyable. I can’t see shelling out $1k+ for the eco flow wave or something similar, so this seems like a nice diy solution. I’ve been thinking about a swamp cooler or something, but I figured I’d wake up soggy.

Oldsmobile_Mike · Jul 13, 2023

I was "LOL'ing" at this post. Then I saw the part about it only using 3% of the battery. Then I was thinking maybe this isn't such a bad idea. ?

Visket · Jul 13, 2023

We have to "think outside the box" now that we have 133KWh of 115v/15A power available. I recently went to a "show off your camping outfit" seminar at our local Jeep club - with microwave, electric blanket, induction cooktop, Keurig coffee maker, TV... basically took a bunch of household items and powered them (not all at once!).

It was quite a display, and very, very popular. The "Yeah but...." crowd was surprised when I told them how little of the battery a night of camping would "cost", in miles (nobody know/cares about KWh...).

I hope more manufacturers of RTTs, or even EVTs (Electric Vehicle Tents - rooftop or not) include a couple of ports for the ducting.

Now to route the ducting into/out of the cab and use Pet Mode somehow.

Outside the box!

Donald Stanfield · Jul 13, 2023

That’s probably quite a bit cheaper than the purpose built ones for camping that start at 1k

R1Sky Business · Jul 13, 2023

McGrubber!!!!

HighVoltOverland · Jul 13, 2023

I love this but it reinforces my desire for Rivian to just have a small rear window,
With a standard truck rear window you could easily have a small shroud that just covers that window and pipes into the window of a RTT.

Then it would just be using the truck AC

Same with heating in the winter.

SeattleSteve · Jul 13, 2023

SolartoEV said:
This is awesome. I have done a couple different projects that I wanted to remotely control temperature and these work great. Can be used for high or low temperature adjustment. Control right from your phone

https://a.co/d/cggneFj

Inkbird WiFi ITC-308 Digital Temperature Controller Thermostat Remote Monitoring Controlling Home Brewing Fermentation Breeding Incubation Greenhouse https://a.co/d/cggneFj

This is amazing!!!

SSteveEV · Jul 13, 2023

SeattleSteve said:
That's an interesting idea! One thing that I like about the orientation as-is is that I can reach down and adjust the A/C fan speed or temp from the tent.

It's been fun seeing people's reaction to seeing the setup...it is a funny solution! I love that you can see that the A/C vent is blocked off by a cutout of cardboard from a Costco garbage bag box?

Thank you for including the 3% use, that's not bad! But mostly thanks for highlighting the Costco trash bag box I missed ?

Summer RTT Camping A/C Hack for the Win

SeattleSteve

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tylerdurden03

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VSG

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SilverII

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SeattleSteve

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SolartoEV

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LivingInKaos

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Bf3

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Oldsmobile_Mike

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Visket

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Donald Stanfield

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R1Sky Business

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HighVoltOverland

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SeattleSteve

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SSteveEV

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