There’s no question that air conditioning can extend trailer travel season in much of the country and make life inside a little tin box a lot more enjoyable. Rooftop air conditioners look fine on modern RVs, but they just don’t look “period correct” on a vintage trailer.
Wouldn’t it be nice if someone came up with a retro rooftop unit, or at the very least an aftermarket housing that would bolt on to an existing available unit?
Don’t get excited… I haven’t come up with one, but using my neighbor Eric’s paid account, I got ChatGPT to at least come up with a few ideas. So these are just some what-ifs, but who knows, maybe some fabricator, or even an AC manufacturer will see a market and bring something like this to reality. Wouldn’t it be nice…
At first, Chat even drew its own little trailer, and came up with a few simple AC designs, some more successful than others, but then I uploaded the shot of Jessica’s Shasta and had a couple suggested units stuck on top. I think the improvement was considerable.
The Coleman Mach 8 is pretty nifty in black, and it’s very low profile – only a little over 8 inches high. So I tried for a more retro version of that.
You can buy replacement shrouds for existing AC units, so why not a custom shroud?
I’m not sure the little grille in front would be necessary. We did a couple more on the black theme…
These are just a few random wishes. (Actually not wishes for me, since my AC is tucked away in an upper cupboard, but that’s another story altogether.) There may not be a big enough market for a vintage air conditioner, but maybe a fabricator could work with an AC manufacturer to come up with one or more aftermarket shells as bolt-on replacements. Randy Grubb, are you out there??
By Gary Williams
