Best portable air conditioner for the truck?

I tried a portable. It was 8000 btu. Largest that my 2000w generator would run. It was almost useless. Worked OK at night. It was a single hose model. Supposedly the dual hose models work better. Either way, it wasn’t efficient. Portables draw more amps than standard units. It also was a self evaporating. Nice idea, but didn’t work. It would get full of water and shut down, or leak water everywhere. To make matters worse, it quit anytime it wasn’t perfectly level. We used it while driving, one weekend. It would quit, and I’d rock it back and forth spilling water everywhere, till it started again. Lol. It was crazy. Big waste of money. It’s sitting here at the house. Needs to be in the trash. I advise a 500 or 600btu window unit, putting it in the passengers window when needed. Or get a small mini split set up. There’s some good options. available.

 

Don’t believe the “no drain” claim. I bought a 12k btu a few years ago when the ac went out at the house. The one I have will blow the water back into the house and makes it hard for the unit to cool.
I rigged it up to drain into a container and would have 2.5-3 gallons of water in 8hrs.
It dropped the output air temp about 10-12 degrees.

 

I'd recommend a mini split as well. They can heat and cool, and use very little energy. The one I have will never cause the generator to surge, even on startup. I believe I have a 9000 BTU unit. The only issues are going to be having the space to mount the indoor and outdoor units, and making sure the indoor unit can properly drain. I never had an issue with the first unit leaking. The new one I set up perpendicular with the truck instead of parallel, and when the truck leaned sideways significantly it leaked. I adjusted it after the first time it leaked and it hasn't done it since.

I have not been able to test it in like 120F heat, but it stayed cool all summer without pulling any curtains, even in Florida. It says it can heat down to 7F, but I think it starts losing its effectiveness around 30F or so.

 

Yeah, maybe 2.5" diameter, run the lines through a plastic bulkhead, spray foam to seal it. My drain line runs through my sink, but it could probably run through the same hole as the piping. Just replace the flimsy plastic hose with irrigation tubing.

 

I've used Pioneer units. The outdoor unit might need reinforcement, like a ratchet strap or bracket over the top to keep it from vibrating. The thin metal where it normally mounts to a concrete pad can break at the welds since it's designed to be stationary. The good thing about these units is that they are precharged, so you can set it up and don't need to pull a vacuum or charge them.