How much angle for proper ac water runoff and no morning headaches?

[Flame]

Newbie here with silly question. 1998 concourse. Putting a level on the fiberglass running board, how much slope to the back should the bubble read for good runoff of ac condensation? 1/2 bubble? I know to sleep with my head uphill to prevent headaches. But what is a good rule of thumb. Funny story...we went on our first trip this past weekend and did not have a level. Wife said looks level to me. I wished I would have at least had a marble in my pocket!! Got me thinkin...next best thing was a "chap stick". Rolled perfect on the running board. (It wasn't level). Thanks for any advise.

[Kirah]

I've found that the AC on my '99 Premier mostly runs off side to side rather than to the front or back. It never occurred to me that there was a "proper' angle for that, so I guess all I can say is that I've never had the runoff come inside, no matter what angle I was parked at. It just sometimes comes down over the passenger side window, sometimes over the drivers side window.

I've never worried over-much about getting things perfectly level. The manual for the fridge said it would work properly at any angle that was comfortable for the occupants, and I took them at their word. If I'm going to be somewhere for more than a night or two, I do try to angle things so that I don't get standing water in the shower.

A previous owner mounted a couple little levels in the rig - one along the top edge of the fridge, and one on the cabinet over the cab.

[Scott]

If you're sensitive to headaches and coach angle, I'd use a long bubble level to measure the actual sleeping surface since that's what you care about. I say this because even on level ground, my bed is slightly lower at the front since my rig is slightly higher at the rear (yours may be totally different). I've never leveled my rig; I just put my head at the high end and so far haven't had a problem. Regarding the condensate on the roof, I wouldn't worry about it so long as your aircon gasket is sealed.

[Blue~Go]

My Chinook is like Scott's, in that it's always higher in the rear (on level ground). So I generally sleep with my head toward the sink/feet toward the cab. What I did was get one of those cheap little round bubble levels (a few bucks, about 1-1/2" in diameter), and then park someplace level. Then I put the level on the console until it matched the level of the rig (in my case, level side to side, bit high in the rear). Now I can use that from the driver's seat. (Make sure the console is pushed down tightly.) It's possible that the running board corresponds to the interior level of the coach, but no guarantee. Plus that doesn't take into account side-to-side.

I do carry leveling blocks (Lynx blocks), and they have quite a few handy uses, but my preference is to park without them. I don't know why, since it's not hard to use them, but I always feel like I'm getting away with something when I don't need them

Speaking of the bed being the important part, I got annoyed when I was parked on the street in front of a friend's house: It wasn't a good spot for putting out blocks, because I had to shift when they went to work and came home. But of course since the bed is on the driver's side, it's always "fall out of bed" crooked in a typical street parking spot. So I made the bed so that it's tilt-able. I can raise the inboard edge by an inch or two when needed (that amount of off level doesn't bother me for daytime living).

As was mentioned above, the main thing about the AC condensate is that it IS draining off the roof. If your AC gasket gets too old and compressed (or is not compressed enough), and/or if the roof is slightly depressed around the AC unit (weight), then it can leak into the roof instead of draining off.

Anyone might want to check the tightness of the AC/gasket. When I went to remove my AC, I found the fasteners were quite a bit looser than expected. While you don't want to compress the life out of the gasket, "hand loose" did not seem ideal either.

[chin_k]

The morning headaches reminds me of the CO detectors... How often do we need to test or replace them?

[Blue~Go]

CO detectors do expire. But that's just one reason I replaced my stock one. The other is that it wasn't mounted in a very logical location. CO is fairly neutral. That means it doesn't really rise or sink (propane sinks, in comparison). So it's usually suggested that a CO detector be placed at head level while sleeping (of course you can have more than one).

My stock one was right next to the back door and practically on the ceiling. Wrong level and - to my mind - wrong location.

On boats there is a trend to using battery powered CO detectors. Easy to replace and easy to site. And these are fancy boats, so it's not just a cheap-out maneuver (I mention this because there is a tendency to think that "hard wired" means better).

I got one that has a digital display. This is nice because if, say, one without a display would alarm at level "100," the display will also show me level 23 or 78 or 99 (or zero). Much better info to my mind. I also located it in a better spot. Also, you can remove the batteries when you are not using the coach so it is not active.

Mine was something like $25, so they need not be super expensive.