S-250 Shelter AC Mount

I am getting ready to add a 6000 BTU MIL air conditioner to my S-250 shelter. This means that I need to cut a hole on the hinge side of the door, and install whatever hardware is required to hang the AC. I've seen the hardware on other shelters at Iola, and I've taken photos and measurements. Before I start to cut up aluminum and weld a mount, does anyone have a used mount they could sell, or have Gitchner's drawings of the mount, or have any information on the mount's installation? I'd like to avoid inventing the wheel on this project, but I might have to start from scratch and figure it all out as I go.

If I do wind up starting from scratch, I'll document it as I go along so the next guy will have a starting point.

Why not put the a/c unit where it belongs? Putting it on the door side might infringe on your future patio space.

Why does everyone want to cut the shelters all the time?


This was taken in Iraq in 2004. Don't mind the former E6 on the steps.

From what I've heard, the Army initially set a few hundred shelters up with AC, then sent the AC shelters to Korea, and the non-AC units to Vietnam. The ACs are capable of operation in NBC atmospheres, and virtually every shelter today has an "Environmental Control Unit" -- AC to everyone else. The AC installations look like the photos - they barely fit along side the door. The original units are 6000 BTUH - the newer ones are 9000 BTUH to handle allt he heat from the electronics equipment.

Putting one in the front of the shelter was a thought, as was a rooftop RV unit. Front mounting would impact on sliding the shelter into a pickup, and rooftop works if you mount the AC on a filler - the corners of the shelter stick up about 5/16", and rain can result in a pool that will leak down through the roof. Besides, the military designed an excellent AC that was available for only a small fortune, plus a buck a pound (167 Lbs-ouch!) to ship it. I'm stuborn enough to want to save as much of the military equipment as possible. If the original AC ever goes into a core meltdown, I can build an AC from scratch and stuff it into the same housing.

My S-250 has an A/C in the front - a 9000 BTU unit. No freon left in it per CFR 47.

I would like to find a split system that I can install in my shelter but I do not know if the residentail units would hold up.

I had the same thought - a split system would be simple (assuming you could find someplace for the condenser), but they are built to a price, and most homes don't go for weekend drives, so their life expectancy might be less than the warranty. By using a MIL air conditioner, its built like a brick phone booth, and if all else fails, I can always buy an end-of-season on-sale AC from a dealer, maybe Sears, tear it apart, and use the parts to build an AC in the MIL housing. Might get complicated-

If an A/C unit can survivei ox cart transport from a Chicom factory to ocean port, stuffing in a container, sea voyage (thru seastare ___) a to a US port, then a couple thousand mile truck/rail transport to a US warehouse where a union ape "unstuffs" the container to storeage. Then trucked to a retail store where you buy it and loving hand carry it home. Its not all that delicate.

Good thought - the manufacturers and shippers do not treat ANYTHING like glass (including glass...). I can remember seeing the gorillas on the pier handling boxes, and it is surprising how well everything came through the journey. At any rate, I have a 6000 BTU MIL AC, and the plan is to stuff it through the rear on the hinge side of the door. If I can't track down all the finer details about the brackets / etc, I'll figure them out as I go along as I TIG the mount together.

Military A/C units are heavier than their civilian counterparts. I have a couple of broken door hinges on my S-280 right now, and it does not have the extra weight of an A/C on it.

That's probably why they designed the S250 AC installation for the rear next to the door instead of on the door. The AC mounts I've seen are definitely designed to carry a load.

pctrans said:

Why not put the a/c unit where it belongs? Putting it on the door side might infringe on your future patio space.

Click to expand...

I need the mount or the plans for the mount just like the one in your middle picture.
The hole for the ac is already there.

I think you're asking about the front mounted AC and not the rear mounted AC?

135gmc said:

I think you're asking about the front mounted AC and not the rear mounted AC?

Click to expand...

Yes, it's the front mounted AC unit, 9,000 btu.
See the attached pictures.

The S250 AC was originally only 6000 BTU, but as they started adding more electronic equipment, the 6000 BTU AC had to become a 9000 BTU AC.

It looks like you probably have the shelter's mounting points, so what you would need is the aluminum structure that supports the actual AC. The shelter attachment points are the real headache - they are attached with Rivnuts that aren't standard sizes, and they ahve to be positioned correctly so they anchor into the shelter's framing. Generally, the AC support structure is made from standard aluminum extrusions, 2x2x1/8, etc. If you can find someone with an S250 and the right support bracket, take photos, and sketch out the dimensions. Then if you can't track down the right support, at least you know what you have to do to build one. I was able to get photos and dimensions from one of the folks at Iola last year for my rear mounted AC.

My S-250 has the 9000 btu A/C in it, but the freon (F-22) was removed before the sale. It's even a 120 V, 60 cyc, single phase unit. 100acrehumpalump wanted it a couple of months ago, but has not shown up yet. Ferro would like the S-250 to disappear so he can drag the trailer it's on to his LZ.

My AC was also empty when I got it, except it was new in the box, but packaged in 1993. It turned out that the refrigerant charging valves only relied on an O ring for sealing around the valve stem. We replaced them with modern Schraeder charging valves, ran a leak test, pumped a vacuum, and filled 'er up. It works perfectly. The AC's cabinet is as full of guts as a Borneo bushman's dinner - you need the 300+ page manual to do anything so you have a tunneling route to get into it. An AC only needs a compressor, an evaporator, a condenser, a metering method (expansion valve or cap tube), and maybe a refrigerant reservoir -- buy one from Best Buy and take a look inside - not much there. The military has designed about the most sophisticated design that they could have designed.