Furrion Chill Cube Install Almost Failed — Here’s the Wire Nobody Noticed

Ross had a number in his head: 12 feet. That was his clearance on the road — tight enough that he’d come close to trouble on a previous rig before he understood what rooftop equipment actually does to a rig’s height profile. So before the Furrion Chill Cube even came off the pallet, the first question he asked was what this install was going to do to that number.

He was right to ask. It came back 13 feet 4 inches.

That’s the part people remember to measure. The part they don’t always catch is what happens between taking the old unit off and getting the new one running — and that’s where this install went sideways.

One AC Was Never Enough for the Bedroom

Ross and Carol’s 2018 Grand Design Reflection came from the factory with one Dometic unit cooling the living area. The bedroom had a 14.5-inch vent opening and nothing else. On a hot night, that gap is obvious. Ross had been thinking about a fix since he attended a class at Lippert’s RV Owner School in Elkhart, where an instructor ran a Furrion Chill Cube in the room and called it quieter and more efficient than the units most rigs ship with. The $1,500 unit sat in the box long enough. This was the day.

No Tech on Site — Just Two Neighbors and a Manual

There was no service center appointment, no certified tech. Dale, a contractor, handled the physical work on the roof. Bob, who builds transformers for a living, was there for support. We were filming because we’re seriously considering adding a second unit to our own Alliance rig — and we wanted to see what a real DIY install looks like before we make that call.

Dale’s estimate: about twenty minutes.

The actual time: three hours.

The Torque Spec Deserves a Second Look

The install instructions called for 40 pounds of torque on the fasteners. That sentence looks simple. It isn’t. There’s a significant difference between 40 foot-pounds and 40 inch-pounds — enough difference to matter to the housing, the gasket, and anything that has to hold together at highway speed. That question came up during the install, and the answer wasn’t immediately obvious to everyone on the roof.

The video shows how that played out.

The Control Panel Was Completely Dark

The unit was seated. The gasket was compressed. The cover was on. When they connected power and tried to bring the system up for the first time, the control panel showed nothing — no display, no response, no indication it had any power reaching it at all. Voltage was confirmed coming into the unit. Nothing was coming out to the panel.

The working theory, after enough time testing without an answer, was a defective unit. That meant Camping World, a warranty claim, and starting over.

It wasn’t defective. But finding what it actually was took longer than the install itself.

What the Furrion Chill Cube Adds to Your Clearance

Before the install, the bedroom location on Ross and Carol’s Grand Design measured out at approximately 12 feet — no rooftop equipment at that spot, just the vent flush with the roof surface. After the Chill Cube was mounted, a tape measure dropped from a level to the ground came back at 13 feet 4 inches. That’s the conservative number, accounting for the grade of the driveway. The measured figure was closer to 13 feet 2 and a half inches — but Ross is running with 13’4″ because the safer number is the right number to put in a GPS.

If you’re planning this install on your own rig, that clearance math follows you down every highway and through every campground entrance. Measure after the install before you move anywhere.

We Were There to Answer a Question for Our Own Rig

Ross and Carol pull a Grand Design. We pull an Alliance Paradigm 310RL. Different rigs, same question: is a second AC worth doing, and what does a DIY install actually look like when nobody from a service center is involved?

We have a clearer picture now than we did before we showed up with a camera. The full version — what broke, who found the problem, what the decibel readings actually showed, and whether we’d do this to our own rig — is all in the video below.

If you’re thinking about adding a second AC, watch the clearance section before you do anything else.

We cover honest RV content at Rolling With The Curves — real trips, real installs, real costs. No highlight reel. If that’s the kind of content that helps you make better decisions for your own rig, the channel is worth a look.

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