Good questions Dave. I have used a unit set up similar to this a friend
built for a season, it worked really well in our experience. We stored it
on the back bed, small unit so no issue with weight. Fins are definitely a
problem and you need to be careful. I am looking at a cap for using while
traveling.

I had thought about the weight on the gutters but it isn't that much quite
honestly, most of the weight is on the door there and the groove at the
bottom takes the bulk of the weight and transfers it to the door.

For the cooling, it definitely doesn't blow right on you but with the size
of the van we found it cools the entire thing down pretty well so we didn't
have issue with it staying cold and needing it to blow right on us. This
was camping in Ohio in the upper 80s to 90...van felt awesome!

Here is a pix of Artie parked in next to the big ol' RVs at Cedar Point
Ohio. We got more attention than anyone in that camp, was so funny. Either
way you can see the AC unit on the side. This mount used aluminum angle
iron across the window so you could actually open the door. Then a flat
piece of board to cover in around it. Really worked out well.

https://goo.gl/photos/EGjokydQSBjgyMNN8

Looking forward to getting this worked out, thanks for all the suggestions
and discussion

Ryan
Asheville, NC