After Market A/C for Series IIA

[Apis Mellifera]

Thanks all!

I'll tell you what, if anyone is interested, I'll let this one go for $500. That's a heckuva deal!

I haven't actually used it yet other than bench testing. I took four trays of ice cubes from the freezer (not very much) and fill the cooler half way up with water. Using a computer fan (not much flow), the air coming out of the heat exchanger was 64F when ambient was over 90F With more ice, the ducting, and larger blower (250 cfm), it will be much colder. I built it for my 30 minute commute, but I expect it will last an hour or two. It's really proportional to how much ice you put in it. However, once the ice melts, that doesn't mean the cooling stops. I'll put it this way, it has an off switch.

There is a similar thing on instructables, but his has the lid open during use. Not only would there be a likely chance that you'd end up with a floor full of ice water, but you'd also humidify the air.

[gambrinus]

Drop some dry ice in there and you'd be set for some time...

RW

[Apis Mellifera]

That's been suggested before. The problem is the gas-phase of dry ice doesn't generally support life. You'd be cold though...and not necessarily because of the A/C.

[Bud]

You need a CO2 scrubber, unfortunately the MGA uses round filters and the Rover takes square cartridges... Jim Lovell should be able to help you out with the adapter however.

[Regan]

After Market A/C for Series IIA

Thansk to all for sending all the interesting suggestions and comments! I do have a unit that uses ice and blows cool air, but does not completely cool the interior like I would like. I did get a response from a leading aftermarket AC company and was told that a small compressor would "probably" fit on the driver side, but......... the heater system would have to be removed to add a heat and defrost system, which I do not want to do. Another concern they had was the fan on the radiator, not having enough flow to condense the refrigerant. I replied asking for more clarification as I am not an A/C handyman. Should any of you know oif this, please let me know, I am at a loss.

Thanks, Regan
P.S. I'm not giving up, just want to make sure this will work without spending twice as much as planned. I'm told that I do this all the time!

[Regan]

Donnie, I would be interested in hearing back from you on your finds,

Regan 337 344-3813

[Lord Icon]

There are also available..$250 or less

http://www.swampy.net/ac12.html at 250$ delivered.
http://www.kooleraire.com/index.htm is $40 , the cheapest by far...

[lrdukdog]

A/C

These do NOTHING for the HUMIDITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I worked in Saudi Arabia in the early 80"s (yes! My company car was a LHD Stage 1 V8 with A/C) and even at 100 plus with low humidity it wasn't as bad as 85 with 90% humidity is here in VA.
Jim Wolf

[jac04]

These do NOTHING for the HUMIDITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why do you think this? Think about it compared to a regular AC unit. Now, I assume that you agree that a regular car AC system removes humiduty from the air, right? How does it do it? It's not magical. The warm moist air hits the cold evaporator and the moisture in the air condenses on the evaporator. The moisture eventually drips off and is routed outside through a tube.

Now, there is nothing special about the evaporator except that it is cold. How it gets cold is irrelevant. If it gets cold by ice water, it will still work the same way as if it were cooled by refrigerant.

So, as long as you are catching the condensation and not running it back through some type of humidifier to put it back into the air, then the system IS reducing humidity.

[Gremlin]

What about those portable home ac units that you put on the floor and run the exhaust duct out the window?
If if were possible to use an inverter to run it, duct out (side window), and setup a drain line for the condensate, I can imagine it fittin in the rear tub between the seats. Might even be able to use it for heat in the winter, lol
But I'm wondering how small of a roof top unit is avaliable for the rv side.

[Gremlin]

how about this set up . You will definitely be cool, won't even hear the generator when driving,

[lrdukdog]

A/C

"Why do you think this?"
Well maybe because the fan is pulling cool air up around a block of ice which is melting and water vapor is bring blown up along with the cool humid air adding to the total moisture content of the air in the vehicle.
In the 40's and 50's there was a window unit that used ice and the vehicles forward motion to cool the vehicle, it was great for the desert and other areas with low humidity. Blowing air across ice will add humidity not reduce it. In no way does this perform the function of a condenser/evaporator to remove water from the air.
Jim Wolf

[Apis Mellifera]

Why do you think this?

While what you describe is true of the air passing over the heat exchanger, when the air comes in contact with cold water, it adds humidity. This is exactly how a house humidifier works. Air is blown over a wet surface, the water evaporates, the humidity goes up.



I tried my unit out yesterday. It works...for the most part. It was about 95F outside and I was able to drive home with the windows up and would guess it was 70-75F inside the car. I turned it off once and the car was uncomfortably hot instantly. So the cooling works great. The not-so-good: I used ice chips from the machine at work and they were completely melted by the time I got home (~30-40 minutes). The condensate that collected on the heat exchanger started blowing out the fan. The fan is also loud.

I'm now looking for an electric AC unit from a Prius...

[adkrover]

I have a very sucessful AC unit installed under my passenger seat box. It blows ice cold to both the front and rear passengers in my 65 109. I do have a slightly more powerful engine than stock (Robert Davis 3.0) but I imagine it would still work on a healthy stock engine. The install was very straight forward and the only tricky part was making the custom bracket to install the compressor. There is also a unit available that simply hangs from the dash on the passenger side that would be super easy to install but my truck has a heater in that location. Being in LA I imagine that you could easily live without the heater. Just search for my previous posts and you should find it. If not, let me know and I'll dig it up.

[jac04]

Blowing air across ice will add humidity not reduce it. In no way does this perform the function of a condenser/evaporator to remove water from the air.
Jim Wolf

Now let's not get all defensive and wave that little finger at me. I never claimed that blowing air across ice will decrease humidity, now did I? If you actually read & understood my post, you would know that I was strictly talking about a system that uses a heat exchanger similar to an evaporator in a 'normal' car AC system.