Need help deciding on adding AC to a extended contractors van.

Well, the deal went through. I am the owner of a basic 1996 e250 ford van. inline 6 engine, 80 amp alternator and NO AC.

With this muscular disease having AC really helps to catch the second wind and keep going. When I crapped out of a day I just sit in my chair with the ac cranked and a fan blowing in my face. After an hour I am ready to go again.

Anyway, looking at how to cool myself and part of the van. THe aftermarket ac kit from jcwhitney is 570, I do the installation and get someone to gas it up. The concern is that from what others who rent vans to transport wheelchairs is that only the front part is cool and its not really cool as as you drive you get a waves of hot air from theback and the cool air from the front. Meaning rear ac is important too.

Ive searched a bit on ac and so far, nothing on rear ac kits. I ve found roof top ac units, portable, window, ac, dc units.

As you can see, needing 40-60 amps at 12 volts or 115 volts ac and 15-20 amps will meet or exceed the charging system of the van.

A search for an ac generator to use on the fly was rather useless too. Seems they need to run at a constant speed and use the pto.

Anyway, the dc air conditions were a few grand, the ac ones were a few hundred. That kind of rules out the dc units cause the price is more than the 2gs I paid for the van.

The van has extra brackets for a second alternator and a compressor. Since the ac aftermarket kit is limited to just use in the van, I had another idea.

THe idea was to use an inverter rated large enough for a small portable or window ac unit. One of the little units with just an on/off switch. I think those draw around 600 watts. This maybe able to work off the stock charging system with a thousand or 1200 watt inverter. THen just mount the thing.

What do you think so far? This way the inverter can be used to power tools or emergency power. THe ac unit can be plugged into the line voltage if I am at a camp site or it could be brought in to use in an ac failure or power failure. Maybe less than 600 bucks for both. Yes, I am seriously considering sleeping in the van, its hugh inside.

If power is an issue, going to look for an alternator from the kidmey foundation junkyard and get a larger deep cycle battery just for the inverter. Hooking the alternator to the battery so its its own circuit. Short, monster cables too.

Ok, so how do you mount the portable or window ac system? If a window unit is used I was thinking of removing one of the rear or side windows and making a box out of wood and bolts to sandwich the unit to the opening and use lots of silicon to seal it off for water and what not. I thought about partly mounting it in the roof at an angle, but no idea if those can be mounted at an angle or not, lets say 45 degrees.

If its a portable one with an exhaust vent, maybe make a hole for the exhaust and water and mount it to the floor behind the front seat.

Find a front/rear factory unit in a salvage yard. You/ve got to find and install the front unit anyway.

Anything else will be a super PITA and most probably won't be satisfactory. Experience speaks.

If you do actually use it as a camper/sleeper, a small window unit can easily go into one of the windows -- rear if you want it to be permanent or one of the rollup windows if just temoprary.

I did the temp thing in a VW van. Used the front passenger window. Cut plywood that fit inside the door with a lip at the bottom which went out and hooked over the bottom of the window. The small a/c then fit in an opening in the plywood. The weight of the a/c, tilting the plywood out, made it fit snug. Just lifted the whole thing out and put it in the back when ready to go.

BTW If you do opt for a salvage unit, be sure and get a later one that uses R134 gas NOT the old regular freon. The year break is around 1993/94 I think.

The older units can be successfully converted, but it's just more $$ and hassle.

http://www.aurasystems.com/techinfo.htm




* 5,000 Watts of Continuous Power
* 8,500-watt Unit Available Also
* Constant 240 and 120 Volts
* No Heavy Portable Generator Unit to Lift
* Maintenance Free
* Fits Under the Hood
* No Hot Components to Touch
* Operates at Any Engine Speed
* Mounts to Engine or Power Take-Off (PTO)

could this help?

Sorry, I know that doesn't help you, but I just love that picture

LOL... nice picture.

If your rear a/c takes 60 amps, that is within the realm of a heavy duty alternator. The bolt-on HD units can go anywhere from 130 amps and up from there. That leaves 70 amps of headroom, which is probably what the stock alternator on a six cylinder is.

For that kind of power draw you should ground the a/c unit as close to the battery as you can, and use a fusible link on the main wires.

There are plenty of rear a/c units available at RV shops, kinda pricey though; I haven't seen one under $1,000.

As BIGIRON pointed out, retrofitting a factory system is probably best and cheapest but still a lot of work.

If you want to use a $100 home window unit, a 110v alternator like TedTheLed posted about would be best. Lots of places sell them to run welders for work trucks.

It may be easiest to trade in the van for one with A/C, maybe a smaller one if you don't need all that space.

Whatever do you, I recommend avoiding aftermarket kits like the one from Whitney. They are notoriously problematic. Like Big Iron said, a factory unit from a junk yard would be a better choice. Vans are like ovens in the summer, very hard to cool. If you absolutely need AC, it might make more sense to trade off the vehicle for one that already has it.

If you buy a used unit make sure you check the compressor well, they are notorious for seiving up if they are not used for any length of time. But it is the best way to go if you can find a good unit.

Congrats on the van. Maybe you should get the standard ac installed, drive it, and see if you really need a second setup. Crack a rear window open just a little bit to let out the hot air, too. Good luck.


Cheers. :buddies:

the airstreams are cool out in the desert sun because they reflect so much of the sun off their aluminum skins, and are insulated against the transmitted heat. Why not use the same approach to cooling your van?

There are many insulating and reflective coatings you could apply to the outside -- and a little insulation inside could go a long way.

Also if you're out in the dry desert heat, maybe consider a "swamp cooler" (evaporative cooler)
type 'air-conditione'r -- it would use less electricity that a compressor type AC, as long as you had plenty of water to fill it with..

You might even cobble together a 'custom' swamp cooling system in the van; all you need are wet surfaces with a little breeze blowing on them and you could get a good 10 degree drop or more, plus the added humidity makes it more comfortable too..

James S, shame on you. Thats exactly the setup I hope to avoid. At least the sight and engineering aspect. Ive seen a few vans with caps with a rear ac mounted in the window. No idea how they powered it.

Thanks TedTheLed, looks like what I was looking for, but have no idea how to of looked it up. Lets see how much it costs. Otherwise, thinking of getting another alternator, battery or two and inverter.

Just trying to go the most economical route. Hate to tie up too much parts and or labor in something I cant move to another car in the future.

I asked the owner, he said he thinks the kit is relevative easy to installl. I would just need to get use to removing the shroud inside to access anything other than to check the fluids. He pointed out where the evaporator coil would go under the hood. Of course the condensor goes infront of the radiator.

Its surprisingly cool to not have any insulation inside and the fact only the two frontwindows open, none of the pop outs do, they are bolted in.

Err, before you get all wild and fancy about the cooling, you can just hang a clear plastic shower curtain behind the front seats, cool the front and don't hang out in the back on bad days. This will also help next winter when you find out that the heater doesn't do the whole van either. A booster heater for the back I can advise you on, the one I made worked good. You can also study the windows, see if you can retrofit some to open. Driving with the big sliding side door open will give a nice breeze too<G>

The shower curtain idea I like. No need to cool the whole van for one person. I was under it last weekend and must admit, that is a lot or work to install it and even then, I still have to go to a shop to get it vacuumed and freon pumped in to it. THats what, 300 bucks, and the price of the kit.

I think in all the power supply addition and use of a mobile or portable AC unit with cool air in the front and exhaust in the back. I could always use the power for tools or move to another car/truck. Move or sell the portable ac.