Aircooled VW South Africa

Hi all you Kombi Lovers and Gurus,

So my 74 bukkie has become my daily driver, but my other half recons it's too hot and keeps insisting on taking the Forrester. I even had a sliding rear window fitted.

My solution is, to get an AC fitted. After any advice, stories and tips that anyone may have.

Thanks in advance

Aircon is problematic on our air-cooled cars. Consider that you use the aircon when the weather is hot, which is also when your air-cooled engine is under most stress and the cooling system is working its hardest. Our air-cooleds are also not the most powerful engines, so adding power-sapping accessories just adds to the stress and additional cooling needs on the engine.

My own experience with driving ACVW buses is that they don't have the large expanses of sloping glass that causes most of the interior heat in more modern cars. Their glass is all vertical or nearly so, reducing the amount of solar energy that gets into the interior. Also, having the engine at the back means none of the engine heat that gets transmitted to the interior in front-engined cars.

Of course, I'm not used to using aircon in my cars, so I'm used to the ambient temps of my buses. Your wife is probably used to more luxury and that's the real issue, rather than absolute temperature. My wife's Toyota Yaris gets ridiculously hot inside and it would be undriveable without aircon. It's never occurred to me to fit aircon in any of my aircooleds.

Personally, I don't see a real need and, even if I did, I wouldn't want to stress my air-cooleds out with aircon. If you do fit aircon, expect signifcantly reduced engine life.

Does your bakkie have a type1 or a type4 engine? I definitely wouldn't fit aircon in a type1-engined bus.

If you do fit aircon, please share your experience re what's available in the market and how your install works out.

I hear you fig, its got a 2L in it and 30-34 degrees days its not too bad. We just seem to be getting multiple 40+ days in a row and the last few where when we took a surf trip up the coast, so it was pretty gruesome.
I'll keep you posted on my findings.

As far as I know there are some cars (Honda Jazz) that use electrically driven aircons. Possibly a solution. Maybe google and let us all know.

Modern aircons are a lot more efficient than they used to be, especially the electric ones, so will tax our ACVWs less. But even an electric aircon will tax the engine, as it still puts additional load (which must be powered by the engine) on the alternator/generator.

Easy. Sell the Forrester or sabotage it's aircon by disconnecting wire at compressor's clutch.

You could go tinted windows and use a curtain at the bakkie's rear window. (To prevent sun shining on your neck). Good insulation in the roof and elsewhere. Dash-mounted or below-dash 12V fan.

Different aircon versions were available overseas, most had overhead console. There were also underdash units.
Type 4 engines were designed from the beginning to have space for an aircon compressor, which mounts on the fan housing to the left. That's what those 4 unused holes on the side of fan housing is for. Visible from underneath.
Pulley fits between fan and crankcase, (only visible from underneath). Standard non- aircon engines use a spacer in place of aircon pulley. Belt is replaced by removing 3 bolts that hold fan. Then withdraw fan to acess pulley.
Some crude systems simply mounted compressor on top of fan housing.
Early compressors were inefficient and large, they are obsolete nowadays. Often replaced by something newer.
Newer compr in place of old York unit:

This shows the "new old stock" kit, the cadmium/gold coloured pulley fits between fan and engine:



http://www.vw-t2-bulli.de/index.php?de-airconditioner

This just as an idea how they used to do it overseas. Sean took pictures of one of the local installed aircon systems.

Nowadays...
You could get a modern aircon-compessor and complete system from some new-ish car at the scrapyard. But make sure it's compressor can operate running in any direction. Use Plain old "common sense" to install. But... obviously do not install condenser unit in engine bay where it would pre-heat engine's cooling air. Underneath below chassis would be better.

Interesting thread, and I will certainly be following it. Thanks Dawie for your previous post! Coincidently I read an article about a week ago about aftermarket or retro-fitted air conditioning units fitted to old Porsche 911s.

Interesting read here and for more info Google's your friend -

http://vintageexcellence.com/Air_Condit ... roject.php

In Asia they use aircon on all their vintage VW aircooled's so We have been working on a unit but with locally supplied parts ( so if you need a part for it in a year's time it does not have to be imported) and we are quite far in the development stages. We have taken as much info from our Asian partners as we can and will have our own local unit available soon. They work pretty well and even run with smaller engines....They have been using aircon's for Years in Asia and having personally driven in quite a few different aircooled VW's on various of my trips to my suppliers i can tell you it works really well, and one don't even feel any engine strain with the AC on.

Take a old cooler box cut a hole in the lid fit a small 12 volt blower fan or 2 computer fans fan then cut 2x 50mm holes at each end high up then push a 50mm elbow so you can adjust where you want them to blow add ice and you have instant cold air.

lol. I also made that one after I saw Suzelle DIY.. Ice lasted an hour flat.. But yes, it DID work.

Its a pity dry ice was not so hard to find, You need a ice maker then happy days.

In the old days, some of you may remember, the travelers and road workers had their canvas water bag tied to the bumper.

This gave nice cold water at rest stops.

Now if you have an evaporator box with air from the air vent, this should blow cool air into the car.

Come on guys, lets design the 1st SA VW aircon that used no energy, but passing air.........

Just remember,....I get 33 % royalty's on this one......

Herman

I think those bags are still available at some shops. Saw one the other day on FB


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google "car swamp cooler"

Here is one in my 75 Baywindow. Its condenser is very neatly mounted between the chassis rails in a louvered grid with fans. This overhead unit wont work in a single cab though. I agree with Fig that a aircon isn't necessary in a bus. A single cab is worse than a bus due to the small cab and rear window that the sun bakes on your neck like Dawie said.

You can also purchase a universal air con system complete, its comes with a complete interior unit that can be mounted under dash, but a buses dash is too short so this unit will stick out way to far. This is available at most professional automotive air con work shops.