Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2006 02:12:42 EST
Reply-To: FrankGRUN@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Frank Grunthaner <FrankGRUN@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: slightly bizarre Vanagon...front AC in a westy - My Experience
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In a message dated 3/6/06 8:04:26 PM, felder@KNOLOGY.NET writes:
> I contacted Frank about his conversion after I saw it, and he concedes
> that it does use up a lot of the access space to the upper bunk. He
> never intended to use his camper for camping for four, however. And he
> did a beautiful job of covering the extended portion by covering it
> with teak.
>
> I wanted to preserve the upper bunk as we use it when
> daughter/granddaughter are camping with us, so I opted for the
> underdash installation.
>
>
I've got to take some exception to Jim's recollection here. In my
installation of the AC unit, I moved it forward so that a line drawn parallel to the back
of the driver's side seat when located in its furthermost back position would
intersect the front face of the AC fan housing and cooling unit. I
subsequently had a headrest of Tempurpedic foam, covered in black soft leather, mounted
against the front face of the AC unit in roughly the size of the headrest for
the seats. The design was chosen so I could rest my head against the AC unit
with no significant loss of front cabin room.
As to the rear projection into the space left open between the poptop opening
and the edge of the upper bed, I believe that that right around 16 inches
remain. Details in the archives or on Alistair's site. The wood surface covering
was done to match the curvature of the Vanagon roof opening.
By way of correction, though, we always go camping with a minimum of 3 and
generally 4 people. The upper berth is always in use! The wood surface extends
to the full edges of the poptop opening and was designed to handle my (then)
full 250 pound mass sitting on it, legs dangling below. We have found over the
years that there is no significant egress compromise. Further, the shelf, as I
refer to it, has served as a convenient repository to store clothes, books,
drinks, late night snacks, etc. Never any trouble with the AC unit either, just
blows cold on demand!
As I change over to TDi power, I'm going to the 7-piston Sankyo / Sanden
compressor, and I have acquired a Behr in dash unit that I may install as part of
a redesigned dash. The only difficulty that I have found with this setup is
with the cold air flow at the drivers position. The VW ducting along the top of
the windshield can direct a severely cold air flow directly at one's forehead.
On occasion screaming through central Texas twixt El Paso and San Antonio,
I've developed a headache at full AC throttle. This is not a problem on the
passenger side and is probably due to the restricted air flow and the location of
the seat back. Anyway, integrating the Behr through the standard air vents
would let me locally baffle the flow from the upper vent. Any yes, the AC
compressor has sufficient moxie to drive the two AC cooling units. Some rewiring will
be required, but the high current TDi alternator should handle it well.
The only other compromise was the extension of the poptop latching mechanism.
I can only say that it has worked seamlessly for many years.
Frank Grunthaner
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