Blake,

Long story short ... I installed a europeancollerair unit and after burning thru three compressors, gave up.

http://www.europeancoolerair.com/

Jerry West is the owner of this one person business run out of his home in Texas.

I would not recommend this company. good road, good adventure, good life, larry chase www.roadhaus.com

- - -

Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2006 15:43:37 -0800 From: Blake Heinlein <blakeheinlein@GMAIL.COM> Subject: Aftermarket Air Conditioning

Hi everyone,

I know this may seem very out of season but I've started planning for next summer. I have an 84 Westy and I'm looking at installing aftermarket indash air conditioning in it. I currently have none. I want to have cold air blowing on the driver and passenger not to worried about the temperature in the back of the van.

I've been looking at complete new systems from both of the companies below and prices are ranging from $1000 to $1500 for all of the parts without labor to install. I'm planning on installing it all myself and then having the initial charge and inspection performed by a very reputable A/C repair shop in Sacramento.

http://www.europeancoolerair.com/ http://www.vintageair.com/index.asp

Another option I have considered is scavenging a used Behr system and installing it myself. After refurbishing everything on the Behr unit I'll probably be up to $1000 and still have some used parts that may fail in the future.

I know this seams like an ambitious project and many people say why not just sell the van and buy one with air conditioning. Here is why. I bought my van about 8 years ago, I've replaced or rebuilt every mechanical part on the van and things have been working flawlessly over the last three years. If I got a different van I would have to start this process all over again.

So here is my question. Has anyone on the list done this before? How was the experience? Any pitfalls? Would you do it again? Any recommendations?

If I do this I plan to document it well and put together some web pages on how it went to help building on the collective Vanagon knowledge.

Happy Travels!

-- Blake Heinlein http://blakeheinlein.googlepages.com/