Date:         Tue, 8 Jul 1997 13:53:34 -0400 (EDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Oxroad@aol.com
Subject:      Re: Westfalia A/C Idea

Hello-

I live in New York City (pause for the question "Why?" and normal ribbing).
Here there's a new law that taxis must have air conditioning vents in the
rear seating area. I've seen a lot of "fixes" to get the air back there. Some
just duct taped a length of what looks like a white household cloths dryer
vent hose (about 4" in diameter) to a vent on the dash and then pitched the
open end over the back of the front seat. (Some use a similar hose which is
shiney silver looking like a survial blanket material.) It's not pretty but
it works. It seems to me this setup could work on the Westfalia and be
extremely removable when necessary.

A neater look in some taxis is achieved by tapping into the air conditioner
vents under the dash somehow, then running what must be about 2" PVC pipe
along the floor between the front seat and the doors.  This set up ends in a
little rounded swivel looking unit on the end in the back seat area. The end
swivel unit (which may not actually swivel) looks like it might be an air
intake for a boat. It's also about 2" round. A similar setup to this uses a
2" flexible hose from under the dash to the back seat. This hose also looks
like it has a marine application of some sort as well. 

I can't imagine this smaller diameter pipe works all that well. But they
sometimes install an auxilary fans which is in a vented box about 4" X 4" and
an inch or so deep that some cabbies have mounted on the back seat end of the
tube set ups. I've never actually seen the fans in operation, so I'm not sure
how well they work. 

Sorry, I realize this info is sketchy at best, in some cases because in NYC
there are those that can afford to ride in taxis and those that can't. Guess
where I fall. But if anyone's interested I can find out from cabbies where
they actually get the hose and vent which I have seen.

Jeff
83 Westy (Can't wait to get it up and running so I can have problems with the
A/C.)