Air Conditioning for Vans

When I purchased my 1986 VW Vanagon T3 the air conditioning system in the rear worked fine.

It did work, but not great. You see, VW’s design was flawed. Every other vehicle I’ve owned had A/C and they all worked fantastically. Cold air all the time, every time. But Vanagons were different. They are essentially a big box on wheels. Try cooling down that in the heat of summer. Again, my A/C worked for years…then it broke. The fans in the rear suddenly began making noise. I decided to shut it down, and that’s when I began doing some research into Vanagon A/C systems. The research took me down a rabbit hole.

None of the Vanagon A/C systems really ever worked very well. They kinda kept the inside temperature cooler than the outside temp, but at a tremendous loss of power. In a Vanagon even missing a few ponies is a big thing. Some said, the ‘86-’91 systems in the Vanagon were the best. I happened to have an early ‘86 and I disagree. They all suck. I may get it repaired, or I’ll DIY it when I find a new fan system. Or, I may pass that job to the next owner. I don’t think any of the Vanagon A/C units worked very well, and I’ve been in lots of vans. So what do we A/C lovers do?

I’ve been thinking of installing the front A/C system from Small Car in Sacramento. It essentially gives the driver and passenger cool air all the time. When it works. But judging by the comments made on The Samba, I don’t know if it will do much more than cost a lot of money ($2,400, plus labor). Just open your wing window and keep your foot planted on the throttle. Instant air conditioning. People have said that the Small Car system only cools the people in the front. Anyone out back, suffers. That’s why I’m leaving the one out back alone for the time being. I’m not touching it until I can make a clear decision. When I win the lottery I’ll repair the original A/C unit in the rear and have the Small Car system running in the front. That sounds about right.

Or, I could buy one of the new 12-volt systems you see all other social media that are essentially plug and play. Except, to play you have to have at least a 200ah battery and a powerful solar panel to make sure the battery never dies. All that costs money, and certain skills. You also must mount it perfectly.

The new 12-volt from OutEquip looks pretty promising. It’s super low profile. Some Vanagons enthusiasts place it in the luggage area of their camper, the VW Tin Top guys cut a whole somewhere on top. But cutting a sizeable hole in a Vanagon roof doesn’t feel right. Ah… I don’t like cutting into sheetmetal. Especially, factory sheetmetal. I also lived through the days when aftermarket sunroofs were a big deal. I’ve seen my share of leaking sunroofs to avoid cutting into factory sheetmetal again. Water has a way of finding the smallest opening as you know. Drip, drip, drip.

I just saw a YouTube video of a guy who removed his Westy’s air vent on the fiberglass pop-top of his camper. He plopped in an OutEquip system. It fit nicely. It looked cool. But again, there’s a problem with that approach. The 12-volt OutEquip won’t work when you pop-the-top at your favorite campground. The OutEquip must be kept level to operate. yet, this is only a problem if you want A/C with the camper top open. Otherwise, I would think you could create a quick power disconnect of the OutEquip once you’re done driving and ready to set up camp. The 12-volt power disconnect could be re-connected again when you’re on the move and the pop-up is in the shut position. Just a thought on how it might work in a camper edition Vanagon.

The problem with old vehicles is modern things aren’t easily adapted to them. I say that because I’ve yet to see any solid proof that the 12-volt system is hands down the way to go.

Yes, sadly VW did everyone a big injustice by designing such a terrible A/C system to begin with. Not only that, but they made it incredibly difficult to remove and repair!

For now, I’ll follow a few social media threads and see what everyone else is doing before I make a decision on how to tackle the air conditioning of my Vanagon. It’s definitely going to be entertaining, and it won’t involve cutting into sheetmetal. I hope.