Thread: Fitting air

Lots of work plumbing in the A/C.

You could always try one of the Viesa evaporative coolers like they use in trucks. I had one in my truck and they are great.

Check this out

Viesa

Neale

my 95 has it fitted, i'm guessing from factory.......not the best performing air-con

Not sure that any defenders prior to the TD5 will have come with factory air. My 94 300 Tdi was fitted here in Aus by ULR, I am pretty certain that they source all their bits from Autoairspares or heatcraft try one of these;

Melbourne Metropolitan
KIRBY
Clayton 160 Wellington Road Clayton Vic 3168 (03) 9561 0199 (03) 9561 0788
Moorabbin 24 Kilpa Road Moorabbin Vic 3189 (03) 9532 2284 (03) 9532 2805
Preston 60A Albert Street Preston Vic 3072 (03) 9480 0321 (03) 9480 4086
Nunawading 30/41-49 Norcal Road Nunawading Vic 3131 (03) 9873 4155 (03) 9873 4166
Tullamarine 17 Barrie Road Tullamarine Vic 3043 (03) 9330 4222 (03) 9330 4511
West Melbourne 60-80 Adderley Street West Melbourne Vic 3003 (03) 9328 3044 (03) 9329 2037
LOVELOCKS
Notting Hill Unit 21, 45 Normanby Road Notting Hill Vic 3168 (03) 9542 0400 (03) 9542 0444
West Melbourne 142 Stanley Street West Melbourne Vic 3003 (03) 9329 0388 (03) 9329 8835

If they don't do the fitting i am sure they will know who

The easiest way is to get a evaporator (inside unit) for a mini bus, either new or 2nd hand.

There are always good 2nd hand compressors available - new mounting brackets/adaptors can be bought or made up to suit.

A new condenser - always recommend that.

Then when you have all the hardware fitted - by yourself - it's all easy, just take it to a local auto ac guy to do the pipe work, control wiring and charging of the refrigerant.

It would be my guess that this could be done for less than $2k.

In fact I would be able to do the pipework and the wiring for it for you cheaply.

The minibus type evaporator mounted at high level/roof level either just behind the passengers or if it has a back door, just above that. Easy to mount, just a easy metal frame that spans the roof.

The pipe work and the condensate drain can either run down the rear quarter or the centre pillar - you would need to cut a small hole in the floor, but barring that its pretty straight forward.

I posted up some pick - on a previous thread showing the type of mini bus evaporators you can get. Do a search you should be able to find it.

The condenser and the receiver drier, they fit where they should, you might have to make up a few brackets.

The fiddly bit will be getting a compressor to fit with the right pulley, and brackets. Fiddly but not hard.

1103.9TDI has an interesting setup on his county

Originally Posted by Corgie Carrier

Lots of work plumbing in the A/C.

You could always try one of the Viesa evaporative coolers like they use in trucks. I had one in my truck and they are great.

Check this out

Viesa

Neale

I don't think this type would be a good choice in the humid tropics.

Thanks to everyone for fantastic feedback. If i cannot get something from that wealth of info i never will! I shall let you know how i go and what the end result is...

Thanks again,

A

As someone else already pointed out, the defender is one big cavern to keep cool and limiting the volume by seperating the passenger space should help. From personal experience, when up the Kimberley on the Gibb River Road and it got to 39C the aircon in my 94 defender made very little impression. The temp inside the vehicle was about the same as outside and my passenger decided that we were no better off than having the aircon off and the windows open. I suspect that a bigger condenser may help.