Woooohhhh, back up here a second.  A DC to AC converter?  The motor needed
to power that compressor would drain the battery in minutes.  About as long
as a battery last running your starter when the car won't start.  You may
get a few more moments out of it if you used a DC motor and skipped the
conversion part.  You _could_ use an AC motor plugged into the hookups but
then you might as well stick a window unit in the luggage rack and poke it
through the tent.

Bryan

-----Original Message-----
From:   Chris & Aimee Uzzi [SMTP:uzzi@AIMNET.COM]
Sent:   Thursday, June 18, 1998 11:52 AM
To:     Vanagon@VANAGON.COM
Subject:        Re: Idea for A/C and camping

i love it! send me your procedure specs when you complete yours!  ;-)

chris

At 11:30 AM 6/18/98 -0400, KENWILFY@AOL.COM wrote:
>OK spending a week in a westie in several different climates got me to
>thinking about some practical climate control.  I know about the propex
>heaters so I think that the heating problem is solved but what about the
>cooling (we mostly camp out in summer anyways right?)  So here is my idea.
>Use the van's exsisting A/C setup to cool the camper while it is sitting
on
>the campsite.  Here is how it would work, mount a 5 hp electric motor to
the
>left of the A/C compressor in the engine compartment and install a small
drive
>belt between the motor and the compressor using the other pulley that is
>already there (you were wondering why it had two pulleys weren't you?)
>Mount an easily adjustable idler pulley between the crank pulley and the
A/C
>unit and put a longer belt here.  Now when you stop for the night you
could
>just adjust the idler pulley down until the belt was slack enough to push
out
>of the way, then turn on the electric motor and the compressor would be
>turning.  Now all you have to work out is a 110v to 12v convertor to run
the
>van's electrical system (so you can run the clutch on the compressor, the
>condensor fan, the A/C blower motors, etc.) and you are done.  I know this
>seems like a bit of trouble but it wouldn't be expensive and once you did
it
>you wouldn't have to fry in the summer at night or haul around a heavy
window
>A/C unit, installing it and taking it down every night.
>This is just an idea.  Let me know what you folks think.
>Ken Wilford
>John 3:16
>