air con advice please

[Pullsy]

Please help- I need advice/opinions on what I should do. I have in a previous post discussed fitting a defender a/c underdash unit into my county. I am worried about the loss of passenger leg room and other complaints I have heard about the air blowing into the knees. I am on the verge of buying one of these-

http://www.rdac.com/Pages/product_pages ... _unit.html

They aren't pretty but are industrial quality. I have a wagon and it will fit behind the centre console of the front seats on the rear floor- therefore it is protruding back into the rear centre seats leg room- this doesn't worry me as it is very rare that I carry any more than two in the car. Although the air will blow on the front driver/pax sides I have been told it that the BTU's of the unit are more than enough to cool the whole vehicle. The unit itself is $720, I reckon about $100 to make a steel frame to mount and about $250 to get the hoses connected up to my existing ac condesor/compressor etc and a regas.

Another reason I have gone towards this option is that I am having trouble sourcing a defender unit locally and am worried about buying and paying frieght to Townsveille and getting a unit that is is poor condition.

Any advice for or against would be greatfully appreciated as I am in a quandry and want to sort this a/c out asap and get my car cool.

Cheers
Pullsy

["CANADA"]

looks like a good idea..but why not use that system instead of pipe it all back to your oem setup?

[1103.9TD]

G'day Pullsy, thanks for your PM, didn't see this topic until I looked a bit closer; the Red Dot unit looks good to me, as you've probably read they supply a lot of A/C gear for both industrial and military applications, so they're built tough!. 17000 odd BTU's should be well and truly enough to cool the Rover, and I must say that my girlfriend really enjoyed the fact that it's an indirect cooling from the rear of the vehicle, and not 'straight in ya face'!!. Now I'm also looking at the possibility of fitting opening front vents, as per Defenders.

It certainly sounds better value than mine, although I had the entire system modified & replaced.

You may be able to mount it behind the rear seat, with the vents just above, so you can still carry five or so pax, I don't know what sort of configuration your vehicle is!.

All I can go on is that my system works wonderfully well, and is really efficient. Last weeks run up to and through Lakefield in 35C temps proved that point!. If you haven't already, it might be worthwhile talking to a firm that deals specifically in truck or farm machinery (industrial) aircond.

Let us know how you go, and sorry for sowing the Red Dot seed, I hope your not seeing RED!!!, it certainly seemed like the most rugged system that I could find...cheers....Gerry

[andrew e]

Now I'm also looking at the possibility of fitting opening front vents, as per Defenders.

Has anyone done this before, i too want to rip my ac out and fit defender vents. i have a complete defender dash and firewall at home. might make it a rainy weekend job.

another idea is a safari roof on a 110? has this been done before?

[ISUZUROVER]

another idea is a safari roof on a 110? has this been done before?

I have seen a military 110 wagon with a safari roof.

[1103.9TD]

The local 'Cairns Landrover Specialists' has done the front vents recently on a 85 110 County V8, looks and works well, but they used series parts, not Defender!. In someways I prefer the series stuff, bit more robust.

The safari roof I've also seen done, it's great for keeping the sun off, but my mate complained about various tree seeds finding their way underneath, getting jammed, and being near impossible to remove!!.

[Pullsy]

Thanks for all the replies. Looks like I will go the Red Dot way. I can't mount it behind the rear seats as I have built an ALuminium draw system and have my 56l Explorer Fridge and spare tyre in the back so it will have to go behind the front seats.

As for the vents I plan on doing this also- I have been told by the local Landy mechanic who also owns a County that all you have to do is rip out the ac vents and controls, clock etc the rest of the dasy unit is the same as the defenders. However, he also told me to check behind the black plastic vent blocking plates and check as he said early County's had the vent holes punched but later model COunty's did not and cutting out of the vent shapes is required. Cheers
Pullsy

[Pullsy]

Well I went in to the a/c place with all intents and purposes to buy the Red Dot unit and walked out with something different. The manager of the shop explained a few problems I would encounter with the Red Dot and explained what they had found with mounting units in vans etc. SO I am now getting an overhead mini bus air con unit which is mounted overhead behind the passenger seat. Roughly where the headliner sections meet. With the controls to be remote mounted in the dash. He also suggested replacing the headliner with a sticky backed sound/heat insulator with vinyl coated front which has a good apperance. They are doing the mounting and running pipes etc to the unit and all I will have to do is put in a ply facia front and back and cover in above vinyl for finished apperance. The unit should be in by mid next week- Can't wait. A good point is that this unit is only $440 so saving nearly $300 over the Red Dot unit I intended to get. For those in NQ the place I went to was FNQ Auto Air in Townsville and the manager is Dennis (07)4771 2555- they also have an office in Cairns. CHeers
Pullsy

[Pullsy]

Air COn fitted and let me say it is almost too good. It hasn't been to hot since I have had it only around 28 with low humidity but I am cold driving around with it on the lowest fan setting. I still need to put facia's up covering the front and back of unit but FNQ Auto Air did a top quality job building a mounting system, plumbing and wiring. I cannot rave enough about the service they gave- they called me in during the install to check that what they were doing was what I wanted and everything was to my liking. PM me and I can send photo's to anyone wanting to see the installed product and totally recommend FNQ Auto Air if anyone in Townsville needs any thing at all air con wise. Cheers,
PUllsy

[Maggot4x4]

That looks sweet, the only problem is if you put cup holders on it to keep your drinks cold, you will have to stop every time you want to take a swig

[Pullsy]

nah I'll just get a really long straw!