Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianW
^^xcnick, do you already have a thread showing the AC mod? If not, please start one with more pics and details. People are always asking about this. A separate thread would be a great resource.
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Glad to do this, but not much modification done. The only mod is I cut a hole in the licence plate holder for the exhaust. I was scared to do even this so I bought a couple from Pick and Pull at $3 each.
The plate has a hinge so it flops up when air is blowing. I made a clip to hold it down when driving so it doesn't look like my plate is about to fall off.
I have a stack of drawers in the back and I lost my sock drawer to the hose. You can see that after I close the door I have feed the hose back into the exhaust tip.
The story of how I got this going is long and convoluted compared to how easy the installation is, but there may be something here. I went to Cabella's because they had the 2000 Yamaha generator on sale for $800. However when I got there it wasn't on sale. No one in the store can get on the internet and pull up their own website. I got pissy and decided to run over to the motorcycle store and they were really nice and said I could try anything I wanted so I went to Home dip sh, I mean Home Depot and bought their 8000 BTU LG portable.
Hook it all up in the motorcycle store and it didn't work. They had the amp meter you plug between the load and the plug and I noticed it pulled over 16 amps at start up and the compressor made too much noise for my liking. Went back to Home Depot and tried to get another by saying it pulled too many amps at start up. Don't ever do this. Just say "broken, no worky." Hours later I brought the second one to the motorcycle store and it worked fine with the generator.
I had some space between the motorcycle rack and the van. Just had to find something to fill it.
Dropped a grand on the generator, but the rest is cheep. The inverter was a return I got for $60 and the A/C was $280.
At first the A/C wouldn't run off just the 1500 Harbor Frieght inverter, but the numbers say it should, barely. What I figured out is that it is the voltage drop that kills the inverter when the compressor starts up. So if I have the van motor running the volts stay up when the compressor comes on. Then I just set the temp so low the compressor will never go off again and it runs off my two Wally World group 27 batteries and Harbor Freight inverter. Then I can turn off the van motor.
The Yamaha for this year is called "v2" or version 2 which is supposed to be better at handling start up loads. I would like to try an older one to see if that makes the difference. In any case it is pretty close. I can't really use the econo mode with the A/C. However like the inverter, after the compressor is on I can put it to eco mode and set the temp so low the compressor will not ever turn off.
The swamp cooler was fine for just me, but the wife brought home a couple of Husky's who really don't like the heat.