Cheap and easy penthouse air conditioner prototype

[mpfreivald]

A few quick snaps of current storage off the phone. Keep in mind though that I'm just fooling with this now... I didn't have the AC with me when I used the Sporty for a week recently as my mini apartment / office at a family reunion in humid Virginia, and daytime conditions were part of the motivation to actually do this instead of just thinking about it.

You can see the panel peeking up from behind the gaucho:



The AC is the box above the wheel well. The sill is visible behind the cargo net at the moment:





Got a magnetic weather fly I'm gonna punch a few grommets into, and then I'll give the whole thing a "hose test" before I trust it in a thunderstorm. But that will have to wait a bit.

[mpfreivald]

I guess the AC itself is about the size of a porta-potti.

[rustypayne]

I wish my screen had a zipper that looks like a really nice solution.

[mpfreivald]

Photo of the weather fly in place. Works great.

[01E350AZ]

Originally Posted by Pschitt

Nice solution her.

But for me European, I definitely don't understand why all of you American guys need so much AC !
I'm not use to those and don't miss it, even in high 90ies...

90's? That's a nice spring day for me. It was 115 last week here...

[86Scotty]

This bears repeating.............again and again

Originally Posted by WVvan

It's not the heat, it's the humidity.

[mpfreivald]

Originally Posted by 86Scotty

This bears repeating.............again and again

Yes, the really striking thing was how much drier it was in the van. My glasses would immediately fog upon exit.

Here in the mid atlantic we carve out a chunk of summer air, put it in a box with a bow, and send it to our friends in the southwest as a fruitcake at Christmas time.

[buckkiller]

Dude should work great with my CCV top!!

Thanks again
Buck

[86Scotty]

Well, summer is here so I'm thinking air conditioned thoughts again. My PH is old and I'm starting to think about cutting the screen out to do this. I could still seal it with the inner canvas flap.

Questions: What size PVC is that, 1"? Hard to tell from the pics

Did you consider using Lexan for the surround? It's dark enough in my van and I'd like to keep the light coming in. Up that high privacy is not a concern and if I needed to block the light out I could wrap it in a towel or something.

Thanks!

[mpfreivald]

Yeah I'm pretty sure the PVC is 1 inch, but I expect that any reasonably beefy scraps you might have hanging around would work.

I used plywood for the partition for basically the same reason -- because it was handy. But lexan is a great idea and I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work.