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Old 04-10-2008, 04:53 PM   #1
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Installing a Danhard Air Conditioning System

I am installing the Danhard 70-2030 Air Conditioning System in my 2007 Ford van with Sportsmobile top.

The Danhard 70-2030 main components are the Evaporator (which is, of course, mounted inside the van), the Compressor, the Condensor, the Accumulator, and Controller. I, also, have Danhard supplied mounting brackets for the Compressor and Accumulator. I have a question on where to mount some of the components.

I will mount everything but the Evaporator & Controller outside, under the van. I am planning on mounting the Condenser under the drivers side, and forward, what would be right behind the drivers seat. I had hoped to mount the Compressor right behind the Condenser, attaching the mounting bracket to the Ford frame. I had hoped to mount the Accumulator right behind the Compressor attaching the mounting bracket to the Ford frame. My problem is that it does not appear that you can bolt to the drivers side of the Ford frame unless you drop the gas tank for access to the the inside of the frame.

Does anyone have suggestions on where else I could mount the Compressor, or on attaching the Compressor mounting bracket to the frame?

The drivers side frame has easy access for mounting the Compressor mounting bracket; but, I am concerned about hose length going from one side of the van to the other.

If anyone has a Ford van with the Danhard system already installed, will you please tell me where the components are mounted?

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Old 04-10-2008, 10:07 PM   #2
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You mean "passenger side" in the 5th paragraph instead of "driver's side"?

The batteries on the Diesel are mounted on the passenger side and two methods are uses- tabbed nuts, so the tab will hit the frame and let the nut get tighter, and a self tapping bolt slightly larger than one hole.

If you use the tabbed nuts you just have to get the nut in line with the bolt, not actually get a tool back there.

If you use the self tappers they are plenty strong but I'd have a backup bracket or brace... the rock sliders on my Jeep Cherokee used 4 self tapping bolts through frame holes but the outside was tied to the body pinch seam with 6 itty bitty bolts on each side.

Either something supporting the opposite side from the frame or only using the frame tapping bolts where you had to.

Just some thoughts- hope it helps you noodle something out.
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Old 04-10-2008, 11:16 PM   #3
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Danhard A/C

Dropping the tank may be your best bet if you want to mount to the frame. There are fuel lines, brake lines, and wires that you'll want to be careful of. SMB would mount to the cross beams that are welded to the bottom of the van floor. The new Danhard rotary compressor should be very smooth, so vibrations shouldn't be a problem (roof A/C's with rotary compressors mount directly to the roof and are fairly smooth when running).

Make sure you position the Condenser to exhaust the heat "out" from underneath the van.

John K.
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Old 04-11-2008, 06:01 PM   #4
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Danhard A/C

Jage , your right it should be "passenger side" in the 5th paragraph instead of "driver's side".

John Kalmbach - now that's a name from the past. I ordered a new Sportsmobile top for my new (at the time) Dodge van through you. You suggested that I purchase a Danhard A/C; which, I did. It worked very nice. This will be my second van with a Sportsmobile top (I 0ordered this one from Texas) and Danhard A/C.

I contacted Danhard today. They told me that it would be OK to mount the Compressor on passenger side.
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Old 04-11-2008, 07:27 PM   #5
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So, what does Danhard do? Is it like Starcool?
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Old 04-11-2008, 11:00 PM   #6
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Danhard A/C

Hello Terry,

Yes, I remember selling you the top for your Dodge van! I remember that you bought a few other accessories too.

Mark at Danhard is a great person to talk with if you have any questions on the unit. He's correct that you can mount the compressor on either side without any real performance issues.

Danhard is a supplier of automotive/industrial vehicle A/C components. They build/assemble most of the components for the Starcool System. Since they were assigned the use of the Starcool Patents many years ago, they are very familiar with the system. http://www.danhard.com/

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Old 06-19-2008, 06:28 PM   #7
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Revivng a thread....

So Danhard is the Next version of the Starcool if you will.

It is a seperate system that does not require the Van AC system to be runing.

So a new thought hit me.

In case you had not guessed, we are pretty big on getting good fuel economy and thus giving as little as we can to big oil or foreign oil.

AND we are going to try and get the best fuel economy we can with our SMB.

From the time we picked up McBeast a month ago it has been HOT weather in Austin, so we have been using the AC every time we drive.

Next week we are going to see what impact we can have on fuel economy by NOT using the van AC, but using the Danhard AC instead. The idea here would be to put less of a physical load on the ICE. There will of course still be an electrical load, but the alternator will be spinning anyway, so we hope to see an impact.

Thoughts?

Anyone with the new Danhard tried this yet?

.
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Old 06-20-2008, 08:57 AM   #8
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Danhard Air Conditioning

The Danhard compressor draws at least 9 amps AC. That is over 1000 watts. That would mean you would need 100 amps DC just for the compressor.

Where are you getting the power while driving?
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Old 06-20-2008, 09:10 AM   #9
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Does it draw 9 amps constantly?

It has a much higher draw intially to get started and then it drops off to run. Unfortunately I don't remember what the exact numbers were.

This is the same Danhard that will run on a Honda 2000 generator.

We have the heavy duty alternator, and we have two 4D house batteries.

What I described was one of the tests that SMB TX did when they were checking the new Danhard last summer. ...and they suggested it the other day when I was in there...

We have also run it for a long time on battery alone, no generator and no alternator. There may have been solar input. I would say we ran it at least 90 minutes before we shut it down and drove away.
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2008 Ford 6.0PSD EB/E-PH SMB 4X4 Aluminess f/r bumpers (13.5mpg avg, 15mpg hwy) 52k miles [Texas McBeast]
2006 Toyota Prius (48 to 68 mpg) 120k miles [Penelope]
2013 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon (15 to 18 mpg) [Johnnie]
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Old 06-20-2008, 10:10 AM   #10
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Danhard

Yes, it draws 9 amps AC continuously while Air conditioning is on.

The condenser and evaperator use around an additional 20 + amps DC.

You wouuld need a high power Inverter to run the Air Conditioning (A/C)(At least 1500 watts continuous).

Two 4D batteries (400 amp/hours) should be enough.

Your heavy duty alternator needs to put out a lot of current (probably up to 200 amps).

Remember, when your alternator is putting out all those amps, it also is a load on the engine, and requires more power; which will decrease milage.

Also remember, that there are a lot inefficiencies in converting engine power through the alternator to charge the batteries which will power the Inverter that will run the Danhard Air Conditioning.

I would not be suprised if it wouldn't be more efficient to just run the vehicle dash air conditioning.
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