cleddytanhouse Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Has anyone any experience or advice to give regarding retro fitting cab air con. I have a 2011 Peugeot Boxer based Ellis Sunseeker 155 motorhome and have been quoted up to £3000 to have it fitted. I have owned the motorhome for only 3 months, so, don't want to change it just yet for one that already has it fitted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan k Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 It was quite a few years ago but I had cab air con retro fitted to a Sprinter Conversion by http://www.automotive-electrical.co.uk/ and was such an improvement driving on the continent in mid summer alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Cab aircon is extremely valuable in the warm places we like to tour in motorhomes, so I can understand the attraction but I wonder about the cost. I had to get our cab air repaired last year and it turned out to be one of the metal pipes which had rubbed against something and was leaking. Just a simple length of piping, bent into shape and with a union at each end. It cost a silly price as a spare - I've forgotten precisely how much but around £200, maybe more. Buying all the part for a complete a/c system wound mount up quite steeply. Maybe the previous poster could tell us how much he paid - and whether they used second hand parts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebishbus Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Hi. We had it fitted to our previous van 10 years ago, for 1600 pounds ( pound key not working ) by Reader Air at Woking Surrey. I think they are the importers of the conversion kits. Tel. +44(0) 1483 726300 e-mail sales@readerair.co.uk Brian B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 This 2012 forum thread discusses retrofitting air-con http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Retro-fit-cab-air-con-Fiat-2-2-100bhp/27741/ It would be a major undertaking to retrofit cab air-con and, because of the amount of labour likely to be involved, around £3000 nowadays may well be the average asking-price. (A £2000-£3000 cost is suggested in this 2011 MHF thread.) http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopic-105925-days0-orderasc-0.html This company offers the service and should be able to provide a representative quote http://www.avacs.co.uk/Motorhomes/Motorhome_Air-conditioning.html My advice would be - Don’t. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolero boy Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 just to add to Derek's post, we have aircon in this van, and the previous van and very rarely, if ever use it, and we tour France and Spain for around 3 months each year. we dont go in the blazing summer of Spain (too hot anyway) but we do the spring or autumn an hav not found it necessary when travelling, windows open a bit and normal vents open have sufficed. in England however, returning to a stifling car after its been left for a while in summer, is an air con situation.....bit its different in the van, when coming back to a hot van on site, you don't start the engine.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanS Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 bolero boy - 2015-01-02 9:22 AM just to add to Derek's post, we have aircon in this van, and the previous van and very rarely, if ever use it, and we tour France and Spain for around 3 months each year. we dont go in the blazing summer of Spain (too hot anyway) but we do the spring or autumn an hav not found it necessary when travelling, windows open a bit and normal vents open have sufficed. in England however, returning to a stifling car after its been left for a while in summer, is an air con situation.....bit its different in the van, when coming back to a hot van on site, you don't start the engine.... I would echo the above. We find that in the motorhome the slight overhang on the roof shields the windscreen quite a bit and reduces the solar gain to the cab. On our Fiat cab we open the windows a bit on either side and you get a good cool airflow without being buffeted or having a noise within the cab. When we are out visiting sites and come back to the MH it can be warm but by the time we open the cab doors and habitation door that soon dissipates. We do use the aircon on the odd occasion but I find that for continual use it dries my eyes, so tend to turn it off and on. When we had the car and caravan combinations we always seemed to run with the aircon on - mainly to appease the wife, but now we are content to leave it off in the MH for as much as possible. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Joe90 Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 I think there is a lot of misunderstanding of vehicle air con, it is not only there to cool the vehicle on a hot summers day, it should also be used in winter as it dries the air and speeds up demisting and tends to act as a dehumidifier, as well as keeping the system in good order. ;-) Although I have it in both the car and the van, would I miss it if it wasn't there, probably no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 bolero boy - 2015-01-02 9:22 AM just to add to Derek's post, we have aircon in this van, and the previous van and very rarely, if ever use it, and we tour France and Spain for around 3 months each year. we dont go in the blazing summer of Spain (too hot anyway) but we do the spring or autumn an hav not found it necessary when travelling, windows open a bit and normal vents open have sufficed. in England however, returning to a stifling car after its been left for a while in summer, is an air con situation.....bit its different in the van, when coming back to a hot van on site, you don't start the engine.... Not good practice Chris, if you want to avoid expensive repair bills. If you don't use it regularly it needs to be run for at least 10 min on every journey to circulate the oil in the system to stop the seals drying out . If you don't and the seals dry out causing leaks if can be a very expensive job stripping the system down and replacing all the seals. we have aircon in the van and car I leave both permanently on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archiesgrandad Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 We don't have aircon in our Pilote, but we do have a couple of 12 volt fans which on the hottest days we find keep us comfortable whilst on the move. They are a bit noisy, but then so is the Peugeot Boxer on which our van is based, so we don't really notice too much. The Pilote is an A class, and with the windows being that much further outboard we also find that we can have the windows part open without too much noise or draft. Happy New Year to everyone. AGD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan k Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 I reply to StuartOs comments, it was probably about 10 years and 2 campers ago so I haven't got the papers any more but we felt it was worth the investment. If I remember correctly we got a 10% off discount voucher at one of the big shows.I'd been exploring the options for a bit and asked around at the show. The cab system kits weren't in your face but at that time( I haven't looked since) there were a few suppliers of kits. It was a completely new installation, and very effective just an on and off switch. When you got too cold you turned it off. Excellent especially when heading south into the sun all day through europe heading to northern Italy. In the winter it was excellent in clearing the screen, cheers alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolero boy Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 lennyhb - 2015-01-02 11:46 AM bolero boy - 2015-01-02 9:22 AM just to add to Derek's post, we have aircon in this van, and the previous van and very rarely, if ever use it, and we tour France and Spain for around 3 months each year. we dont go in the blazing summer of Spain (too hot anyway) but we do the spring or autumn an hav not found it necessary when travelling, windows open a bit and normal vents open have sufficed. in England however, returning to a stifling car after its been left for a while in summer, is an air con situation.....bit its different in the van, when coming back to a hot van on site, you don't start the engine.... Not good practice Chris, if you want to avoid expensive repair bills. If you don't use it regularly it needs to be run for at least 10 min on every journey to circulate the oil in the system to stop the seals drying out . If you don't and the seals dry out causing leaks if can be a very expensive job stripping the system down and replacing all the seals. we have aircon in the van and car I leave both permanently on. permanently on in the car as its automatic climate control, just used sparingly in the van when necessary, no issues as yet. new van has climate control, too, so that will be set to the required temp and left on. thanks for the heads up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldi Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Afternoon folks, We had air con fitted to our previous x250 and was about £2000 six years ago Its abig job might need gearbox out. norm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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