Just curious but has anyone ever tried to retro fit an ac unit from a newer vehicle in our trucks? I can imagine it must be a royal pain in the butt and that's why if it has been done I've never heard about it. I figure someone somewhere had to have tried this at some point though.

 

I met a guy with an F1 at an NSRA show a few years ago who fitted an AC unit from a Dodge Durango. I don't remember anything about it other than it looked OK.

 

I've wondered how come it hasn't been done more often. I would love to see someone attempt this on one of our trucks.

 

Absulutly, we do it all the time. Although I'm not in the junk scrap business, I
do time to time come upon a vehical any vehical like now I got two crashed
ones from daughter in law . (we call her crashette) two new 12vt batterys,
I take everything that unscrews or unbolts, hose clamps wire looms mainly the
long front to rear, all bulbs seat, window motors, speakers radion money under
the seats. and heat & a/c system. the rest I give to my junkyard buddie. I find a tough item is trim screws cant get those in hardware stores. I put a toyota
a/c in my loader > only thing is to go to napa for a v compressor pulley. I posted that somewhere. An old boatyard trick is to make the evaporator box in any shape to fit out of cardboard then glass it right over the box. Box left in there,
It aint going anywhere cut a delivery hole and used that kinky clothes dryer
exhaust tubing. I got no room in the cab for it so (evaporator / blower) is
mounted underneath the cab. Cant put the condenser where it belongs cause
the fan blows backward (rear engine) so its mounted on the side of the machine with an electric fan also donated from the clunker. No controls were used, just an on off swich wired into a napa simple de ice switch which cylcles the compressor like $15. Its the same switch used on a home fridge. All it does is sense the core temp and cut the compressor. Older loaders are known
for being a hot box then winter a freezer. I came upon some old kind of under seat heater, mounted that on the roof and man do I have heat-no more fogged up glass last years blizzard I ran that thing with the door open.

 

I'm no where near a/c yet but just thinking ahead. Guess that takes some good retrofitting skills to make that work especially with the limited real-estate in our truck cabs.

 

I think Big Job has some great advice especially for the evaporator. Prior to installing my under dash evaporator, I was leaning towards finding an evaporator/heater out of a subcompact. Getting it to fit up under the dash will be the biggest issue. The coolant and refrigerant will flow through what- ever plumbing you have to rig. All of my AC hoses were custom made to fit.