Dan's Vanagon Hakcs (Hacks) page.

My Camping A/C Setup.  Sweetness not Sweatiness!

The A/C unit is a nice 5000 BTU, lower wattage Panasonic unit from about 1991.  I used simple straps from REI - ties into the luggage rack.  Used some canvass to make the "seal" and a piece of wood to help deflect the air flow inside the camper.  Light, simple, 1 person setup job.

The Upper bunk step.  Square tubing ground down to fit in a round hole.  Some stock metal, a welder and some left over carpet from when I re-carpeted the front.

Center Console, got it at a discount department store - for $30.  CUP HOLDERS!  Does not hit the shifter.  Holds CDs, maps, coin tray, goodies, 2 way radios, glasses, binoculars, you name it.  Nice slide lid.  I added a 2X12 underneath it to give it weight and added a few drywall screws into the base so it has "teeth" - the end result - no sliding, but it can be moved in a jiffy.

Dual cigar lighter, CD player (Crutchfield says it won't fit, wrong, its tight, but it fits..) - Voltmeter

Portable solar panel - keeps battery happy while camping, plugs into cigar lighter.

Upgraded "panel"

Added a modern nice style outlet (rather than the ugly brown one), sprayed the circuit breaker panel black, added a neon lamp to show when A/C power is live

Fire extinguisher

Perhaps the most important upgrade.  A new ABC unit with meter to see of its running low.

Speakers 6X9"

Pioneer, disconnected the stock worthless speakers in the back.  Sounds good to me!

Kitchen upgrades;

Added a cheap thermometer.  Had to repaint my water/battery panel - it was rusting.  Added a Cool-Blue LED - turns out my LED was loose, so I just soldered in a blue one from Radio Shack.

Here's a copy of a post on how I got my Fridge to work on Gas again..(4/04)

Welp, this past weekend, getting Schultz ready for Westies in the Woods, I tried the fridge. Since I got the Vanagon last year, I tried the fridge a few times, but had no luck. It was not a real big issue, but I just wanted everything to work. It seemed to work fine on 120 and 12v, propane was another issue! I had added a small Pentium cooling fan to the rear heat exchanger to get a little more air flow with an LED and a switch.

So this year, I thought I'd give it more of a shot. I read all the good data over at Vanagon.com and came up with a few of my own ideas.

1 – the PO had used the fridge, but never maintained it. Even cleaning it was beyond them. Years of exploded coke cans and eggy- goo had built up inside of it it and its little cooling fins. Yikes – they are sharp.. clean with care. I used "Awesome" (Dollar store) cleaner – worked REALLY well.

2 – Took off the outer cover off the flue-vent and blew some compressed air into the exhaust and intake of the unit – oh my – the crap that flew out… I must have blown at least 2 lbs of rust, "gray matter", dust, bugs, and other debris out of the unit.

3 – Took off the water drain – nothing came out. Good, I look down – close and see that the entire drain is jammed with rust and carbon debris! I took a pick and started to see that the crap was jammed into the tube 6"! I would pick, blow air, pick, blow air – and finally gave up (what the hell, its all ready broke..) and shoved a rubber tipped blow gun with 120 PSI into the drain. At first – nothing then a nice "FOOSH" sound and air flow!

4 – I primed the system by running the stove for 45 seconds – 5 pumps of air – lit right up. I then turned my eye to the little non- visible "visible" flame down in the corner of the unit and yup – she was a burnin! However the LED on the front stove panel was not on.

Yey! I gotta love no dollar fixes with not much work! Thought I'd pass this along.

Spare battery setup - small 12 volt sealed lead acid.

Under Kitchen Sink - Automatic Floating Battery Trickle Charger - active when van is plugged into 120V A/C - 1.5 amps - keeps batteries happy all winter long! Note the spare "secret" plug under the sink!  Whoot!

More to come!