air conditioning the sidecar

I tried one in my old Land Rover. For the most part, it made it more humid. It helped a little, but I didn't think it was worth the trouble.

Why not to make something to pump cold water thru a cooling core? It will be more then $39.99 but will give you lot better a/c

carney - 6/10/2011 2:36 PM

Kooleraire makes a plastic panel to fit flush at the top of an ice chest with two holes; on one hole is mounted a 100cfm 12vdc fan blowing into the ice chest, the air goes over the ice and out the other hole. if you want to direct the air you can use a pvc 90 degree elbow .......my question is, has anybody tried one? They are only 39 bucks so it won't break anyone.......i just wonder if here in Louisiana with summer temps in the high 90's would it be worth it.......oh by the way my sidecar has a complete top to capture the air, otherwise without a top i can't imagine it working. I know the Hannigan a/c is supposed to be good.......I don't know if Hannigans basically works like this or it might pump cold water thru a cooling core.

anyone have any experience with this? or similar?

The Hannigan air conditioning system uses a cooler of ice and water with a pump that circulates chilled water through a cooling core/heat exchanger mounted under the dash. Ours was modified to increase the size of the cooler to five gallons (the standard one is much smaller). Five gallons of ice lasts up to three hours in 90 plus degree heat. When the ice has all melted, I put an extension on the return line to the cooler, pump most of the water overboard, and refill with ice.

All three of my bikes have Hannigan 2+2 on them and all three are a/c. I bought the 88 Goldwing with the home made a/c on it. I copied it on my 96 Goldwing and then when I added the Hannigan to my Harley I put the best I could get. The two Goldwings have a cooler in the trunk with a RV circulating pump in the water/ice. This circulates thru a car heater coil . A 12 volt fan is blowing thru the heater coil and into the sidecar. On the Harley, I found a unit that mounted under the blowers in the sidecar and the water is pumped from the cooler in the trunk thru it and blows toward my wife face. All three cool , but my wife prefers the Harley on hot days.

I like the idea of the ice chest with circulation pump and heat exchanger. Taking it a step further, could one use this unit as the ice chest and thus eliminate the need to buy ice at every fuel stop?

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Koolatron-P20-Compact-12V-Cooler/9607022

Looks to be small enough that it could be trunk mounted or fitted between the tug & the tub. The nice thing about it being out of the trunk is that the chair could get to any pops etc stored in there as well.

Maybe not this unit, but some 12v coolers can also provide heat.

Hmmmmm

I'm guessing that either the cooling capacity is too small or the power drain too large to be useful as a sidecar air conditioner.
Let us know if you try it. It's a great idea but you might have to get one of the larger cooler units and make sure your bikes power is up to the task.

I've been looking at user comments from people that use these kinds of coolers. Several recommend pre-freezing liquid contents to help the coolers performance.
Maybe set one of these up like an ice-chest-AC (small fan pulling air over the ice and blowing into the sidecar) AND plugging it in to help keep the ice cool?

Perhaps use plastic bottles of frozen water to avoid a mess and make it easy to refreeze at night?

punkozuna - 6/25/2011 4:15 AM
... make sure your bikes power is up to the task.... AND plugging it in to help keep the ice cool?

I too was thinking that the electric cooler would at least keep the ice longer.

I used the electric cooler and it didn't last the trip. It got water in the wrong area and burned up. The best I came up with is 2 large tupperware container that we freeze and they last 6 hrs+. When get a hotel we refreeze them or at least one, cuz the hotel units are usually too small for two.

You could run a long tube of pvc pipe alongside the hack. Cut out the leading edge and make a scoop to draw in air over ice stored in the pvc tube. Plumb it into the hack with CEET or such. Hard to explain, but I saw a very similar set up on a Model A Ford once. The owner claimed it worked well for him. I also saw a thread from someone at Soviet Steeds who ran a mister to his rig. He explained how he did it, but the thread was about 2-3 years back. Probably lots of creative ways to cool down out there.

I have an windsheld washer tank in the sidecar and mister nozzle mounted on the crashbar with a switch works great use distilled water to prevent spots am thinking about puting it in a cooler with ice