After Market AC added to Commercial Chassis?

[JoeyKos]

Work for a Department in Southern AZ. Today the outside temperature was 109degrees. The truck my 4 man crew rides in is a Pierce Kenworth Commercial Chassis.

There are 4 dash mounted AC vents for the Driver and the Officer, but the rear seats get nothing. I try to blow it to the back but my crew says to keep it for myself, so at least I am cool.

My question is...

Can we add to the roof an After Market RV type AC? The Chief says cutting a hole in the roof would compromise the roll over protection, but commercial chassis have none right? (Please make the assumption that the truck can power the AC.)

Any thoughts or anybody had the same problem solved a different way. Thanks!

[toddmcbr]

You might be able to get away with adding an auxilary air conditioner without putting anything on the roof. I've seen several top mount enclosed pumpers on commercial chassis's that have an auxilary heater/air conditioner in the crew area.

I'm not quite sure how it's done, but I know there is no unit up on the roof. I believe Red Dot is the company that makes them. There are several back wall units to choose from and a ductable unit may work as well.

Sorry I don't have more info, but it's a place to start

http://www.rdac.com/Pages/product_pages/units_index.html#Anchor-Heater-49575

[npfd801]

Work for a Department in Southern AZ. Today the outside temperature was 109degrees. The truck my 4 man crew rides in is a Pierce Kenworth Commercial Chassis.

There are 4 dash mounted AC vents for the Driver and the Officer, but the rear seats get nothing. I try to blow it to the back but my crew says to keep it for myself, so at least I am cool.

My question is...

Can we add to the roof an After Market RV type AC? The Chief says cutting a hole in the roof would compromise the roll over protection, but commercial chassis have none right? (Please make the assumption that the truck can power the AC.)

Any thoughts or anybody had the same problem solved a different way. Thanks!

Not picking on the choice of cabs, but I don't think that the aftermarket conversion to add the back half to the Pete cab is designed much for rollover protection. I've seen photos of one "in the raw" and I wasn't impressed. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Maybe the roll over protection argument from your chief is null...

http://www.bentzusa.com/product.asp?ID=136

The roof is a one-piece fiberglass unit.

On the bright side, Bentz offers the option for an auxillary heat/AC unit, so it probably can't be that hard to put one in. I'd contact them to see what they install.

We looked long and hard at one of these for one of our recent purchases, so please don't think I'm slamming the product. We weren't that far off from having one.

[FWDbuff]

I dont thing chiefengineer11 will have internet access for the better part of a week, so I'll toss in an answer here that I know he would have.

In the interest of saving money (at the time) when we purchased our 1989 Duplex/Quality pumper, air conditioning was omitted. (BIG, HUGE mistake.) Probably not as big as no A/C in a pumper in southern AZ, but 95 degree days with %65 humidity in southern Pa. suck just as badly.

After a few years, we explored options on installing after market systems. The vender we went with was Thermo-King (their Philadelphia, Pa. dealer). Thermo King is primarily a refridgerated trailer unit MFR. They installed an under-chassis condensor unit with a ceiling-mounted blower and one under the forward-facing bench seat (mind you we are cooling an 8-man vanguard crew cab). Sounds to me like you could get away with one small blower unit.

I would do two things. Have a commercial vehicle A/C vendor like Thermo-King or someone else first check the existing system to see if it is big enough to handle the additional blower unit. If so, have them give you a price on adding a blower. If not, have them give you a price on upgrading the whole system. Hope this helps!

[gilamonster]

You may want to contact Gilbert Fire. They have Pierce Kenworths with aux ac.

Stay Safe

[JoeyKos]

Thanks a bunch! Gilbert FD is just up the Freeway and I know they feel my Southern AZ pain. They actually have it worse!

[MurphysFireKC]

You can hang one inside at the back and through bolt it to a piece of diamond plate on the roof if you need to maintain the structural integrety.

[islandfire03]

I'll agree with FWD : Take your truck to your local Thermo King dealer.
In 2003 We built a medium duty rescue with a 4 man rear compartment plus the driver & officer in the front cab-over GMC chassis.
We needed both heat and AC capabilities in the command module. they had to install a compressor big enough to power both cab and module. Then they installed the under the bench seat unit which is made by Hose-line. Nice digital thermostat control system and fan speed control. It was not inexpensive to accomplish but it works extremely well