Removing Rear Roof Mounted AC

I'm considering purchasing a 140 passenger, and I've noticed that most of these models have the roof rear roof mounted AC unit installed. I'm not really keen on the extra 9-inches of height due to the AC unit as this will likely interfere with installing roof racks (e.g., Thule, Yakima, etc.). Also, I'm not expecting to carry more passengers than can be accommodated with the first row three person bench seat, so the extra AC capacity from the rear unit doesn't seem necessary for my needs.

I searched the archives and found some posts about removing the internal AC ducting, but nothing about removing the actual rear mounted AC unit itself.

Has anybody done this, and if so, are there any big hurdles to overcome?

If you don't intend to save the system for someone else's use, then removal is not that bad. You would need to have the system evacuated, and then remove the exterior and rear interior components. Then you just have to deal with the roof penetration. For the most part, it is just taking things apart, really not that big of a deal. IF you want to remove all the lines that are in the side body panels, then it gets more involved, but doesn't sound like this is an issue for you.

Chris

If you don't intend to save the system for someone else's use, then removal is not that bad. You would need to have the system evacuated, and then remove the exterior and rear interior components. Then you just have to deal with the roof penetration. For the most part, it is just taking things apart, really not that big of a deal. IF you want to remove all the lines that are in the side body panels, then it gets more involved, but doesn't sound like this is an issue for you.

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Thanks for the info. I probably wouldn't mess with the lines in the side body panels. Those would only be useful to somebody who wanted to install a rear AC setup from scratch, and my guess is most of the market for used AC parts is folks who need a replacement compressor or rear AC unit.

Roof holes can probably be welded up fairly easily. I was thinking about coating the roof with Durabak or something similar, which would help to hide the welds. It's not like anybody will be up on top of the van anyway.

Decreased resale value of a cobbled up van would be a reason to leave it alone.... Find on w/o the rear a/c....

Decreased resale value of a cobbled up van would be a reason to leave it alone.... Find on w/o the rear a/c....

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I wouldn't consider a van with the rear AC removed "cobbled up".

The vast majority of 140 passenger vans seem to have the rear AC. I'm not interested in vans located more than a weekend's drive away, so I can only work with what's in my region.