A/C removal

Hi. I'm new to the forum and sprinters as well. After reading through a lot of the threads I'm very impressed with the knowledge base here. I have been drooling over sprinters for about 2 years and finally pulled the trigger on one about 2 weeks ago. I picked up a 2008 144" high roof passenger with 39,000 miles. We are avid bike racers, and with a new baby, we thought a sprinter conversion would be the way to go. I have very specific plans for this rig and I'm not sure if the factory A/C is needed given my geographical location (sierras). A couple of questions:
1. Has anyone tried removing the massive factory A/C unit on the roof? Easy to do?
2. How big of a hole is actually in the roof once the unit is removed?
3. If the outside temp is 90 or less are a couple of fantastic fans enough to keep the interior cool? I plan on doing a full insulation job.
4. The other option would be to keep A/C. Is the factory unit better or is something like a star cool better?
Thanks

I don't have one, but:

sleland said:

1. Has anyone tried removing the massive factory A/C unit on the roof? Easy to do?

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Yes, someone has, I believe there is only a couple of holes for the coolant hoses to pass and maybe electrical.

2. How big of a hole is actually in the roof once the unit is removed?

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See #1

3. If the outside temp is 90 or less are a couple of fantastic fans enough to keep the interior cool? I plan on doing a full insulation job.

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If the outside temp is 90 degrees the BEST you could get is 90 degrees inside with fantastic fans. A better way of thinking about it is, if a normal car is 110 degrees in the sun will fantastic fans cool it to the outside temps with insulation. To that, the answer is a resounding yes, I have only run the A/C 3 times in the almost a year since I got the RV. It was 106 degrees the first time, the other two times I was just seeing how cool I could make it inside, apparently it won't cool below 75 degrees using my Penguin 11,000 BTU A/C. If you are somewhere that you don't wanna run the engine and it's FREAKIN' HOT out, you will appreciate a real 110v air conditioner, but you could get one of those roll away kinds if you only think you'll be there once in a blue moon. If you can run the engine on those hot days you will appreciate the secondary A/C to get the van cool quickly. On that 106 degree day I had the generator and the roof A/C running and the engine A/C running and it never really got cold. Yikes!

4. The other option would be to keep A/C. Is the factory unit better or is something like a star cool better?

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The factory A/C is run by the engine directly, so you don't convert the rotation to to electricity in the alternator and then back to rotation by the 12v motor, and you already have the coolant hose run, hard to complain. I would leave it unless you have a plan for that space.

-Randy

Did you ever end up removing the factory A/C unit? Any pictures if you did?
I'm -slowly- doing the research now to tackle this in the spring maybe (life/work has me on a very busy schedule until then). I also have a similar van year and factory A/C unit.. I don't use/won't need so looking to remove and replace with a sunroof or vent, just wondering if you ended up removing..

Thanks!