Double A/C? (1 Viewer)

[Joe45]

So I'm resto-modding a Land Cruiser HJ45. Someone had put a Vintage Air unit in there, which worked fine, but then stopped cooling. The brackets were real hackjobs, with one of them attached to the exhaust manifold, and the compressor was bolted to the alternator, which made belt tension adjustment pretty much impossible and was chewing up V belts.

I made a new adjustment bracket for the alternator and am removing the A/C system.

Now here's what I am thinking:

The HJ will get a lightweight camper with popup on the bed.
I will, down the line, install a mini-split/undermount A/C system in the vehicle. Original thought is mounting the blower in the camper box, with two of the ducts into the truck cab.
However, while removing the A/C today, I looked at the condenser and also the under dash unit, which has the evaporator, and thought:

What if a minisplit can be used not only with the condenser and evaporator it brings, but also a t-split to go to the underdash unit/evaporator?

Actually, seems like it would only need a t-split to plumb into the underdash unit/evaporator, since the minisplit would already have a condenser.

I know nothing about A/C, so maybe this is totally unworkable, or not worth it. If anyone here knows about A/C and thinks this could work, it would be great to get you opinion.

Something like this:

 

[Joe45]

Would also be interesting to somehow, with the existing condenser and underdash system, if I could put together a small minisplit just for the cab, and have a desperate one for the camper box.

 

[aztoyman]

I had an 88 Suburban with rear A/C. It was supplied by the same system as the dash A/C. There were T fittings like you mentioned. So anytime the dash A/C was turned on, BOTH evaporators were getting cold. I could choose to leave the rear A/C fan off. Only the dash A/C activated the compressor clutch.

I would think the Land Cruisers with rear A/C would be similar but I never owned one.

 

[Joe45]

I had an 88 Suburban with rear A/C. It was supplied by the same system as the dash A/C. There were T fittings like you mentioned. So anytime the dash A/C was turned on, BOTH evaporators were getting cold. I could choose to leave the rear A/C fan off. Only the dash A/C activated the compressor clutch.

I would think the Land Cruisers with rear A/C would be similar but I never owned one.

Yeah I was thinking that a mini-split could maybe work the same way with a T-fitting. But wouldn't want to risk frying one. I'll have to ask a supplier of those to see what they say.