Airconditioning on a Toyota Coaster

Hi Paul,

On a “coaster” type bus, I think the only Airconn that might be efficient would be the roof mounted caravan type ones. However, these run off 240 volt power, so you would need plenty of battery, and an inverter. Unless you can find a 12 or 24 volt equivalent. The larger coaches use a large Airconn unit driven from the vehicles engine. I think on a coaster bus that would be very high in fuel consumption, and possibly too heavy and too large for the vehicle.

Macca.

Our OKA was a tour bus in its previous life. The compressor was the standard engine belt driven affair but it had an extra evaporator and fan unit mounted on the roof and extensive ceiling mounted duct work.

Before you get carried away though, check the regulatory requirements of a tour bus. They require extra (read expensive) annual inspections and insurance. Such was the cost of those, I converted ours to a "motorhome" in one weekend with a few sheets of chip board and other stuff I had laying around.
Also, a tour bus can not be more than 20 years old, no matter what condition it is in, so they have a limited life in that role.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

If the kits are still available the easiest is to install a factory kit.
There are many hidden headaches to address.
Whilst working in town I installed a system in a similar sized bus which consisted of a head unit similar to a split system which involved removing the headlining and fabricating steel mount braces, cutting holes in the headlining to suit the brackets then concealing the 3 hoses and wiring harness, it was a nightmare.
The rest, compressor, condenser, dryer and hoses were straight forward.
It worked very well when we tested it but on the road at curtian vehicle angles the water in the evaperator unit sloshed and was picked up by the fan and wet the driver and front passenger.

If you can get a factory kit then go for it.

It might be worth looking at a few caravan forums as well for some ideas.

I know that some people have fitted a residential type AC to their van and were quite happy with it.

Only suitable for vans that stay on the black top though, no off roaders

Might be worth checking the insurance you need to carry groups of paying customers around. You might find it becomes prohibitively expensive pretty quickly.

Having had a similar vehicle (A 7m Nissan Civilian) with factory air con my thinking is that if you want one of those buses with aircon, you buy one with the factory set up in it. I imagine that those 'without' would be relatively rare & buying one 'with' would likely not cost any extra. The amount of work to fit all the 'stuff' for rear air con would be huge . They are a pretty substantial bit of gear with components in various parts of the vehicle, & then you have all the ducting. With the length of the bus & all those windows I don't think a roof mounted unit would be that effective compared to the factory set up. Probably cheapest way to get all the gear if you are really keen would be to buy a non runner donor bus - but even then by the time you had it all sorted , buying a running bus with it all working & selling the one you have would be a far easier (& probably cheaper) option.