One of my nephews saw this at a local car show and asked me what the tube hanging on the window was, all I could remember it was some kind of cooler for the passenger compartment. I never had one or rode in a car that did, so help and old fart out please what were they called and how did they work. I seem to remember it might be some kind of fan, no electric. Now I shall try to attach a pic, wish me luck LOL hmmmmmmmmm well that didnt work LMAO ok did I describe it well enough? Ill work on figureing out how to put a pic up, maybe search a thread bout how to do it, damn if I didnt feel dumb before now i do LOL
I believe it is called a swamp cooler check this out: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=330490
arent swamp coolers for the house? had one when was in my 20s in a house I rented ,,,, could be wrong, be wrong lots in my time LOL, thanks for the answer
If I remember right they are a swamp cooler. A, forgive me I can't think of any other way to describe it, rotating canvas sheet goes through a water container and as the air passes through the wet canvas its cooled. As the canvas dries you rotate it and get fresh wet canvas. Sorry for the crappy description.
not crappy hell had no idea ya put water in the damn things LOL and if ya put water in it, its a swamp cooler like nova dude said like I said never seen one up close Damn even I aint to old to learn.... remembering it now that another story LOL
well of course ask yall and some guy on ebay is selling one, LOL http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1940...tZVintageQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
Old School air conditioning, aka "Swamp Cooler", or "Bee Catcher". I haven't had one, but wouldn't mind having one for future builds.
Swamp cooler. We use them here to cool our houses. They don't work for shit in high humidity. I've driven air conditionless in Florida so I think if I wanted my car to not look like I have a pipe on the passenger window, I would just suffer the heat.
Oh................ I always thought they were swap meet revinue raisers? Better get out the bobble head and fuzzy dice.
I just saw a bullet-shaped swamp cooler on that huge Internet auction site, pretty cool, no pun intended.
Does anybody really think that one of those improves the looks of a car? It looks more like cancerous tumor growing on the door. They looked like that in the 5os when they were still available new. I don't get the concept. We nose and deck them and then hang an ugly tube on the door??? I'm betting that very few of the ones on hotrods are actually filled and working so they must be pure decoration.
I think they they have a tray in them with hay (dried grass) that is dampened and then cools the air as the wind blows over it . At least that is what this low rider guy I knew showed me when I asked him the same thing. Not sure about the canvas, could be. I think in fact they are called a swap cooler. I never could find one at a good price.-Jim
They are not made to improve the looks of a car.They served a purpose of cooling the inside of the car.Mostly used on cars in the hotter states along with the ugly ass windshield visors.Saw some pics the other day of an old car that still had the old canvas water bags strapped to the fenders that were used for the long trips in the southwest heat.
I'd love to know how they got to be called "swamp coolers". I live in the swamp and they don't function here in 90%-100% humidity. Those of us who live in the swamp call them "desert coolers" ; I guess because they work there. Bob
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Do you have any of the dolls that lean up against the car with their head in their hands?
In the 40's there was a company that would rent these as you went across the desert, we would go from Colorado to California to vist aunt's and uncles. When you got acrosse the desert you would stop and give it to the dealer who would rent it to the people going back. They did work, no moving parts just water and a mat that the air went across. From an old fart
I understand what they were made to do and how they work. I don't think the ones added to a show car today are added to cool the car. Sorry but the emperor has no clothes. They worked ok in the dry dessert but not so much on the humid east coast. Not enough evaporation to lower the air temperature that much.
They're big with the low rider and "bomb" crowd. The car's not complete until it has at least 50 aftermarket accessories installed
I agree with Tommy, see a lot of them on cars that are also sporting a surfboard on the roof (whilst 500 miles from the nearest beach)and the mandatory vintage metal icebox in the back. To me they're no different than cry-baby dolls or a drive-in tray with a plastic hamburger and milkshake on it, but hey, to each his own. I think they're really popular with the vintage VW crowd too.
Yeah Tommy they do look stupid on the show cars almost like said the fake drive-in food tray,coon tails hanging off the antenna and heck nobody mentioned the chrome chain steering wheels. If I go to a meet for the 1st time and see those stupid ass leaning dolls I just turn around and go elsewhere.To each his own.I got to run out and get me a 10x10 popup and some lawn chairs.
the technical term is an evaporative cooler, they moved the hot air from outside over a wet element. The idea is to move the cooler temp. of the water in the "swamp" to the hot air that then went into the passenger compartment and made you feel cooler. They will not work in a humid environment, thats why uou only saw them in very hot dry climates. Great candidate for legionaires disease.......... they do accomplish what they were designed to do, just had to keep the swamp full of cool water, or the element wet...........they are also used to cool buildings, except the design is diiferent, they use water that is sprayed over wooden slots and a fan blows air over the slots into the occupied space.........a new version are the misting nozzles you see at the outdoor tents used in Vegas to cool people walking by........ more than any of you ever wanted to know, I'm sure.........
Mine works well here in Utah, where we consider 30% humidity unbearably muggy. I use mine as intended. Have to add water every day, sometimes twice on the salt flats. At freeway speeds, mine pulls in so much air that its like a wind tunnel in the cab and the water is used up in about an hour.
They only became popular with the hot rod/custom crowd lately no self respecting rodder would have run one way back when. People seem to think that if it was an available gimmic that everyone had to have one. it really wasn't that way back when we were kids not like everyone needing the new ear doodad or picture phone like it is today. but in snawer to the question they were called either a swamp cooler or a desert cooler depending in where you lived I suppose.
Evap cooler aka "Swamp Cooler". The above description of how water was place in a holding tank of the cooler, (in the bottom). a cord was pulled to rotate the mesh element inside with water. As the incoming air passed over the wetted mesh, the air cooled. It did also however, add humidity to the inside air of the car. Thus making the inside feel like a swamp, or the inside of a building. Yes, they were quite efficient in the dry air of the southwest states. Not worth a damn in the upper tier of states. Totally worthless in the winter months. Whether or not the idea came from some of the original settlers of the southwest regions, whereby they would soak sheets in water, then hang them from their porches at night. On those hot summer nights, the early settlers would sleep out on their porches. Then when and if there was any breezes at night, the air blowing across the sheets would cool those trying to get a good night's sleep. (It worked too) Now then, I did have one of those coolers on my Crosley when I lived down in Az, and it worked great. However, you would learn, if you had your cooler full of water, it was ok to make fast left hand turns. But if you tried making fast right hand turns, well, centrifugal force would over come, and your passenger would let you know about it. Some day remind me to finish the story and I'll tell you how I know!!!!! HellRaiser
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