I was wondering if any of you Blackwoods owners (I think we have a few that frequent this board) have any insight into your schnazzy cooled seats.

I've been thinking about this and am interested in exploring it a little further to see if it may be a viable modification to put in my King Ranch.

I realize it would take more than just a little chunk of time/money to do it but, if there was ever something that I wanted to give a look/try, I think this may be it.

The summers here are miserable.

Any schematics, knowledge of the inside workings of the seats, etc would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks guys. I really appreciate any insight you can provide.

RP

 

The air conditioned seats were the primary reason that I chose the BlackWood over the Ford F150 variants. I can tell you that in Houston, they are NICE. Verrrrry nice.

What it actually feels like is a cold, wet seat. I thought that I was sweating the first few times that i felt that. It is an interesting sensation.

Here is a 'schematic' of how it basically works: http://www.amerigon.com/CCS_Product.htm

Here is some info from the seat manufacturer:
http://www.amerigon.com/PR00_Blackwood.htm


Active temperature control provides year round comfort.
Control settings can be programmed to meet OEM performance requirements.
Maximum air temperature delta of 10 degrees C in cooling and 50 degrees C in heating mode.
Highly effective with either perforated leather or fabric seats.
Reliable, solid-state electronics have been subjected to rigorous OEM testing.
Consumes less than 100 Watts per seat at maximum output.
Compact, modular design can be integrated into any seat



Let us know if you succeed!!!!

 

Hey guys:

Sad to say, my story is not quite so good. The drivers seat has trouble gettimg cooled down much after sitting in the sun all day at my store's parking lot in 90 plus temps and the passenger seat has never worked. I am waiting for the 5K service to have the dealer fix both. They looked at the pass. side and there were no electrical problems they could find and it has to go to an upholstery shop to have the covers removed according to them.
It does cool on the drivers side very nicely in our 75 degree morning temperatures so it may just need some fine tuning.
I will report back when they have a chance to fix it.
Bill

 

Hmm, a maximum of a 10 C temp. delta. I guess that is probably sufficient for these Florida summers, but it doesn't sound like that much. If we could figure out how to mount them in the seat and splice the electrical portion, we should be in business.

 

My seats take about 5 minutes to recover after a long time in direct sunlight. WHEN I expose my Blackwood to the elements (which is rarely), I try to park facing the seats away from the sun. I also use a sunblocker in the windshield. I'd get the front windows tinted to match the back windows, but I want people to be able to see who is driving that beautiful machine!

 

Question:

What types of answers would I need to get to see if I could actually feasablly do this modification?

Any more thoughts?


RP

 

RP:

I am no expert, but we can consider this. The King Ranch is based on the same chassis as the Blackwood and presumably has the same type of seats, ie the upgraded ones.

It seems, repeat seems, to me that the units are self contained and not connected to the central a/c unit of the truck.

If I am not mistaken, the same feature is offered on Navigators as well, and there are in total rather a lot of gators on the road and therefore in salvage yards. The parts should therefore be available both new and from wrecks.

The key issue I guess then is how do you make them work with your seats. I have not had the pleasure to sit in or even look at more than pictures of a King Ranch and do not know if the center of the cushions and backrests are perforated materiel. That would be a key issue as that is how the air circulates.

As to performance, we just took a 600 mile round trip to South Carolina over the weekend with ambient temperatures in the high 80s low 90s and my drivers seat worked great. When I was feeling it was not doing it's job, that was in Atlanta where we have been in the mid to high 90s every day it seems and my commute to work and back is like 15 minutes. It could be that the heat soak from sitting in the sun for 9 hours was just too much for the system to compensate for in 15 minutes.

Over to the other guys.
Bill

 

Unfortunately the King Ranch seats are not perforated. I understand why this is the key to circulation, and it would prove to be a hamper on us doing this modification. And I'm sure none of us are daring enough to perforate our seats.

Oh well, one mod that won't be getting done.

 

Well, it could be done but, it sounds like it's a much larger beast than I'm willing to tackle or consider.

Oh well.. it was a thought. Thanks anyway guys...

RP