SeanPwnery
Active Member
- Nov 30, 2022
- 110
- 41
- Truck Year
- 2016
It's late May as I write this, and here in Texas, summer has already given us a pretty nasty preview of what's to come. Like many of you, I drive a Crew cab, that's at least 6 vents when the air is on, 4 big ones up front, widely spaced apart, and two token vents in the rear, again, with a long run to them. The actual temperature coming out of the vents after a few minutes is plenty cold - however despite having all 7 speeds on the blower motor, I feel like the volume of air coming out of these vents are similar to be breathed on by an asthmatic patient. Sure, there's air, but by the time the air leaves the vent and hits your face, it's barely there. On a really hot day, this could be rather annoying, and it feels like we're back in the 1980's leaning towards the vent trying to get that little bit more, that little bit quicker.
So, here's my point in all of this. Once upon a time, I used to build Jeeps - SJ's in particular, J-trucks, M-715's, Grand Wagoneers (real ones, not this bloated Grand Cherokee garbage we have these days), and Wide Track Cherokee S's. Those too had kinda weak air volume having 4 under-dash vents only. Back in those days, we were able to find upgraded "Squirrel cages" for the blower motors since AMC and Kaiser before them used a hodge-podge of everyone else's parts. Essentially, having a blower motor fan blade that matches the diameter of the OE one, but having much more pronounced vanes to really move a lot of air.
I'm curious if anyone out here found a similar "upgrade" for a 4th gen to do this. I'm almost tempted to buy an OE replacement, having it 3D scanned, and having one 3D printed with double the vane size to solve this, but if there's already a solution out there, I'd rather go that route. It'd be nice if the back seat passengers can actually feel a current, and me not having to choke off several vents to get the volume I desire. One last thing to note, yes, I replaced the Cabin Filter - but the volume change was the same.
So, here's my point in all of this. Once upon a time, I used to build Jeeps - SJ's in particular, J-trucks, M-715's, Grand Wagoneers (real ones, not this bloated Grand Cherokee garbage we have these days), and Wide Track Cherokee S's. Those too had kinda weak air volume having 4 under-dash vents only. Back in those days, we were able to find upgraded "Squirrel cages" for the blower motors since AMC and Kaiser before them used a hodge-podge of everyone else's parts. Essentially, having a blower motor fan blade that matches the diameter of the OE one, but having much more pronounced vanes to really move a lot of air.
I'm curious if anyone out here found a similar "upgrade" for a 4th gen to do this. I'm almost tempted to buy an OE replacement, having it 3D scanned, and having one 3D printed with double the vane size to solve this, but if there's already a solution out there, I'd rather go that route. It'd be nice if the back seat passengers can actually feel a current, and me not having to choke off several vents to get the volume I desire. One last thing to note, yes, I replaced the Cabin Filter - but the volume change was the same.