VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Radios, Tools, Accessories Desert Cooler Bag?

Don't know what that "Cool Pack" is that K10 is looking for but, I’m sure one of you old desert rats will remember the canvas desert cooler bags that hung in front of the radiator on the vehicles crossing the desert back in the day. I may have the name wrong but I think you’ll know what I mean. Is there anyone that is reproducing those now days???
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny, a Cool Pack is an underdash AC unit for late 50's, early 60's GM cars and trucks.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-Desert-...=item29fff15cb1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
Here's a desert water bag on eBay. Is this the animal?

Thanks, guess I've seen them, but never took notice of them. I don't remember ever selling one when I was a Chevy parts man back in 50's/60's.

Yep that's the bag I'm talking about, but is anyone still selling them or making a repro of them?? I would think that someplace like Cracker Barrel would have them in their shops, but I think they are only situated in the mid-west. Are there similar restaurant chains out in the west that line the interstate?
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny,
I don't ever remember seeing a Desert Water Bag in a Chevrolet house. I saw a lot of them tied to the front of cars and trucks crossing the Mojave (AZ and CA). The tourist traps all along Route 66 from Amarillo to Barstow sold them back during the 50s and 60s. They did a fair job of cooling the water thru evaporation.
Several years ago one of the VCCA regions either in AZ or CA sold these Desert water bags as a fund raiser. They had to discontinue selling them when they could no longer find a supplier. The last company that made them went out of business.
Some of my old G & D magazines had their advertizments.


There was also a swamp cooler evaporitive cooler that attached to the passanger door and window that you filled with water and it scooped air from the forward motion of the car or truck.

A little confusion here Mack, what I was referring to was K10's reply about the Chevy "Cool Pack" accessory from the thread he was running on that item. I meant that I didn’t recall ever selling a Cool Pack accessory when I was with Chevy. And I’m sure they didn’t offer the canvas bags, like you said that was an item sold by the tourist traps. I believe they go back way further than the 50’s or 60’s, I remember seeing them hanging on the front of the cars in the movies from the 30’s and 40’s. I also recall seeing the swamp coolers on vehicles when I was stationed down in Wichita Falls the summer of ’64. AC wasn’t all that common yet.

Yes sir, that’s the bag from the link that K10 posted earlier, as I said, that’s what I was asking about when I started the thread.
I’d like to bid on that, hope I don’t get a bunch of competition from you guys here on the forum, I can’t afford the big bucks that some have at their disposal so I usually get beat out in an auction. I’m still hoping also that someone knows of a source for some reproductions.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny, I just counted 8 Desert Water bags on ebay in various conditions. I had one that I hung on the '32 when on tour. But my brother in law talked me out of it a couple years ago. I don't know of any current reproductions.
Cleon

Thanks Cleon, I'm following those but most of them are in pretty poor condition.
DG

Denny,
Here ya go, little pricey though.

http://www.can-spec.com/canspec/products/products.php?ID=14

Bob

Hi Bob,
Thanks, but our buddy Chris from the bolt found that for me yesterday and yep they are kind of pricey. As a reproduction they have a few problems, the biggest two are "www.can-spec.com" and a part number printed smack dab in the center of the bag, hardly fits the 50's era that I'm looking for and they are mono-color, where the originals had red lettering, that can be fixed but the first couple couldn't.
Oh well, it was just an idea that I had, I guess I can live with out one.
Went to a few nice shows the past few weeks. The BIG one over in Sycamore 700+ and the Oswego Drag days another big turn out for the Midwest crowd that remembers the Oswego Dragsrtip back in the 50's, 60's and 70's. We had a couple more nice ones this weekend one in Cherry down near Peru drew over 300 in spite of the rain.
And just think, they let me into all of them, go figure. Of course nobody wants to park next to my old red truck, guess they think it might be contagious.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I have a water bag and a swamp cooler that my dad put on our 1941 Mercury in 1946 when we made a camping trip to the west coast. I used the swamp cooler one time on tour just for kicks. I might get the bag out this summer and see if it does anything for the car. Either one is a conversation piece when on a car.