van heaters

I have one of these in my boat. It uses 2 litres in 24 hours and puts out an amazing ammount of heat. The only negative is the electric fuel pump 'ticks' so I would investigate the gas. It could easily warm up to an uncomfortable heat in Tassie winter and dry everything out.

I bought mine 10 years ago when they were introduced and I installed the unit itself and the supplier demanded that I use their installer in order to warrant installation and unit. There was no need. The installation is not difficult. I then installed one for a friend

I am taking the unit out of the boat and transferring it into a camper im building. (everything is being designed around the heater) When I investigated the suitability for a vehicle, there is endless information on European sites as they are fitted to ambulances and trucks. You can get heat exchanger type fittings for hot water as well.

There are 3 different brands that I found, of very similar look and performance. There is enough competition to lower price.

Good luck.

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Originally Posted by Brad110

There are 3 different brands that I found, of very similar look and performance. There is enough competition to lower price.

Good luck.

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webasto, espar and eberspaecher?

We have a Webasto and it is excellent, they supposedly require the least amount of maintanance out of all of them and parts are cheaper and eaiser to get then the similar Dometic diesel heater.

Re the clicking on any diesel heater it will drive you absolutely mad with the bloody noise and people with LPG heaters will tell you theirs are far superior because they don't click. They won't mention that they use heaps of gas and that hurts when you also cook and heat your waterheater with LPG.

Re the annoying clicking, I mounted the pump on top of a piece of suspending rubber mat (ute liner) between two chasis rails and all of a sudden there is no noise at all from the pump, as quite as a mouse inside the van other then the fan.
As Brad said about 2 litres of fuel per 24 hours which is amazingly cheap to run compared to the LPG ones.

Most installers want about $500 to install one as it usually takes about 3 -4 hours. The most common place to fit one is under the bed.

You won't regret getting one, they are great. If you go back to that caravan forum I told you about the old buggers on there will tell you the cheapest place to buy one and there are folders on how to install them as well.

cheers,
Terry

Here's an alternative thought.

UK Diesel Freelanders (and some early D3's) come with one of these Webasto heaters:
LANDROVER FREELANDER WEBASTO ENGINE HEATER DIESEL | eBay

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/07/708.jpg

You can get them for about $150, but the postage is over $100 (I got a quote from these guys a few weeks ago).

You also have to make sure you get the little pump that feeds it. Can't remember the name but if you google you'll find out about it.

HTH
David

Search for FBH - Fuel Burning Heater....

The pump is called a Dosing Pump....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TerryO

You won't regret getting one, they are great. If you go back to that caravan forum I told you about the old buggers on there will tell you the cheapest place to buy one and there are folders on how to install them as well.

cheers,
Terry

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Terry. Which Caravan forum?

Hi Dave,

pm me and I'll give you the details, believe it or not you have to know someone who is a member to be able to join it as it has a closed membership.

cheers,
Terry

Ebay...

diesel heater | eBay

I have a Diesel heater in the van... It is simply awesome... Clicking... very very faint click sometimes. I guess the higher you run them the more fuel the more clicks.

We set ours to 17deg for overnight this gives a very low fuel burn and it keeps the cabin around 18-20deg. This works down to -1 to -2deg and I don't hear any clicking.

If you want to sleep without blankets you can set it to 22deg but I find it makes the cabin too hot.

You can get rid of the clicking noise altogether if you want to Mowog.

I bolted a piece of rubber ute floor matting between two chassis rails with the pump bolted to the top of the matting. This not only protects most of the potentially vulnerable bits like filters and fuel lines from stones when driving but has totally insulated the van of any fuel pump clicking noise which everyone who has a diesel heater always complains about.

It took me about an hour and the matting cost about $20 from a hardware store.

The new to the market Chinese heaters are meant to be pretty good, you still need to buy all the lines and exhaust etc but that will only cost about $100 from Webasto which the heater supposedly is a copy of.

Our Van heater is a Webasto which I believe was the company that first made diesel heaters like this, bang for your dollar they are excellent value and are known for being very reliable and cheap to maintain.

Cheers,
Terry

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TerryO

You can get rid of the clicking noise altogether if you want to Mowog.

Cheers,
Terry

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Hi Terry

I thought about isolating the pump but it doesn't bother me now.

The father in-law is looking at one of the cheap eBay heaters for his bus.