Something different for Camping

[karl webster]

I've been talking about doing a few different jobs on my truck and have neen thinking how I can get everything to work off one product.

1. Heating for the tent
2. Heating for the truck for the dog in winter.(she goes to work with me)
3. Heating the truck in the morning before I get into it (winter)
4. Heating hot water to shower and wash up when camping etc.

With all the above taken into account I've used a block heater. I have underfloor heating in the roof tent and also a underseal heater up in the tent. Makes it nice and warm.

We went to lincomb last weekend and tried it out. I found that I kept getting air into the system and had to bleed it before I used it. That was a pain. Once it was up and running it was fine.

I had a play with it the other night when it was lashing it down and pitch black and now I have got it that its working how I wanted.

So now,whilst your are. Driving around the engine coolent is circulating around the underfloor bed heating in the tent. So when you pull up at a camp site late and its cold you can put the tent up and the bed and bedding is warm. Most prob Dont find this a problem but with me wanting to put how water in the truck I thought I might as well do everything I could possibly want out of the system.

Ive done this cheaper so far than it costs to put a bushranger system in that will only use the engines heat.

Next step is to get the system open again and add my heat exchanger under the drivers seat.

ill add to this as and when.

So far I'm happy with how its going. Didnt think it would actually work at the weekend when I was having to try and bleed the air out.

One downfall is the heater is loud. Fine for us in the tent as we can hardly hear it. People who your camping with can though.

Few pics (please note,this is not finished properly as I didn't go to the time of fitting it all properly with me not knowing if it would actually work)

 

[karl webster]

 

[alexy]

if you add a gps locator, which takes a gsm sim card, you can trigger the heater from distance.
thats what I do with my webasto unit, use my phone to start it.

 

[karl webster]

I've got a mate who has a gsm controller mate. They are good. It wouldn't really benifit me though really. There again I could turn the heater on whilst sat round the camp fire lol

 

[alexy]

I will use mine in winter time. benefit is that heater warms the windsreen area as well, so you get a defrosted windscreen, nit just an easy start for the engine.
once warmed up, the engine idles way smoother than after a normal cold start....so all good here...

what kind of piping u used on the roof?

 

[karl webster]

That's my thoughts mate.

if you put it on a 24 hour timer like I have you can get it to turn on whenever you want. I've also got a sepperate switch so the heater can be left on all day

 

[karl webster]

It's just 10mm speed fit pipe mate what we had left over from plumbing the house. Also got some coolent pipe I've used

 

[Cptsideways]

I have used the Webasto Thermotops with success (eg my conservatory underfloor heating!) They are a 5kw diesel heater, totally self contained with a water pump, remote fuel pump etc, just need 12v & a switch, on the cars I use a remote plipper to trigger them.

Had thought about doing one in my Mazda Bongo, they are very quiet & you can add silencers too

 

[karl webster]

How do you get to that conclusion Declan? I have the silencer on the exhust but not the intake.the heaters mounted on the Chasie under the truck and is pretty loud

 

[Cptsideways]

The ones I use are from Rover 75's & they come with an intake hose silencer as standard. The noisiest part is the pump, exhaust is pretty quiet esp once running, is yours mounted on rubber mounts or direct?

 

[alexy]

Not sure Karl has a webasto.
For webasto I have intake silencers which are basically a plstic barrel with sponge coating on the inside wall. The exhaust silencer comes in both rigid or flexible variants. I couldnt fit the silencer on my exhaust, so its not exactly quiet. Pump is loud if fitted without rubber mounts and sometimes webasto fan chooses to be loud. Remember, this is second hand device. I can post pictures when I get home.

 

[karl webster]

Mines the Eberspacher

I have the silencer on the exhust but not on the intake.

The heater sounds like a little jet engine on full power then switches to half power when up to temp. It's better on tick over.

 

[karl webster]

The ones I use are from Rover 75's & they come with an intake hose silencer as standard. The noisiest part is the pump, exhaust is pretty quiet esp once running, is yours mounted on rubber mounts or direct?

May have to try one of these to see if they are less noisey.

 

[adrianr]

Looking good Karl. Am looking at a webasto thermotop for my golf tdi. seem pretty cheap (more on ebay than ebaspachers).

 

[Cptsideways]

With the Webasto's the early Rover 75 ones are best 98/2002 they will run & work with POS NEG & POS switched, later ones need canbus to work.

 

[SteveS]

I'm a great fan of Webasto/thermo top but just to identify a couple of problems we've had over the years......1) mud/water ingress in the exhaust pipe under the truck even with a sort of U-bend in it and 2) with the silencer fitted on the exhaust and with the unit running for extended periods at low power output (when it gets up to temp) there is a risk of the silencer coking up.....which will eventually stop the unit from working.

Some people on our Iceland group had an Eberspatcher rigged to some tumble dryer pipe and piped that into their roof tent.....they too had received complaints on overnight noise in camp sites.

For the current truck we would take our 4 season bags but keep them in the truck during the day to warm up. Neat idea of underfloor heating in the RTT though

 

[karl webster]

I'm a great fan of Webasto/thermo top but just to identify a couple of problems we've had over the years......1) mud/water ingress in the exhaust pipe under the truck even with a sort of U-bend in it and 2) with the silencer fitted on the exhaust and with the unit running for extended periods at low power output (when it gets up to temp) there is a risk of the silencer coking up.....which will eventually stop the unit from working.

Some people on our Iceland group had an Eberspatcher rigged to some tumble dryer pipe and piped that into their roof tent.....they too had received complaints on overnight noise in camp sites.

For the current truck we would take our 4 season bags but keep them in the truck during the day to warm up. Neat idea of underfloor heating in the RTT though

Thanks for the input Steve.

So far I've had issues with air up in the tent. Every time you stopped the heater I would have to bleed the air again. This was a pain.i now have a expansion tank in the tent with an open system. This is working a treat to be honest. I havnt found any issues for the truck itself working like this. I'm going to be bypassing the engine though. I want the heater to run on tickover instead of kicking back to full power ever 20 min or so. I expect I'm loosing too much heat of of my engine.
its all really an experiment. Nice when it actually works. Having the bed warm and the tent for going up and to sleep is great. That's the worse part about cold camping for us.

As mentioned. The noise is the issue. I suppose this will be great for any wild camping on our own and lanning with the guys etc then maybe just have electric blanket and a fan heater to connect to mains hook up if we are on a site.

 

[StarCruiser]

You could use a Kenlowe preheater and plug that in on the campsite.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/121819179301

The other thing you could try is an intake silencer. I find my intake is the noisy bit and will be fitting a silencer when I get a chance.

I also fit a plug to the end of the exhaust pipe which I have routed out the end of the side step (which of course may not be there for some) whenever the heater is not in use. I think the longer exhaust and silencer help keep the exhaust pretty quiet.

 

[karl webster]

Mine seems to be the heater itself Rich. its like a jet turbine. I may try extending the inlet and outlet and put a silencer on the inlet. What do the kenlowe heaters do?

 

[karl webster]

Just had a look rich. I like the idea of that for when on site. It's wether the site has enough power to run the 3kw unit ??