diesel heating system (2 Viewers)

snowdrops

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Fella has had our van for 6 months to do conversion !!!!! Is a Ford, Transit Jumbo. Originally said he cld do a decent conversion for 8000, however, has now said he can't even finish it for 10 properly. Really disappointed, don't think he's ripping us off as is good bloke and maybe underestimated size of job. However, he recommended a diesel heating system originally, meeting up with tank, he's now said that will cost £1300 to do and we're better off leaving that out for now. Does anyone have any idea if a propane heating system will be a lot less ? We had a blow propane system in the last campervan.
 
Nov 30, 2009
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Well we are putting a Webasto ( we've got one already and they are quiet) in ours. We've been quoted a lot more than that. With warranty .
The unit is more than that price alone. What type was he going to fit for you , if you don't mind me asking.
 

Don Quixote

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Not long enough, but a little common sense helps..........
If your going to use the MH/Van in the winter then Webasto is a must, unless you're on EHU, then not worth it. We have a webasto fitted and in the winter months have used it here in Spain. It cst next to nothing to run and warms the MH up nice. For worth the expense.

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snowdrops

snowdrops

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He didn't mention a make, just said it would sit under the van and fuel off the diesel tank ?
 
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snowdrops

snowdrops

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If your going to use the MH/Van in the winter then Webasto is a must, unless you're on EHU, then not worth it.

We'll be wild-camping when we can, but will defo use a fair amount in autumn as that's when we like to paddle canals etc.
 

Don Quixote

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Not long enough, but a little common sense helps..........
We'll be wild-camping when we can, but will defo use a fair amount in autumn as that's when we like to paddle canals etc.

Then "bit the bullet" and go for it as if you don't have it fitted and find you need it later down the line you will be kicking yourself for ages.........

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andy63

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hi snowdrops, just to add my thoughts to give you an idea.
I fitted a eberspacher hydronic heater, with their modular combitronic system to provide blown hot air and hot water in my van. I chose the timer that allowed 24 hr timing . the kit alone was around £2500. I can imagine the fitting costs could run into a few hundred and for that I don't think they would be taking a great deal of trouble and fitting isolating valves on components etc.... if you wanted engine pre heat facilities then even more....
hope you get the picture. don't know the gas systems so cant comment
ta andy
 

DBK

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I think you need to find out what sort of heater he was planning to fit so you can work out if it is good value. This page shows Truma heaters, mostly gas but one diesel. You can see the small gas ones are a shade cheaper but not by much.
We wouldn't be without our Webasto diesel heater. Instant hot water at any time for washing up etc and heating when required. http://www.thetrumacentre.co.uk/magento/truma/tma/truma-products/truma-heating-systems.html
 
Nov 30, 2009
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If your going to use the MH/Van in the winter then Webasto is a must, unless you're on EHU, then not worth it. We have a webasto fitted and in the winter months have used it here in Spain. It cst next to nothing to run and warms the MH up nice. For worth the expense.


The one Ralph's getting fixed in to our new PVC is Webasto. It does the water too.
But it also runs on electric as well as diesel . He was telling me about it last night , but I wasn't really listening ..........:blush:
It's a costs bit more , but when we do go on a site ( which isn't often granted ) we can hook up. We don't need hook up at all at the moment.

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webasto and eberspacher diesel heaters are great and probably quiet for the people inside the camper but they can be noisy if you are parked next to one and its running all night. perfect if your wilding away from other people though.
 

DBK

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The one Ralph's getting fixed in to our new PVC is Webasto. It does the water too.
But it also runs on electric as well as diesel... :blush:We don't need hook up at all at the moment.
I may have misunderstood you but I suspect our Webasto wouldn't run on diesel for more than about a couple of nights off electric hookup, despite two batteries and a 100W solar panel. It can take 5 amps when firing up but settles down to 2 or less most of the time. The problem is in winter, when you need the heating the hours of daylight and the strength of the sun mean the solar panel doesn't do a lot of charging, so the batteries steadily discharge. I haven't done a proper trial but I think it would probably give up the ghost sometime on the second day.
 
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I may have misunderstood you but I suspect our Webasto wouldn't run on diesel for more than about a couple of nights off electric hookup, despite two batteries and a 100W solar panel. It can take 5 amps when firing up but settles down to 2 or less most of the time. The problem is in winter, when you need the heating the hours of daylight and the strength of the sun mean the solar panel doesn't do a lot of charging, so the batteries steadily discharge. I haven't done a proper trial but I think it would probably give up the ghost sometime on the second day.

We've run ours for several days without moving without hook up , -17 over new year up in aviemore , the heating on tv etcetcetc. Plus it was snowing!

We didn't used to be able to until we got a couple of Trojan batteries the solar panel , inverter, and what ever other electrickery he fixed on so i can even use my hairdryers straighteners , Hoover etc without hookup.
Normal leisure batteries were rubbish with our Webasto. We woke up freezing one night when everything had gone dead flat.

As I said when ever we do go on site. It bugs us the fact we only usually pay a couple of £ less. And the only thing we have to have on that uses electric Is the tv ( not all the time !) and fridge.Which is also gas. We've got those energy bulbs in everything too.

This new Webasto is diesel and electric. Don't ask me how , I havnt a clue. I just expect to be able to switch things on and them work . We thought it would be a great idea.

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Nov 30, 2009
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webasto and eberspacher diesel heaters are great and probably quiet for the people inside the camper but they can be noisy if you are parked next to one and its running all night. perfect if your wilding away from other people though.

The Webasto we have on is quiet. It only makes a noise on start up. We leave it on when we are out , we've never heard it when we arrive back. That's not from having too many sherbets either. It has a silencer fitted. Weve been told the erberspacher is noisier though.
 

Terry

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Hi if you are interested I have a spare used eberspacher hydronic heater like Andy 63 describes does both blown air and hot water comes with a 7 day timer as well (few hundred quid) came straight out of a ministry dipping unit -like Andy says £2500 new plus the 7 day timer --make a offer you may just buy one cheap :)
BTW is your man converting it for 8k or supplying everything for 8k as well as converting ?
You can buy Truma gas hot air blowers for around £500 and a truma 10 ltr gas/leccy boiler for around the same -look below at my link to terryshbautocamper.co.uk we converted that in aprox 5 weeks and spent 6.5 k ish on all the bits inc all leather upholstery
terry
 

andy63

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remember the diesel heater is just that. you need the heat exchanger and fan unit for the blown air and a calorifer/hot tank for the hot water.
the system I described above also operates off 240v for heating and hot water or will use both diesel and electric if you wish.
devon makes the point about energy usage. mine will take over 11a on start up when the glow plug is on, and remember if it has to shut down it takes the same again as they burn off the plug on shutdown..
once running and cycling 2 to 4 amps depending on the load demand on fan etc
if you haggle with terry you may get it for next to nought lol.
ta andy

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snowdrops

snowdrops

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Electric ? Didn''t realise we needed that to run it, sigh ! Goes to show men do actually know more than women .....sometimes !! ;) We won't be using it for water as he's only plumbing a cold water system into the van as far as we know. Terry thanx for that, I'll have a word with the mister when he comes in later this evening :)
 

keith

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I read a tip somewhere recently (forgotten where) someone suggested running the engine when starting the diesel heater so you don't reduce the available power from the batteries. Or remember to start it before you arrive at your destination so you don't get that hit on the batteries when it starts up. Seemed like a reasonable idea to me.

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andy63

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snowdrop, you do know that if you don't want the hot water facility, you can get diesel blown air heaters (airtronic for eg) , which Im sure are cheaper and much simpler to install.

I read a tip somewhere recently (forgotten where) someone suggested running the engine when starting the diesel heater so you don't reduce the available power from the batteries. Or remember to start it before you arrive at your destination so you don't get that hit on the batteries when it starts up. Seemed like a reasonable idea to me.

keith that sounds sensible , but if you are running it for longer periods and it has to shut down (water temp gets too high for eg) then the hits on battery are unavoidable.

ta andy
 

FULL TIMER

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There are many options when it comes to heaters, personally I now have a Mikuni MY30, and perfect for what I wanted, however there is also the Mikuni Airo diesel heater which is a pretty decent price it is only a 2kw heater but might be more than adequate depending on the size of your vehicle and pretty economical both with fuel and 12v power, these are quite a bit cheaper than the Eberspachers and are replacements for the Webasto airtop 2000 range . If you want a gas fuelled heater worth looking at the Propex Heatsource range possibly the HS 2000E which also has the 240v option you should be able to find any of these for around £600, quite a bit less for some of the gas only propex
http://www.kiravans.co.uk/campervan-heater-mv-airo.html
http://www.jacksons-camping.co.uk/propex/index.htm these are just a couple of examples, not used any of these suppliers before.
 
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snowdrops

snowdrops

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snowdrop, you do know that if you don't want the hot water facility, you can get diesel blown air heaters (airtronic for eg) , which Im sure are cheaper and much simpler to install.

ta andy

Well to be honest Andy, I'm almost sure that's what he is fitting ? It's just 1300 seems a lot, we had a propane before and we loved it, didn't use it that much. That's why I asked at the beginning of the thread whether we'd be better sticking with one of those. However, not knowing which models I suppose it's hard to calculate.

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Does the Webasto one use less amps than the Eperspacher?

We have just bought a 2005 Morello with Eperspacher and the only thing I am worried about is wilding in autumn/winter etc.

I plan to try and fit a couple of 6 volt batteries(If there's room under the front seat) as we had in the last van.

Paul.
 

Terry

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Also got 2 airtronic heaters for sale one the small one and the other is the large unit :D
 

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