Replacing Truma with diesel heating & hot water

Yes, but a lot of work.
The Truma is normally fitted inside the van, the diesel heater underneath the floor. You may also consider fitting diesel cooking units, then you can remove the entire gas system freeing up cupboard and locker space.
 
We have a Webasto DualTop water and space heater. It sits at the bottom of the wardrobe with the exhaust and inlet pipes protruding through the floor.

The Webasto heaters are not cheap, around £2K from memory but you can get Chinese versions which are much cheaper and from reports read on here they work well.
 
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I would have thought that the Truma gas and diesel fired versions would be fairly easy to swap. They look very similar. The main differences being the pipe feed from the vehicle tank and the additional pump,
 
Our 2017 Chausson 718XLB has Truma diesel and Mains Electric heating , for water and blown air interior heating all as standard, but, there's a electric diesel pump some where in or near the Fuel Tank as when in operation I can hear it ticking , why don't you phone Truma or go and see a Good Chausson Dealer ? if here is such a Dealer
 
If it's a Truma Combi, then a Truma Diesel will fit next to plaug & play. Naturally you will need to make the fuel line, and the exhaust is also a bit different (at least up to 2022, the latest model has different exhaust, dunno how much different). Also if your current Truma Combi is old enough (for example our 2011 was) you will need a new control panel. The easiest way to determine this is by looking at the Truma's circuit board, the colors are different. Can't remember how it exactly was.

But if it's some other Truma than Combi, then it will be a bigger workout. Was going to make the swap my self too as we travel in the winter also and the gas was going at the rate of a bottle (we use 11kg bottles here) per day when it was -15c or below, but ended up swapping the whole van all together. Well, at least one is on order and the old is sold.
 
We recently swapped our Truma gas/electric 6 combi for a new gen Diesel/electric 6 combi, swap over done at the Truma HQ at Derby. Job took 4 days, footprint of boiler exactly the same, exhaust the same, new digital controller. In terms of operation, there is a slight ticking noise from the fuel pump but not intrusive. As others have mentioned consumption seems negligible, Van is toasty and we only use gas for cooking now.
 
BillandHelen said:
We recently swapped our Truma gas/electric 6 combi for a new gen Diesel/electric 6 combi, swap over done at the Truma HQ at Derby. Job took 4 days, footprint of boiler exactly the same, exhaust the same, new digital controller. In terms of operation, there is a slight ticking noise from the fuel pump but not intrusive. As others have mentioned consumption seems negligible, Van is toasty and we only use gas for cooking now.
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If everything the exact same 4 days seems a bit extreme..
We're they at all interested in part ex your old boiler???
Really wish when I had our van converted I did not go for diesel heating..
 
That sounds interesting. Do they carry out conversions anywhere else in the country and was it very expensive?
 
BillandHelen said:
We recently swapped our Truma gas/electric 6 combi for a new gen Diesel/electric 6 combi, swap over done at the Truma HQ at Derby. Job took 4 days, footprint of boiler exactly the same, exhaust the same, new digital controller. In terms of operation, there is a slight ticking noise from the fuel pump but not intrusive. As others have mentioned consumption seems negligible, Van is toasty and we only use gas for cooking now.
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sounds interesting. Do they carry out conversions anywhere else in the country and was it very expensive?

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How do you move the van when you run out of deisel?
 
I can see several benefits of switching to diesel from Calor gas exchange bottles:
More opportunities to go off grid on the continent and not worry about running out of gas.
Gas bottles don’t last long when heating in the colder months.
The cost of gas bottles has increased.
Availability of gas bottles can be patchy at times. None existent if abroad.
More opportunities to forgo EHU’s.

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ctc said:
How do you move the van when you run out of deisel?
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I reckon 90 litres of diesel will heat the van for many days at the rate of 0.15- 0.5 litres per hour bearing in mind you can set the thermostat to whatever interior temperature you feel is comfortable and the Truma isn't going to be running all the time. If you move on every few days it will never be a problem.
 
BillandHelen said:
We recently swapped our Truma gas/electric 6 combi for a new gen Diesel/electric 6 combi, swap over done at the Truma HQ at Derby. Job took 4 days, footprint of boiler exactly the same, exhaust the same, new digital controller. In terms of operation, there is a slight ticking noise from the fuel pump but not intrusive. As others have mentioned consumption seems negligible, Van is toasty and we only use gas for cooking now.
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Would you mind sharing the cost of doing this?
 
BillandHelen said:
Morning, travelling today, will pm you later with info.
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Hi. Could I possibly ask for the details as well? Getting a new Adria Twin 640 SLB soon with Truma Combi 4 and having had diesel heating on two previous vans would like it again. Despite Adria putting Truma D4e into the some Twins they would not put it into SLBs. So I'd be looking to swap to a D4e. We have a local place that could probably do it, but taking it to Truma could be an option. Thanks.
 
BillandHelen said:
Morning, travelling today, will pm you later with info.
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I'd also be interested in the costing on this - if you could PM me that would be most appreciated.

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Mike p said:
Greetings & Felicitations
Is it feasible to remove the Truma unit and replace with a diesel unit for heating and hot water?
Cheers Mike
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Not wanting to encroach on you're post , but anyone else think it would be brilliant if motorhomes had accessible inspection hatches for all major components water/ heaters behind fridges etc . Or is it just me . All tutorials covering all these things are all conveniently on models with easy access
 
Brian Thompson said:
Not wanting to encroach on you're post , but anyone else think it would be brilliant if motorhomes had accessible inspection hatches for all major components water/ heaters behind fridges etc . Or is it just me . All tutorials covering all these things are all conveniently on models with easy access
Click to expand...
I can’t think of anything on mine, that can’t be viewed or worked on whilst in place.

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