propane and furnace location?

[jtolittle]

Hello,
I can't decide where to mount my components, so I am asking for some input from professionals!...
The first idea was (on a homemade RB50):
- to mount the fresh water tank under the van on the left of the fuel. enough room for 23 gallons
- to mount the furnace on the left in the rear corner
- to mount the batteries under the bench
- to mount the propane inside the van in the rear right corner, building a "air-tight" box around.

And now I am wondering if I should:
- mount the batteries under the van next to the underfloor storage
- fresh water under the bench
- fixed mount propane on the left of the fuel tank
- furnace in the rear right corner

= What I liked about the propane inside the van was to have a regular 11 pounds tank that I can disconnect easily and take to recharge.
= i don't have preferences for the furnace so far. except that on the right side might be more accessible to service
= i like the water under the van. don't know yet how much i could carry inside...
= i definitely like the batteries under also, but I will have to sacrifice some storage...


so, what would you do? what do you have? are you happy with it?
Thanks for any advice..
JT

[jage]

Water under the van will need to have a drain so it would be outside necessarily. You also have to have the pump suction up hill, or have the pump outside too. Freezing will be more of an issue... my HW pipe runs outside and it's such a pain. Can't imagine having the whole tank out would be easy.

The battery on mine is in a frame in front of the XL storage. I'm about to double it and put two in there, but there is not (does no need to be?) much clearance from the axle.

An underbody tank is no problem, sure you can't do an exchange at Walgreens, but there is really plenty and I top mine off regularly. With a bottle you let it go to empty and then some, so you wind up having to get some at Walgreens on a weekend.

I'd go outside with the propane and batteries, inside with the water. I don't really have an opinion on the furnace, but remember there are more connections and it's not just the size of the furnace unit.

[teeots]

I am no expert but I would ditto the above.

Batteries and propane under the van.

Water inside the van.

my free advice is worth every penny.

[jtolittle]

alright that sounds pretty good.
I am just concerned about the propane consumption and the ease of filling up...How much propane do you use if you let your furnace run all night? I would like to get one with some kind of timer/thermostat...to save propane and have a little more comfort..
How easy is it to find a refill station? I usually carry just the little green cans for my stove...
how big is your propane tank? I found one online that is 7.9 gallons and that will fit under...But it is $400 versus $50 for a regular 11 lbs
I can probably still fit 22-25 gallons of fresh water under the bench...
Thanks
JT

[teeots]

According to SMB website.

The 7.9 gallon is good for 690,900 BTUs.

Divide that by the consumption rate of your furnace. If its a 12000 btu/hr furnace then it would run continuously for 57.575 hours. of course the furnace would not normally run continuously for 57 hours unless you were under-insulated or in antarctica. The duty cycle of the furnace will obviously depend on outside temp, desired inside temp, and insulation. Someone with more experience might tell you that it would last for a couple of weeks of winter camping?

22 gallons of fresh water makes it sound like you intend to be out in the bush for relatively long periods.

aside: speaking of water, i found this site last night. bad name- good solutions for the home builder

http://www.plastic-mart.com/class.php?cat=28

[billwilson]

My Two Satang (a Thai penny)

batteries
sling em under, prefferablly two 4D

water
under the bed, insulated from the floor
pluming insulated
how much, as much as you can

heater
(what kind, propex, suburban?)
mine is on passenger side, rear of cargo door
(if running will burn door if open, but why leave door open with heater...)
thought is was a crappy location but came w/ van
However, we have the walk thru Gaucho
1) wife sleeps on that side and gets full heat
2) i open the access door to gaucho and heater keeps water non freezing temp

NOTE, the heater eats up battery amp hours!!!!!! ( see top of post re: max amp hours )

Side Bar
If i was to build another rig, i would probabley use a propex heater
(but i dont know how noisy they are)

Post Side Bar
I want the minimum i have to unbolt, unclamp, move, get to, set up blah blah blah
Removable propane in theory is nice, but:
a) wouldnt want it bouncing around
b) i have probably 14 nights heater on full blast plus cooking and still have 1/2 tank
(i have the stock SMB underslung size whatever that is)

PS to Post Side bar
Bus Depot and other VW sites have small propane tanks for Westphailia campers
small tank, and very little mod to sling under

[Zaskoda]

My $0.02:

- I plan to put my propane underneath. My biggest concern is splitting the tank offroad... or tagging a valve or something. I've tried to think of better solutions but it just seems like the best one. I suppose it's no more risky than gas tanks.

- I plan to keep my water inside for the reasons mentioned above: freezing. It's going to consume a lot of would-be storage space and I hate that... but I plan on using the van for snowboarding trips.

- The idea of putting the batteries under spooks me because of all the road muck... but it seems that it works well for most people. I'm torn on having my batteries inside vs outside and still haven't decided. I'm hoping to get one more under the hood.

- I was planning on using the propex furnace w/thermostat and locate it inside the van with a vent running outside. It seems pretty small so I'm not expecting it to be an issue. Right now I have a Mr Buddy heater and I'm shocked at how long a bottle lasts. I figure a well insulated van with a proper furnace should be fairly efficient.

I'm building my first rig so I have a lot of lessons to learn.

Edit: It's not entirely on topic, but I thought this might be useful. I noticed there are a wide variety of adapters for propane appliances. I saw one guy who had snap on/off hoses on his van so he could move appliances around (mostly the grill). You can get refillable bottles for some devices:

http://www.amazon.com/Coupler-Propane-B ... KWVSTBUN5S

http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Heater-F276172 ... KWVSTBUN5S

You can also directly connect Mr Heater (and other devices, I'm sure) with a hose:

http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Heater-12-Foot ... KWVSTBUN5S

[Ford_6L_E350]

Originally Posted by Zaskoda

- The idea of putting the batteries under spooks me because of all the road muck... but it seems that it works well for most people. I'm torn on having my batteries inside vs outside and still haven't decided. I'm hoping to get one more under the hood.

The batteries on my van are mounted in fiberglass boxes and accessed from the top. The box has a drain hole in the bottom and a more or lesse sealed cover plate on top. SMB Indiana uses them regularly. The batteries are protected from road gunk beow, yet are vented to the outside and only changed from the inside.

I have two group 27 batteries, on in each rear corner. I do have to take the end off the dinette seat to get the battery in or out.

Mike

[joey2cool]

Hey Bill, what do you mean when you say the heater will burn your door off?

I'm having a Suburban 16SE (I think that's model) propane furnance secured to the floor in a cabinet behind the frig on the passenger side. Looks like SMB West is having a tough time getting it in there, but once it's done there will be about 17" across the aisle from it. When the gaucho makes up into a bed the bottom of the bed platform will be only an inch or so above the top of the furnace vent cap. I should be able to open the storage space under the gaucho like you do for better air flow around the water tank and pump if it becomes a concern in the winter.

My real concern is how much trouble it's going to be to service the furnace in that location, and how hard it will be to take out. Right now it looks like the gaucho base faceplate would have to be removed in order to slide the furnace out from the cabinet. Don't know how hard that will be. You said in another post you remove the back end of your gaucho cabinet to replace a battery. Is that stripping the screw holes?

[billwilson]

Originally Posted by joey2cool

Hey Bill, what do you mean when you say the heater will burn your door off?

my gaucho opens right over the heater on the INSIDE
wife sleeps on that side (she gets cold)

I was paranoid re: sleeping bag blocking the heat coming out
no worries, it works just fine

The exaust vent on the OUTSIDE would burn the rear cargo door if left OPEN
because it opens and goes against the out side of the van, Capish?