Gasoline heater?

[IanF]

FWIW, I'm not considering hydronic for in-floor heating (although it does sound nice my van doesn't have enough interior height), but to run through a typical heater core. The plan would also be to route a loop through the fresh and gray water tanks for freeze protection (black will be a cassette).

[dbhosttexas]

Originally Posted by SteelheadJones

Will you heat or insulate that under van battery box?

The battery box will be fiberglass over foam construction, and I will include a battery warmer pad to keep the batteries above freezing. Likewise looking at methods to keep fresh water tank and lines from freezing up.

[SteelheadJones]

Excellent. Seems like a great two phase approach. There’s a lot of room under the van and I've had a similar idea to store the batteries outside the living area, freeing up spaced inside. Lots of advice on the Interwebs not to do that because they can get cold. But so can the interior of a van if you don’t insulate and heat it.

[dbhosttexas]

Originally Posted by SteelheadJones

Excellent. Seems like a great two phase approach. There’s a lot of room under the van and I've had a similar idea to store the batteries outside the living area, freeing up spaced inside. Lots of advice on the Interwebs not to do that because they can get cold. But so can the interior of a van if you don’t insulate and heat it.

On the good side, the overwhelming majority of the time I will be camping when actual freezing isn't a concern as I live in Texas. But I am restoring / building this van for long travel to the mountains in the pacific northwest. I got snowed on in the Mountains in Oregon during the summer at least twice over my lifetime, so yeah, insulated battery box with those battery heaters and a thermal control, have them come on below 40 deg F. I have massive overkill for my needs solar wise, 40 amp DC to DC charging / solar and very little actually using it. Biggest energy suck is going to be likely AC but I haven't gone fully 12v there yet anyway...

During the lesser hours of solar parts of the year, my power draw is 12v fridge, heater fan / fuel pump, CPAP, chargers for phone, headset, cameras etc... and my laptop which is a 17" gaming laptop so that will be a power suck... I should have no problems keeping up with that load with 600w portable solar panels and 400 amp / hours of Lifepo4. I ran the entire ren fest weekend off of solar, woke up with the sun with 13.5v, an hour later it was 13.6 and just float charging until sun down. No heater yet, but other than that....

And I am kind of committed now. I ordered the Velit gasoline heater, and the back door spare tire carrier. Not going to bother making the spare pretty until I get the 4wd conversion done though. I want a custom tire cover for that, and will likely at that point convert over to an Aluminess or similar rear bumper / spare tire carrier / rear cargo box...

Yes this old van is getting a lot of TLC...

[scuba]

@ OP, I just removed this Proair D5 Gasoline heater (pic attached). I did so to replace with a smaller Espar, but it turns out the installation was just poor (too long a run from fuel tank to fuel pump). The heater looks like a work of art (Solid aluminum body and cover, which I haven't seen elsewhere), and I paid $1400 for it installed, so I thought I'd sell it on here. However, apparently they can be had for almost nothing on ebay.

If anyone needs/wants this one, I've removed it fairly carefully (has all the components). Probably best for local pickup in Dallas. Asking $75. Otherwise will donate.

Located on the east side of Dallas

[dbhosttexas]

@scuba I am hopeful someone else wanting to do this upgrade is reading this. I already have my Velit, and will be sending the van to the shop in early Jan for a bunch of work, but among that work will be installation of the Velit heater. I do NOT want to be dropping the fuel tank in my driveway...

Worst part is, I need to travel north more to actually be able to use it. I slept in the van with the side and pop out back door windows open for Ren Fest with the temps in the upper 40s, but the van itself just kept heat so well I was comfortable just with 2 fleece sleeping bags used as comforters... It rarely gets sub freezing here, but I do intend to once the rest of the bugs are ironed out, travel up north where the white stuff flies...

[posplayr]

Originally Posted by 1der

I very much doubt Velit's heater is made in the USA. I have installed the made in China heaters and have found them very reliable if purchased from a reliable vendor. Velit may be doing additional inspection and testing on their brand units.

It sounds like they reengineered critical components to improve the efficiency.

Reliability

Velit air heater uses only high-quality and validated components to provide outstanding reliability. For example, it uses a Japanese glow plug with at least three times the lifespan compared to cheap ones. The controller is weather sealed to prevent water damage.

High-Elevation Performance

With the built-in barometer, the Velit air heater has the industry's highest elevation rating (16000ft) so you will have warm air wherever you go. The barometer inside the controller senses the air pressure and adjusts the air-fuel mix ratio accordingly to provide better high-elevation performance and reduce carbon build-up.

Efficiency

The Velit air heater features a proprietary combustion chamber design that increases combustion efficiency. The exhaust temperature is 30% less than that of a cheap heater, meaning more heat is dissipated to the interior.

Quiet Operation

The blower fan is dynamically balanced and the pump frequency is three times lower due to higher volume per pump (65mL vs 22mL), resulting in a much quieter operation. It is so quiet that you will not even notice it so you can have a good night's sleep without being annoyed by the ticking sound of the fuel pump.

https://velitcamping.com/products/ve...eater-17000btu

[dbhosttexas]

So the Velit is closer in spec and QC to the German ones, thicker castings, better internal machining, balanced fans, higher quality fuel pumps blah blah blah. The seem to beat the European models in capacity though, The German ones are typically 2KW, the Velit is 4KW, considering I have a pop up canvas top I wanted higher heat capacity when needed.

I am going to send the van into the shop for some mechanical work including a fuel pump, the current one is noisy. I am figuring on instaling the Velit heater minus the fuel source prior to that, and letting the shop take care of hooking up fuel and power to it.

My mechanics bill next month is gonna hurt. AC compressor / Starcool being gone through, Alternator, possibly air injection pump, although I am considering just doing a delete on that, Possibly O2 sensors as I can smell it is running rich, get them to troubleshoot that, Air Bag system troubleshooting and repair. exhaust manifold leak fix, And the fuel pump / Velit fuel source tack on.

I am going to be elbows deep into this van by the time I am done, but considering I bought this thing for long term, as long as I can get parts and someone to service it, and of course as long as I can physically drive and enjoy it, I am going to keep it.

Unless I win the Powerball, then all bets are off and I am getting a brand new Diesel 4x4 SMB built, although with a Colorado Campervans high roof pop top. I would like to at least semi stand in the van with the roof down but still have a Penthouse bunk should need be for a guest or two...

[posplayr]

This YouTube video does a teardown and compares of the Velit heater and a typical Chinese diesel heater.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ8t...ncedAdventures

[posplayr]

I ordered and just received the Petrol/Gas heater! At that time the price was still $75 but the next day went to $100. From an appearance standpoint, it seems to represent the top of the line in Chinee petrol heaters.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/40460041309...3Avlp_homepage

The main difference from the picture it is powder-coated white . Most of the components appear to be high quality:

• Nice electrical cable with ABS connectors (very long maybe too long).
• nice rubberized pump mount
• nice pump but TWT how it operates
• Stainless exhaust with foil air ducting.
• The clamps are stainless German style (much stronger clamping teeeth)
• No muffler but you can pick those up fairly cheap. $13.50 for a large 1"

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/32568...yAdapt=glo2usa



Will do a bench test in a few days.