Heaters

[Loc]

I am not sure that this belongs in the Busted Knuckles section, but if I try to work on my bus I am sure to bust a knuckle so here goes. I have the high quality smoking, choking Espar diesel fired forced air heaters on my 92 XL. They are about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. Given their lack of reliable operation, I am looking to add supplemental heat. I am wondering if I can remove the washer and dryer in the bathroom and install a small, medium or larger size residential electric heater that will fit and provide sufficient heat to keep the bus tolerable in below freezing weather. My thought is to tap into the plenum for the bus air that runs behind the washer and dryer and use that to distribute the heat throughout the bus (at least to one side). I would want to install some type of vent door so that the air would only blow into the bus air plenum and not the other way so that I am not forcing air into the heater while using the bus air. I am not sure if this is a plausible solution. I have thought about toe kick heaters but I don't have suitable places to locate them in the front salon. Any thoughts????

[Just Plain Jeff]

Loc:

Oh yes, we have been there and done that. When they are not dripping diesel on the pavement or in need of a a part which has been back-ordered from Germany or simply INOP, they are great. Except they stink up the bus on the inside.

So, we share the same level of enthusiasm for them.

We did a couple of things: We did find a spot for an additional kick heater in the salon and put one in there. We checked with Vehicle Systems, the Webasto people and found that at about $18K they would be happy to install a Web. unit in the coach.

I did the very same research into using engine heat and found that there is some magic in 'heat' exchangers that alway$ had the $ame con$tant involved.

We lived with the 2 toe kick heaters and a little ceramic dealie in the salon for about two years. Our other problem was that the Angola was not very well insulated, which meant that whatever heat we did generate with the electric stuff didn't last long anyway.

Do you have Cruise-Airs with heat pumps? That might be a good answer?

It's a tough problem to solve.

[Loc]

Jeff

I have three roof heat pump/AC's. Unfortunately, they don't do much good below about 40 degrees. We want to take the kids to Colorado or New Mexico snow skiing, but I don't want to freeze. I agree on the insulation, its not the best. The Espars will work, but you have to cycle them twice (meaning I have to switch them back on after the fail to start on the first try) to get them to run and I want to be comfortable leaving the bus for six + hours which I can't do and trust them to start and run. We use a couple of ceramic heaters and they do pretty well do to about 30 degrees. I have found a $375,000 solution to install an Aqua Hot or Webasto, but my bride isn't enthusiastic.

Loc

[Just Plain Jeff]

Yup, been there, done that.

As to the $375K solution, think of it this way: Pay the big bucks for the Webasto and you get the bus for free?

One of the reasons why we marketed our first coach was the Espar issue, since often we go to locations for extend periods and wanted to be warm.

As fare as the 'bride' issue is concerned, you can rate me at about a -15 on that one. Luckily Helen tells me what she likes and buys it because she hates it when I whine too much.

Everyone has their own technique.