I didn't intend to write up anything about the heater, but I'll show a few pics and details here (full blown thread derailment!
)
First, this is the unit I bought:
Amazon product ASIN B07YV2C3FP It's a "Vevor" brand sold by Happybuy on Amazon. They have good feedback in the "Chinese Diesel Heater communities", and a friend has owned one of these for a year with great success, so I bought the same thing. It worked just fine out of the box, however it was louder than I wanted, and most importantly, the diesel tank was/is only around 5L, which would result in 8-9hrs of runtime on max heat before running out of diesel. This runtime was an issue I wanted to solve, as in winter camping I'd want it to be able to run from dusk until well into the following morning without having to worry about fill ups.
So I bought a 15L diesel tank from a local fella (plenty on eBay, Amazon, etc.) and took apart the "all in one" case the heater came in, to build a new enclosure.
I used scraps of existing materials to put this together, and it's mostly 3/4" plywood, with 1/2" in one or two spots.
This is the general layout:
I used the existing "base" from the "all in one" unit, and built around that. I also installed as much mass loaded vinyl (MLV) sound proofing as I could reasonably fit.
I added a removable, drop-in "shelf" with extra sound deadening; it also fits the output hose for storage/transport. The angled "box" on the side is basically sound deadening for the pump that's inside/under it. I later turned this box to a different angle.
I wanted to keep as much "inside" the box as possible, and only have the exhaust sticking out, so the intake for combustion air is left inside the box (it's that black cylinder).
To finish things off I painted the entire thing in a "rocker panel guard" product found at the local Canadian Tire. It's basically a rubber~ish paint. And then added some aluminium trim to the corners that'll be taking the grunt of tie-dows, banging around, etc.
This is the back side of the finished unit:
The hole at the top is simply fresh air for the combustion air intake. The bottom hole contains a 12v computer-case fan which I added to pump extra air into the box/unit and make sure there are no overheating issues. Immediately behind the fan is the heater's main air intake (for air that will be heated and pumped out). I suspect the 12v fan was unnecessary overkill, but it was $10 and about an extra two minutes of work, so no big loss.
The wiring hanging out is a quick disconnect I added in order to connect it to a matching connector that I hard-wired to the LX and strategically zap-strapped to the grille. I later made a ~6ft long, 8ga extension cable for this power.
One of the sides has the exhaust and muffler.
The unit sits on 2x1" 80/20 extrusions that I had laying around. This gives it the clearance necessary for exhaust routing, and keeps the base of the unit away from water/snow/etc.
I wrapped the exhaust in exhaust wrap to minimize heat transfer, and made sure there were air gaps everywhere. (Photo suggests the exhaust is in contact w/ plywood in one spot; it's not.) A piece of flat stock was bolted to the extrusion in order to keep the exhaust in the exact spot I want - off the ground, and about 3/4" away from the plywood.
The narrow hose visible in the photo is the fuel line from the fuel tank to the unit.
Here is how it looks w/ the power cable extension:
The front of the unit has the air output (I added that metal coupler/extension for easier hose mounting), and the original display/controller. This controller contains the thermostat, so if you intend to use the temperature-based settings, it makes sense to have the controller inside your sleeping quarters. I later added a ~6ft extension to this controller cable.
The output hose expands/contracts quite a lot, and in contracted form fits inside the box:
That's about it!
