Anyone running a Front Runner water tank?

[canman]

I'm thinking of getting one of their slimline 10 gal tanks that mounts behind the second row seats. I might also connect it to a hot water heater with a pump. I'm just worried about the noise it will make when it is not full. I recently completed a 3 day camping trip with a 20L tank in the rear seat behind me and it drove me crazy driving on the trails as the water sloshed around.

 

[Hiace4wd]

Anything that is an empty watertank will make that kind of noise. Only if they put in several "walls" the noise will be less.
I have quite a low and long watertank, and it's not too bad. But when it's almost empty, than it also makes some noise and the tracks.

I don't know the front runner water tank.

What kind of hot water heater with a pump are you looking at? link?

I'm going to install an Isotemp boiler, which is stainless steel and has a heat exchanger. Which will run cooling liquid coming from the engine, heating it up to high temperature. But next to that you still have to have cold water tank as well. (it mixes them with thermostatic mixing valve)

 

[canman]

I purchased a propane powered unit a few years back that seems to be no longer available (Trailwood H2OT). I believe in Europe you likely have more options and better quality than what we have here in NA, especially if your vehicle is diesel powered.

 

[Hiace4wd]

Well there are some gas heaters, usually ment to consume water right away (for showering), and not pump it around. But it may work.
I don't like the gas solutions though. Sometimes people get poisend by them in their camper van, with really old and s***ty gas heaters.
Having said that, most homes here are gas heated and we don't have too many problems with it. So of course it can work fine.
(however, it doesn't works so good anymore when you cross like 15000 ft altitude or more )

The Isotemp / Isotherm boilers that I mean use a heat exchanger on cooling liquid. They are in fact typically used in boats, or really luxiourous campers (RV's).
However, since it is cooling liquid, it doesn't matter if you have petrol or diesel.

Next to that, there are basically two brands of petrol or diesel heaters (Webasto or Eberspacher), but they just heat and pump cooling liquid around to pre heat engine. I'm going to use that in combination with the boiler.

Another thing is that you have some cheaper boilers which are basically boilers around an empty cilinder, in which hot air (from heating) should pass. Not so efficient, but it works. Especially in combination with petrol or diesel air heaters which is another story.(again Webasto and Eberspacher)

And all of these boiler usually also support an electrical heating element with lower power (like 600W or 800W) that makes it suitable to connect to low power campsite connections that many have in Europe. (usually 230Volt and 4Amps). But hey, that's not so interesting when you go bushcamping.

That is another option, just try to find the smallest electrical boiler you can find that has low power (like 800W). Maybe they're ment for in homes, but you can use them in a car as well. And then have two big auxillery batteries (so not the starter batteries) and a power inverter that goes to at least 1000W, and do everything electrically. But it will take quite some power.

Please see this page about the Isotherm water heater using cooling liquid. The smallest one (Slim 15) is 15 liter and has a square shape which makes it easier to fit.
http://www.webasto.com/int/markets-... that's enough about water heating I suppose

 

[canman]

Thanks for the info and link. During our camping trip two of my buddies slept in their trucks (HDJ81 and HJ60 - both diesels) and used their Webasto coolant heaters during the night to heat the interior of their trucks as the night time temps dropped down to 0C. What surprised me was how noisy the heaters were. They actually woke me up and I was about 20m from their trucks. I like your idea of running the coolant heater in combination with the boiler.

 

[Hiace4wd]

Ok yeah not all the diesel or petrol heaters are meant for long-time use, or so I've heard. It depends on the type. They can be noisy yes. I want to use ours (I don't have it yet) just to temporarily get rid of the cold. For example when you wake up, you can use it to warm everything up before you are out of bed. Anyway, I suppose you can use it continuously with a thermostat function. But the water pump inside those heaters also takes some power.

But come on, you don't need to heat that stuff around 0 degrees right? Just buy a good blanket or sleeping bag.
We had a roof tent on our 40 series, and we have camped around 0 degrees as well. It was fine

 

[canman]

They didn't run them continuously and I slept in a tent.

 

[alia176]

Camping at 0 deg? Y'all are nutty......

 

[Rich Sims]

I run one behind my seats and forget its there, no noise and doesn't tent to freeze up too much in cold weather!

 

[77cruiser77]

Rich Sims: do you find the water has a plastic flavour after a bit? Been looking at those tanks myself

 

[The Mojave Towd]

I'm thinking of getting one of their slimline 10 gal tanks that mounts behind the second row seats. I might also connect it to a hot water heater with a pump. I'm just worried about the noise it will make when it is not full. I recently completed a 3 day camping trip with a 20L tank in the rear seat behind me and it drove me crazy driving on the trails as the water sloshed around.

The tanks are not baffled in the smaller capacity. I run three different types of their tanks, and am very satisfied with their performance, the seat mounted tank is relatively quiet all things considered,

 

[rusty_tlc]

Camping at 0 deg? Y'all are nutty......

Look at their locations. That's 32° in American degrees, still cold but I know you have slept that cold in the Sierras before.

 

[The Mojave Towd]

Look at their locations. That's 32° in American degrees, still cold but I know you have slept that cold in the Sierras before.

Heck guys Frazier Park, Gorman in December was a chilly 26 F.