Has anyone seen this done on a 60? Take out the rear heater and plug in a coolant type water heater in its place. Thinking about building a water storage for showering/cooking.
Replacing rear heater with water heater idea
- Thread starter CarterTheFarter
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So you're thinking of using a webasto/espar coolant heater to heat a tank of water for showering/cooking? There are some guys using coolant heat exchangers for showers. I don't
think anyone removes their rear heater. I'm putting a webasto into my 60, but just as a coolant heater.
think anyone removes their rear heater. I'm putting a webasto into my 60, but just as a coolant heater.
- Thread starter
- #3
Yeah I meant to say heat exchanger. Would I be able to put something like that where the rear heater is without doing much to the coolant lines? Seems like I'd be able to just swap them right out.
Ive been thinking about this lately.
You could swap out the rear heater to put a heat exchanger in there, but why remove the heater?
I think you would be better to T off of the heater lines to feed an exchanger and add a valve instead of removing parts.
But, I think having a water tank with a copper line coil in it for heat exchange would be better, with the tank mounted under body. And a webasto would be a better heater then your engine running (no idleing diesels or exhaust near your shower or tent).
If you plan to run a shower from the heated water, if your truck is running then you need to heat up your engine and then connect your water system and allow it to warm the water, and you'll likely be idleing your engine while you shower, might be a pain if your near the vehicles exhaust.
So my vote is to T off at the heater core outlet from the engine and run lines to a water tank mounted under the vehicle, and run a webasto heater. Would be nice if you could grab a second coolant valve like the factory one on the firewall, and have the secondary one cable controlled, with a handle at the dash, would be easy to warm up your shower/dishes water while your on the trail.
BTW, I found a webasto heater on kijiji last year for $150, so thats why I bring that up.
You could swap out the rear heater to put a heat exchanger in there, but why remove the heater?
I think you would be better to T off of the heater lines to feed an exchanger and add a valve instead of removing parts.
But, I think having a water tank with a copper line coil in it for heat exchange would be better, with the tank mounted under body. And a webasto would be a better heater then your engine running (no idleing diesels or exhaust near your shower or tent).
If you plan to run a shower from the heated water, if your truck is running then you need to heat up your engine and then connect your water system and allow it to warm the water, and you'll likely be idleing your engine while you shower, might be a pain if your near the vehicles exhaust.
So my vote is to T off at the heater core outlet from the engine and run lines to a water tank mounted under the vehicle, and run a webasto heater. Would be nice if you could grab a second coolant valve like the factory one on the firewall, and have the secondary one cable controlled, with a handle at the dash, would be easy to warm up your shower/dishes water while your on the trail.
BTW, I found a webasto heater on kijiji last year for $150, so thats why I bring that up.
Maybe I'm wrong, but doesn't a webasto have its own exhaust? It' run on fuel right? Just my .02
- Thread starter
- #6
Has anyone seen something like this (12v submersible heater) in a rig?
http://www.mwands.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=430
http://www.mwands.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=430
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rusty_tlc
Dain Bramaged Member
If I recall correctly the rear heater is plumbed parallel with the front heater core.
So you would have to have the front heater valve open to get any flow to the rear heater.
That would be fun during the summer.
The two hoses for the supply / return on the heaters are pretty easy to access, why not just Tee of them under the hood?
So you would have to have the front heater valve open to get any flow to the rear heater.
That would be fun during the summer.
The two hoses for the supply / return on the heaters are pretty easy to access, why not just Tee of them under the hood?
This looks like an interesting option... I'd love to get some info on amp draw while running and performance... for example with this rigged up into a 5 gallon water can. Maybe one would need some sort of a temp cut-off switch to cut this off when the water gets to shower temp?
Mark
Unfortunately it would take a lot of juice to heat water. To carry (or generate) enough power wouldn't make sense when we already have such an efficient combustion heater already. A heat pump might work by recapturing excess heat from a fridge coil... ?
A friend of mine has a Helton set-up. I think he likes it.
http://www.helton.com.au/
Personally I'm looking into a propane tankless arrangement. I like the idea of being able to be away from the truck rather than needing to set-up a shower RIGHT THERE. I'm thinking of the Eccotemp L5 with a propane tank plus a 12v pump powered by a battery pack/jump starter.
http://www.helton.com.au/
Personally I'm looking into a propane tankless arrangement. I like the idea of being able to be away from the truck rather than needing to set-up a shower RIGHT THERE. I'm thinking of the Eccotemp L5 with a propane tank plus a 12v pump powered by a battery pack/jump starter.
I was out wheeling last year and one of the guys had a propane heated shower thing. It still needed 12 volts (jumpers off the battery) for it to work, but it wasn't as fixed to the vehicle as other systems which is good if you have different wheeling/camping vehicles.
He just took a rubbermaid container with a bunch of camping gear in it, then used the rubbermaid container to scoop into the lake we camped at to get enough water for a shower. A hot shower after a long day of being stuck in the mud on a hot summer day really makes camping that much funner for some reason, perhaps its not having mud on your feet and smelling of camp fire when you get into your tent at night.
edit: Although that 12VDC submersion heater appears to be a good idea, Id say that it may not be for a couple reasons.
1. look at your house hold kettle, it will be around 800-1200 watts (10-12amps @120VAC), and usually takes three or four minutes to boil 2 or 3 litres of water.
Now I know you arent planning to get your water to tank to boil temperature, but compare 80 or 100 watts (6-10amps @12VDC) or there 600 watt version (50 amps @12VDC) ans you will see that when you consider quantity of water to heat output, then consider if your tank is under the vehicle where you will have more heat loss due to surface area, that it will take a while to heat up and at the higher wattage heater output will use a lot of juice. In fact you'd want a relay to use it, and if left on with out the vehicle running, perhaps idle'd up with a smaller alt, it would kill your batteries pretty quick.
I could see the smaller heater being useful if you heated your water on more than a short trail ride, but why put load on the alt/engine when you can use non parasitic energy (coolant)
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