Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2000 10:25:57 -0700
Reply-To: Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@UBC.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@UBC.CA>
Subject: Re: heat in VW Vans
In-Reply-To: <p04330107b5faa812b21f@[64.4.95.35]>
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At 3:31 PM -0500 9/29/00, Hydesmith wrote:
>VW bus and the northern winters....
>
>Someone asked about heat in VW vans. Well, I live in Manitoba and
>I'll tell you that it takes a hardy soul wearing a parka and warm
>boots to drive about in the aircooled VW. The auxiliary gas heaters
>suck way more fuel than you thought imaginable for their task, with
>insignificant results when it gets really cold. We tried everything
>with our 73 bus. We put an insulated bra on the front, and sealed off
>the front interior with see-through vinyl and piped the gas-heater
>heat to the front. Still nearly unbearable so we just resigned it to
>blocks for the winter...
Brian,
On the assumption you still have the '73, I should point out that a
gas heater, if properly adjusted, should be able to heat your bus
okay in the winter, or at least bearably when really cold (like -40 C
or so).
I installed a Eberspacher BN-4 gas heater in our first '76 westy, and
the heater boxes for the stock heat were utterly and completely shot,
so the gas heater had to do everything without help.
We had a few days on our 'round North America trip when it got quite
cold. In New Brunswick in early March, for example, it dropped below
-40 C. Or -40 F, since C and F are the same at that temp anyway.
I'll admit we had the front cab sealed off with clear vinyl and a
hose running up front from the heater, but even at -40, cab temp
stayed around 50 - 60 F which, while not balmy, is perfectly
bearable. This is with leaky door seals, no bra, no plastic taped
over the front vents, just a drafty rusty bus with a cranking gas
heater. In milder winter temps (-10 - -25 C), we had to keep turning
the heater off because it got too hot inside the cabin.
We also found that while the heater did certainly affect gas mileage,
it didn't increase consumption more that maybe 15%. Rather trivial,
actually.
All this makes me think your auxiliary heater is not working
properly: burning way too much fuel, producing little heat. A gas
heater specialist we found in Santa Cruz (!?), adjusted the safety
cutoff temp switch to kick off when the heated air exceeded 375 F.
(!!) Under normal running conditions, it didn't run that hot, but
hovered around 300 F. That sucker rocked.
Final thought: the heater is supposed to recirculate cabin air for
maximum heating efficiency. If it's not recirculating, it won't get
as warm in the cabin as it could.
This *is* vanagon-related, right? I know diesel vanagons had an
option for a diesel heater based on the BA-6 (is it the DA-6?), and I
recall that waterboxers had an option for BA-6s, even though I've
never seen one.
T.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tobin Copley Bowen Island, BC, Canada 49deg 23'N-123deg 19'W
'82 Westfalia 1.6L NA diesel ("Stinky")
'97 son Russell =============
'99 daughter Margaret /_| |_L| |__|:| clatter
1995: 'Round US, Mexico, Canada 15,000 mi {. .| clatter!
1996: Vancouver to Inuvik, NWT 7,400 km ~-()-==----()-~
Previous buses: '76 westy deluxe (Daisy), '76 westy standard (Mango)
http://www.sfu.ca/~tcopley/vw/
| 
