Date:         Fri, 16 Sep 1994 12:15:55  PDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         paul.uusitalo@aldus.com (Paul Uusitalo,CoSA)
Subject:      RE: Winter Camping Heat & Water Tank

Derek:

Sorry for the delay in replying. Have been dealing with all the joys of a
major corporate takeover (saying goodbye to 30% of my co-workers, etc.)
this week and haven't had time to think of much else.

First off, thank you very much for the propane info. Where before I was in
the dark, now I have a pretty good idea of what is involved and can speak
intelligently when looking for someone to do the installation.

Back to heater stuff:

>OK, so you mean mounting it along the inside wall pointing toward the
>passenger side of the vehicle. That sounds not too bad. One could even cut
a
>cut-out for the heater in the closet wall to minimize the extent to which
the
>heater sticks out into the vehicle. 

>But I wonder if this could end up burning the sleeping bag of someone
>sleeping in the lower bed over night. I use my Coleman Black Cat catalytic
>heaters overnight and intend to do the same with whatever new heater I
buy.
>It is easy to buy an alarm for oxegyen and for presence of bad gasses.

Yeah, this might be a problem. If you mounted the heater as high as it
could go, you'd have about 6" between the bottom of the heater and the bed.
This is probably not enough for safety. And even with a bit more room, it'd
make sleeping in the bottom bunk pretty uncomfortable if you're trying to
keep the whole bus warm.

Further measuring has given me a new (and I think better) concept. Remove
the clothes closet door. Mount the heater on that panel, facing forward
towards the stove, etc. Cut a new whole in the bed side of the clothes
closet, behind where the back of the heater will be. Re-mount the closet
door there.

Advantages:

1. With careful mounting (heater about 1" out from flush), clothes can
still be hung in closet.
2. Heater function does not impair use of seating or bedding.
3. Heater pointing towards bulk of bus' volume.
4. Heater easily vented through bottom of closet.

Let me know what you think.

Paul