Date: Tue, 15 Nov 94 17:07:45 PST
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: "Lee Wood" <Lee.Wood@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Northern California Camper [with heat!]
Joel,
Put me and my '81 Westphalia down for Northern California, SF Bay
Area, specifically......What the hell.....my wife, too.
I've just installed a propane catalytic heater in the camper.
Haven't taken it out in the woods yet, but it works well for short
periods in the driveway. I plan to just open the upper window flap
a bit for exhaust. There are enough cracks and crannies to provide
air flow into the camper. I know, Jack. That's not very good
weather protection, but I'm not as adamant about camping in weather
as you are (sorry we bailed out two weeks ago). [grin]
I installed a T-fitting in the propane line that feeds the cooktop
and fitted a 4-foot flexible hose. A removable screw-in plug lives
in the free end of the flexible line until I want to hook up the
heater. The hose stays coiled in the back of the cabinet under the
sink until I want heat. I leak tested the installation with soapy
water. To deploy the gadget, I snake the flex hose out through the
hole in the cabinet that is cut to clear the seat belt reel; remove
the plug; install the heater. The plug lets me run the stove and
fridge in good weather without gassing myself.
To mount the heater I bought a 5" piece of steel tubing of the
proper size to drop into the bracket that holds the leg of the
forward (smaller) table . To the top of the steel tube, I had a
friend weld on a 11" piece of 1-1/4" X 1/8" steel bar stock. The
assembled piece is L-shaped. I drilled out the 1/8" bar stock to
accept machine screws that screwed into the heater where the
accessory "feet" are designed to go if the heater is used
free-standing. I put 1/2" spacers over the screw shafts between the
heater bracket and the heater to provide air circulation space
around the vents in the bottom of the heater.
The flex hose lets me swivel the heater to point wherever I want in
the camper and the table bracket can be tightened to hold it steady.
I got the flex hose and T-fitting at the same place I got the
heater: about $15 all together. The heater was $215. Call your
local steel supplier for the tube and bar stock. They'll cut it to
length for you. I was fortunate to have a friend with access to
welding equipment: local welding shops wanted to charge a minimum
of $25 for the 30-second job to weld it up. I had my friend grind
off the sharp corners and I sprayed on a couple coats of black
paint.
When not in use, the heater lives in its original box (with a hole
cut in it for the bracket), all under the back seat.
Let's see.... if I hold my tongue just right I can try some ASCII
art:
--------------------------------
| |
| ======================== |
heater-------------> | |
| ======================== |
| |
| ======================== |
| |
| ======================== |
| |
| ======================== |
flex hose | |
| | ======================== |
| | |
| | ======================== |
| | |
| |------------------------------- |
\/ | |
----------------[]-| |
----------------[]-| |
| |
|________________________________|
spacers over screws-----> || ||
installed from =======================================
the bottom | | ^
| | |
| | |
| | 1-1/4" X 1/8" bar stock
| |
| |
| |<------ steel pipe
| | clamped into table bracket
|___|
I know there's room for improvement, but at least my wife will
_consider_ camping in cooler weather.
See Ya'
Lee
To: VANAGON@LENTI.MED.UMN.EDU