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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

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