Date:         Sat, 22 Jul 1995 21:17:45 -0600 (MDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Jack Reed <jackr@fortnet.org>
Subject:      Re: (F)Jack the heater guru

Skip,

On Sat, 22 Jul 1995, Skip Correll 615-757-5508 (School) wrote:

>         Jack:
>         
>         What happened with J.B. Heaters?  Reply to me or the list.
>         

When I first started looking into heaters for my 81 I thought it must be 
Providence that one of the handful of VW heater jocks in the US was 
within a two hour drive of me.  After I contacted JB's about heat for my 
van he steered me towards a Stewart Warner unit for installation under 
the rear seat, which is not at all a stock installation.  Being a tech 
type, I asked about a zillion questions about the installation, where 
would intake air come from, exhaust be piped to, etc., etc.  At no time 
was I belligerent but was instead just trying to get answers to questions 
that kept poping up.

After sending $50 as a deposit and getting assurance from JB that a 
heater would soon be forthcoming in about a month I contacted him again 
for more installation info as I was planning on installing the unit 
myself once I had it in hand.  During the conversation, for no reason 
I've ever been able to discern JB (never did find out his name) went off 
on me, told me he didn't need my money and that he was sending it back to 
me that minute, by overnight mails.

Now I understand that this is every self-employed individual's right not 
to have to deal with people that he feels are consuming too much of his 
time.  But then he shouldn't be catering to the DIYer crowd if he doesn't 
want to answer technical questions.

I've since spoken to many local mechanics and parts people who have had 
their own stories concerning run-ins with JB.

As it turns out I'm glad that I went in search of the stock heater as 
it's not at all the horror I was led to believe by JB.  There's certainly 
been a learning curve associated with understanding the workings of the 
BA6, but after 3 years I don't consider it too steep for the average home 
mechanic.  In addition, I don't think I ever would have been that 
comfortable driving it in the winter, knowing that a gasoline fired 
furnace was inches away from my daughters there on the backseat, which 
was JB's recommended installation location.  If there was a problem with 
the unit we would have enough warning with it underneath the vehicle to 
be able to safely avoid a disaster.

YMMV of course, but my personal experience and the experience of other 
local people is enough for me to avoid contact with JB's for any reason.  
I won't go into what I think are his problems here on the list.

Jack