Date:         Mon, 2 Oct 1995 09:25:39 +0500
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         cetin@kirk.bellcore.com (Cetin Seren)
Subject:      Re: heating ideas (insulating curtain)

In a former life, as grad students at Penn State, we owned (first a
blue-white then a red-white) two 73 transporters.  My wife became an
expert on duct-taping the inside of the bus, hanging blankets behind
the front seats, etc.. She called this winterizing the bus.  One thing
she found was that the holes on the floor where the pedal links go
through are a big cold-air source... Even after I got the little box
that kept the accelerator assembly covered and installed it, she
insisted that her toes could feel the draft through two layers of wool
socks and boots :-( ...  By then I should've known : once she's made
up her mind, she will not change it :-)

Seriously, the gas heaters are probably the best solution for driving.
I would be very scared of keeping a gas heater running while I'm
asleep in it, no matter how safe it is.  This may be paranoia, but,
being warm does not help if you're not going to get a good amount of
sleep because you're too worried about whatever may go wrong with a
gas heater.

How about another possible solution?  I wonder how much power electric
blankets draw?  If some one has one, maybe they can post their power
ratings -- that way we could calculate how much an extra battery would
last.... 

Cetin



Morris H. Arthur writes:
 > An easy way to stay warm(er) on a long drive is to put up a curtain 
 > behind the front seats and direct all the heat forward.
 > 
 > I attach an old sleeping bag to the ceiling lip below the pop-top. This
 > way, I have a much smaller space to heat and all my air leaks from the
 > pop-top and louvered windows don't affect me... 
 > 
 > Note: any passengers in the back need to be in sleeping bags because it 
 > can get bitterly cold back there! Of course, you need to be good with the 
 > side-view mirrors too....
 > 
 > ---------------------------------------------------------
 > '77 Campmobile
 > Morris Arthur < morris_arthur@unc.edu >
 > Environmental Sciences and Engineering
 > University of North Carolina
 >