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Date:         Sun, 01 Sep 1996 18:55:52 +0000
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Chris P. Gibbs Photography" <cpgibbs@ptialaska.net>
Subject:      Re: 1985 Westfalia heaters

For all interested,

Here is a post with reference to VENTED PROPANE HEATERS from a while back. For those who have seen it, sorry for the repeat posting!

PROPANE HEATER: The heater is a “PROPEX COMPACT 1600” it measures a mere 14 inches long, 6inches wide and 4.5 inches deep. It fits beautifully underneath the rear bench seat in a Westy and is a snap to install. The heater itself costs around $500 and comes complete with all you need (other than the copper pipe to link up with the propane bottle), ONE WORD OF WARNING before I forget, make sure when you order the heater to ask for an 8mm down to quarter inch adaptor! It seems that the standard European pipe size to and from the propane tank is 8mm and I couldn’t find it anywhere in the US, (its all quarter inch only here it seems). The heater comes complete with a thermostat (real snazzy) that sits on the wardrobe of a Westy at around head height (supplied plenty of cable to go elsewhere if you so desire), it is just like a household unit but smaller and in a high tech black case. On the thermostat itself there is also a small rocker type switch that switches the heater on/off manually, or switches on the fan only for cooling or leaves the unit on controlled by the thermostat. The heater also has a control box that sits under the seat that monitors the vehicle battery condition as well as the actual burner unit in the heater. The control box will switch off the heater when either the flame goes out (or the battery becomes sufficiently discharged) shutting off the propane supply and putting the heater in standby mode! Output of the heater is about equivalent to a good fan heater and is plenty warm enough to heat a Westy (even with the top up in Alaska). The real beauty of the unit is it is incredibly miserly on propane I wish the fridge was half as good. Dont waste your time with extra propane bottles for the heater you will not need them, a better investment is a twin battery conversion so you can leave the heater on all the time when its really cold. The fan in the unit is quite powerful and will circulate the heat around the van real well, I opted for a second battery conversion and put all my camping gear directly to it and it works out great for the heater.

FITTING THE HEATER: As I said the heater is 14 inches long, 6 inches wide and four and a half inches deep. If you look at it from the top on one end you have the propane inlet connection (0.25 inche copper pipe - via 8mm adaptor) and at the other end of the heater you have two large (2.75 inch) air inlet and hot air outlets. On the bottom of the unit you have two (1inch) exhaust inlet and outlet pipes. My heater is fitted so that when viewed from above it is sitting length ways under the rear seat of the Westy (with the hot air outlet to the center of the vehicle). The heater comes with a length of (2.75inch) black plastic heater pipe and two black plastic circular rotating grills that you can mount in the wood under the rear seat. The two exhaust outlets require you to drill through the floor of the vehicle, the outlets are of sufficient length as to pass through both the wooden base of the seat as well as the floor of the vehicle. Once you have drilled the floor of the vehicle and placed the heater in the seat well the heater exhausts will pertrude though the underside of the vehicle at least an inch, this makes the job of sealing the holes and connecting the flexible exhaust pipes a snap! There are two exhaust pipes to fit to the underside, one outlet and one inlet, and CAUTION is advised here. Once you identify the EXHAUST OUTLET you must route it to the outside of the vehicle (many do not!), there are plenty of places to anchor it near the jacking points at the rear of the van. The air intake is OK mounted anywhere away from the exhaust .

NOTE: When you order the unit see if you can get a little Mushroom cover for the exhaust outlet, it saves the exhaust outlet getting full of snow and mud etc.

Well, that's basically it, feel free to give me a call with any questions at (907) 225- 5057 if I can help I will!

Heres the address for PROPEX (UK):

PROPEX (UK) LTD CAMPION HOUSE LINCOLN ROAD LEADENHAM LINCOLN, LN5 OPE ENGLAND

Tel. 011-44 (0400) 72100 Fax. 011-44 (0400) 73416

I know the phone codes have changed in the past year, the address is still good!

Regards,

Chris Gibbs,

Chris Gibbs 88 Westie


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