Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 04:56:42 EDT
Reply-To: FrankGRUN@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Frank Grunthaner <FrankGRUN@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: Carver P4 - My Install
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In 1984, I purchased the precursor to the Carver, nee Propex heater. It was
then named the Riviera, and was purchased in France (in Le Mans). I installed
it about 2 years later in my ‘82 Westfalia (then diesel). After two years of
fitful study, examining many possible placements, I settled on mounting it
against the drivers side wall in the closet. I plumbed the interior air inlet
into the top of the closet above the door, and the outlet about 4 inches above
the mattress on the side of the closet. The installation looks factory because
I fabricated duct covers from the two front speaker grills which I had removed
when installing 6 inch Boston Acoustics in the front doors. ABS black sewer
pipe on the back made a good seal and transition to the flexible insulated
hose which connected to the heater box. I connected the burner inlet and
outlet hoses to the supplied baffled fittings which I mounted through the
drivers side rear fender. The air inlet is directly above the centerline of
the tire, but placed at the very interior edge of the fender. The outlet is
placed in the same plane but about 10 inches further back. Yep, I had to cut
two 1.5 inch holes in the body, but these points are very closely coupled to
the mounting point of the heater. Also took out the closet assembly to make
the installation easier. The hoses coupling the burner air are also insulated,
and I sealed the baffled fittings with high temperature silicone rubber (type
used for sealing mufflers, and for high temperature ovens). I mounted the
thermostat 3 inches below the top of the closet on the side facing the bed
interior. The gas line was easily plumbed into the refrigeration inlet line
with a t-valve. Battery power is provided by a fused connection into my
auxiliary battery mounted behind the standard diesel battery connection in the
rear. I then fabricated an aluminum heat shield which covers the whole heater
assembly and which is fastened with a set of quick release bolts for
servicing. Had a few leaks to debug, then everything was toasty warm. The
installation uses the lower half of the closet and extends into the closet to
the point where you would draw a vertical line down from the top interior edge
of the closet closest to the outside wall. In other words, no hanging space
was lost. I also fabricated a wire retainer shelf (from the white rubber
coated closet organizer material sold in hardware stores) to provide a blanket
storage area above the heat shield and taking up the rest of the room in the
rapidly sloping side of the closet. Wife thinks VW designed it this way.
Results: With poptop raised, 72 degrees F downstairs, 70 up in the poptop
zone. With snow outside (Mt. Palomar in Feb.) the heater cycles on for about 5
minutes then off for 10 or 15. Unobtrusive, and no dead battery after 3 days.
No obvious depletion (didn’t run out) of propane over ten day trip running
refrigerator, heater and cooking stove. I don’t have a continuous CO monitor,
but thoroughly tested the operating installation with OSHA CO monitoring gas
analysis system, and consistently found no detectable gas in the closet,
around the burner air path(interior) nor the interior heated air circuit.
Quite pleasant actually. Get a lot of surprised comments from the motorhome
and truck camper crowd during our winter expeditions.
My two cents.
Frank Grunthaner
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