Diesel Heaters
- Thread starter Dave
- Start date
How do you think this would do in my Flippac? It would be nice to do something integrated instead of the Mr. Buddy now that these have become so affordable. The unit you had in your Tacoma was nice, but those things were/are spendy.
I think these are changing the game. Very easy to use one of these as a “built in”.
Yeah, if I could have a self contained heater like this that could be strapped down and connected to permanent plumbing on the truck, but easily disconnected and used elsewhere... that might make it worth the time and money to me. Diesel as a heating fuel makes way more sense to me than propane, and I happen to have about 250 gals of heating oil on property that I can use.
We run an XVenture 5k diesel heater in the Ovrlnd. The controller we have has 6 heat levels (in basic mode). On our trip last week with temps in the low teens level 3 was holding around 48 deg in the camper. Keep in mind that I have not insulated the roof yet, so it is a huge aluminum box. The 7 liter tank gets us 3 nights of heat. If you are down this way at some point, feel free to borrow it and test it out.
Any heater you get, make sure it has the "Alpine" mode to adjust the fuel rate for over 4k elevation.
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With the Flippac being essentially a very large uninsulated tent. I'm thinking 8K with the heat cranked up... inefficient for fuel burn, but easier to plan around than figuring how to insulate for seasonal use. A 12 liter tank would get me three days if I was just staying in one place and can easily be topped up at a gas station. And, good call... alpine mode for sure. I want to test the feasibility of ski bumming in Tahoe, and my house is already at 4600 ft elevation.
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My understanding is that the 8k's are a gimmick and are just 5k heaters that are over fueled causing them the build up soot and not be reliable. You may want to look into that and confirm. Our camper is an aluminum box with 3 feet of tent. The flipac is bigger, but I think a standard 5k will probably be enough.
I had not heard that, but that would not surprise me. When it all comes down to it, they are all just knock-offs of the Wabesto or Espar Airtronic of similar size. I imagine published numbers that are higher than what the industry standards advertise would indicate a trade off of engineered design efficiency. I'll have to look into that.
Now I'm leaning more toward a built-in unit to make better use of my storage space. These portable units are slightly large and inefficiently sized for my current arrangement.
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Gooseberry
Adventurist
I was just in southern Utah and was impressed how well a 5k kept the van around 70 with the top up and mid twenties outside.
ArkansasDon
Adventurist
I was talking with quite a few folks @ the Rendezvous in the Ozarks about their diesel heaters, most said they made quite the improvements on the fuel pumps not being so noisy.
I'm still stuck on AT Overland's portable propane furnace. Heat is a must for that cold weather camping.
I'm still stuck on AT Overland's portable propane furnace. Heat is a must for that cold weather camping.