How I'll stay warm in the van this winter
How I'll stay warm in the van this winter
My approach to heating the van has evolved over the six years I’ve lived in it. My use case hasn’t changed: I follow mild weather and only rarely/accidentally get caught in hard freezes. Dipping slightly below freezing at night is about the limit of my tolerance.
Each winter brings a flurry (ha!) of first-timers wondering how to keep warm. Not giving advice in the above post, but explaining how I do it.
Currently use a buddy, but propane lines like to freeze and you have the condensation and co issues.
Will be putting an espar in as soon as I can find the time and motivation to install it.
but propane lines like to freeze
I'll have to watch for that.
and you have the condensation and co issues.
I boondock in the desert southwest with vicously dry air and have constant ventilation -- the buddy doesn't push the hygrometer reading up at all. I imagine it'd be different in Florida or something...
My stove and Buddy have never caused the CO meter to go above 0ppm. Other things have but not those.
Will be putting an espar in as soon as I can find the time and motivation to install it.
If I won the lottery I'd use something plumbed into whatever the camper's fuel tank holds. I had a 1973 VW van in [the former West] Germany that had a gas heater. That heater was epic!
When I lived in a van for a few years I started with a Chinese diesel heater. Whilst effective at blasting heat into the space it was often a case of being too cold or overwhelmingly hot. I also couldn't use it at night as the pump was disgustingly loud. I transitioned to ultimately using a sub zero mummy style sleeping bag for the nights and just using the diesel heater on and off for when I was awake and this was more than adequate even when the temp dropped below zero.
After my first van blew up and I had to get a different one I got one that had a similar style heater but it ran on LPG with an external hook up to refill the tank at petrol stations. This one I set up with a couple of vents fed with ducting and was far superior to its diesel counterpart. It was quiet enough that I could leave the temp sensor on its lowest setting and coupled with a decent thick duvet and sleeping in clothes I was always warm enough and when it did come on in the nights it never really disturbed my sleep.
I miss the van life to be honest, houses are overrated as fuck but I got a girlfriend who was not into the idea of vans.
Whilst effective at blasting heat into the space it was often a case of being too cold or overwhelmingly hot.
The thermostats on the newer ones are supposed to be better at regulating temperature.
I also couldn’t use it at night as the pump was disgustingly loud.
Yeah. Last winter a dude pulled up next to me on BLM land and cranked the heater. Sounded like a jet engine all night. I put in earplugs.
I know that Chinese diesel heaters are supposed to be the way forward. But I am typically out in 14d increments and the OEM diesel tanks seem to hold 2-3 days of fuel. If I ever do install a CDH I’ll likely mount a diesel tank under the van and fill it from outside.
We have a Eberspächer fuel heater that uses gasoline rather than diesel fuel, and it is tied directly into our van's fuel tank. It seems rather efficient - over the course of a week below freezing we only noticed the gas gauge going down a little.
I had a gasoline heater in a 1973 VW bus and it worked very well. For now it looks like most of the gasoline versions are still very expensive, although I've started to see knockoffs below $1000.