Diary Of A Camper Conversion
Weather is starting to turn and so it’s becoming more important than ever that I get the heating system installed. I held out for a new product by Autoterm called the Baltic system. Buy badgering their sales rep I was one of the first in the UK to get hold of the system. And then everything has taken longer than expected so I’m not going to be the first to install it after all. A few YouTubers have already got videos out about it now.
But one of the reasons for getting this system is that it can also be used to preheat the engine. This requires running coolant pipes from the engine to the heater. So this is what I spent the whole day figuring out.
At first I thought I would put the diesel burner behind the front right fog light. There’s a lot of space here and a structural member that gives a good mounting point for this. This location would also give really easy access to plumbing into the engine coolant loop. I took off the wheel arch cover and the under tray to expose the area and even got so far as making a template for a bracket. But there are two reasons why I changed my mind and decided to mount the burner under the center of the van.
Whilst its easy to tap the burner into the engine coolant loop its a harder location to run pipes and electrics back to the control center of the van. It would also mean extending the cable significantly which may cause voltage drop and affect its performance. By mounting the burner under the center of the van I will still have to extend the cables but only one or two meters as opposed to the 5 or 6 if it were mounted at the front.
Burner location settled on, I started running the heavy black rubber pipes. This involved getting intimate with my engine. Both from on top and underneath I found myself shoulder deep and wriggling my rubber pipe. I’ve only got campervan leveling chocks rather than proper vehicle ramps so it was a bit sketchy. I just got on with it as quickly as possible, but it’s still took most of the day.
This job I was being slightly put off because I’ve been afraid to cut a hole in the floor of my van. its one of those irreversible decisions that can cause problems with rot and water ingress later but it’s unavoidable if I want to have a functioning heating system. I measured out as best I could and then put a pilot hole through to see where it ended up. I drilled up from underneath the van to make sure I didn’t hit any structural members or critical van systems and with a bit of luck it ended up in nearly the perfect place.
I also spent some time after lunch working out where the gas locker would go. Small house the gas tank and regulator for our kitchen hob. I tried to get it as close as possible to the hob so that the included eight millimeter copper pipes with the kit would reach. I think it will but we will see when I come to rooting it through the cabinets.
This required another hole in the floor. It got a shot of spray paint and then a healthy coating of zika flex before the dropout vent cover was installed. The cabinet had holes drilled for the regulator and canister retaining strap and that’s as far as I could get without a pipe bender. Amazon got some of my money today as I put in an order for that and some heater of pipe retaining clips.