Van heater

hankwylerjr

trying to keep my transit van warm in the winter anyone know of any good 12 volt heaters that will at least warm up my sewer jetter hoses and tools etc thanks

pecmsg

they make rear heaters with controls.

Mad Dog_2

I had an inverter in my box truck that could run my 300 machine and heaters. Mad Dog

Larry Weingarten

Hi, Here are some thoughts: https://vanlifetheory.com/gear/best-campervan-heaters/

Yours, Larry

Jamie Hall

Much better to look into a rear seat type heater running off the engine coolant — it takes a horrendous amount of electricity to heat a van with electricity.

Larry Weingarten

Hi @hankwylerjr , I'm guessing that you're looking for heat when the engine is not running?

Yours, Larry

pecmsg

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1808737#Comment_1808737

that’s going to kill the battery quickly.

hankwylerjr

I can maybe use a portable space heater with thermostat overnight set it to like 50 degrees but yes while I’m out for the day my hours now I’m getting older are 9am to 2pm I’d like to somehow supplement or add something so that the back will stay warm while I’m in the field

pecmsg

a plug in electric heater then a unit run off the engine.

hankwylerjr

@pecmsg yes but no idea what kind completely lost on this

Jamie Hall

to sort of recap what the guys are saying — including me — there is no way you are going to run a heater which will do anything off your van's battery for 5 or 6 hours. Not going to happen, unless perhaps you have an all electric van and the makers have such a thing — but even that would kill your range.

It just simply would take too much power. You could run a conventional 120 volt electric space heater off a small — say 3 KW — inverter generator, assuming you couldn't plug in somewhere. (The generator when running is NOT inside the van!)

Some trucks also have built in invertors and 120 volt outlets for tools. Not sure of the power rating for those. If those are run off an auxiliary batter with the engine starting battery completely isolated unless the engine is running, such an arrangement might do — or you could get a mechanically handy friend to rig up such an arrangement with a big auxiliary battery and an inverter and an isolation switch or relay (be careful with this idea — one wrong connection and you've just bought a few thousand dollars worth of electronic gizmos for your van).

Keep in mind if you are doing this with electrics, even getting enough power to run a small — say 700 watt — heater on 12 volts is going to take some big wires (you're looking at a 60 amp draw on the battery on the 12 volt side for 700 watts — a "normal" space heater will be a 125 amp draw on the 12 volt side).

hot_rod

I use one of these in my truck camper They have a number of different sizes, and adapters to use a bigger 20 lb tank

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pecmsg

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/197683/van-heater

why?

I do refrigeration, except for the leak detectors nothing that temp changes effect operation.