The last "Bread Box" I owned - had no heater except the flap type that took heat
off the engine. Living in Alaska at the time, that was a problem.

In installed a Suburban motorhome heater in it. Mounted it on the flow against
the wall directly behind the driver seat. Vented it out the side wall just like
on the motorhome.

Had a standard camper propane tank installed underneath floor on the outside.

Themostat was mounted on the door post by the drivers head. I used a type that
had an "off" position. This allowed me to shut the unit down, if I wanted.

The heater had electronic ignition so there was no pilot light.

With a thermostat on, if I hit a bump, the flame might go out. The electronic
ignition would light it back up again automatically.

I had a deep cycle marine battery under the back seat hooked to the heater with
an automatic switch like motorhomes have for charging all batteries. It was nice
to go out on a really cold Alaska day or one when it snowed, and turn up the heat
and have the van ready to drive when I got off work.

The heater unit was rated at 18,000BTU/Hr. It would melt the snow off the entire
van if it had a snow load on it from just sitting out in  the open parking lot.

One might think having the heater on the floor like that would be a pita but it
wasn't. t

The biggest thing I had to watch for was to make sure the air vents in the van
were not blocked so air could circulate.

John Rodgers

Chris Smith wrote:

> At 02:28 PM 10/26/99 PDT, you wrote:
> >Folks,
> >
> >I've given up on getting the heater on my '81 Vanagon to work, and have
> >decided to go for an alternative thermal source.  I was wondering if any one
> >has had decent experience with DC heaters (I have an extra battery)?  Names
> >of manufacturers, retailers, and any improv installation work is
> >appreciated.
> >
> >Regards,
>
> A gas heater for a Vanagon is rated well over 60,000 BTU (it may even be
> 80,000 but I don't have the reference materials here).  The typical output
> of a 12v electric heater is 5000 BTU.  Looks like 12 would be needed to
> provide the same heat as a gas heater.  I know my '82 could never supply
> the power needed to run 12 heaters, let alone 2.  I have a 12v electric
> blanket that I used in the '61 Single Cab when the winters got colder that
> the stock heater could handle.  It was too much draw on the system at night
> in the snow when I had to have the wipers on, but in the van it will run
> off the camp battery (25 Amp/Hour Gel-Cell) all night.
>
> A heater system in a vanagon my be a little complicated, but there is no
> way that I could think of running withou it.
>
> Chris Smith
> Outer Chicagoland
> '82 Westy
> '74 Thing
> Stuff