Heating Duct from Truck to Camper

[rodney]

Has anyone ever toyed with the idea of connecting a duct/flexible hose from the truck's heating duct into the camper?

I recently picked up a used Four Wheel Eagle Shell to put on a Toyota Tacoma, ran into 26 degree cold and thought how nice it would be to have some heat going into the camper while driving.

I haven't poked around in the truck yet to see if there's any "easy" access to connect a duct/hose. Even if there's access I would only send it temporarily through the sliding rear windows (truck & camper), both sealed with polystyrene foam, just to test it out before any major mod's.

 

[home skillet]

Welcome to WTW rodney!

Interesting idea, but how long would the camper remain warm after you shut of the rig and take the time raise the roof? Is it worth it?

I have done alot of truck to camper connections when I built my custom rig. I would think that the only way to do this would be above the bed rails (its likely too tight between the camper shell and the bed walls to make a accessable connection). Then you have a duct hanging out there on the side in harms way. If you run the duct all the way to the back of the truck/camper then I would think that the heat loss out of the duct by the time it got there might not be adequate to really make a difference.

What about creating a seal between the camper and the truck cab and just opening up the windows?

I'd be interested to hear what everyone else has to say though.

 

[rodney]

Hi HS,
Thanks for the "Welcome". WTW has been such a great discovery... so many interesting people sharing their time and expertise.

That's a great idea to seal between windows. An insulated box with a 12v fan could be all that's needed and wouldn't be too costly to try out. I agree that the heat loss with a long length of duct would be a limitation.

Basically, I just wanted to get some heat in the camper to take the edge off until I popped it up and lit our small Coleman catalytic (hopefully to be replaced soon by a Olympian Wave 3 or 6 or other). It just seems a shame not to try and utilize the truck/engine heat in some way. Of course one could feed a custom bent exhaust pipe in and out of the camper but I think I'll pass on that.

 

[lqhikers]

Hi HS,
Thanks for the "Welcome". WTW has been such a great discovery... so many interesting people sharing their time and expertise.

That's a great idea to seal between windows. An insulated box with a 12v fan could be all that's needed and wouldn't be too costly to try out. I agree that the heat loss with a long length of duct would be a limitation.

Basically, I just wanted to get some heat in the camper to take the edge off until I popped it up and lit our small Coleman catalytic (hopefully to be replaced soon by a Olympian Wave 3 or 6 or other). It just seems a shame not to try and utilize the truck/engine heat in some way. Of course one could feed a custom bent exhaust pipe in and out of the camper but I think I'll pass on that.

back when we had a fwc on our toyota's (2 different ones) we always had the truck and camper tied together
with a insulated spacer it was made up with foam inside of a custom sewed naugahide round sleeve that fit between
camper and truck,i would stick it in place when sliding camper in place.
this let us always leave the sliding windows on the truck/camper open so our third member of family could go
back and forth and be comfortable both kept the camper warmer or cooler (heat/ac)
third member? our cat who demanded comfort!

an added feature was that on dusty roads (are there any other type out west?)
we could turn blower on high which would cause some pressure which helps keep
dust out of truck and camper

over the years it did rub the paint on the truck a little but it polished out when i was detailing truck to sell.

Les,lqhikers

 

[generubin]

If I'm reading this correctly, Rodney wants to keep the camper warm as he drives the truck. Seems the simplest thing to do is install a 12 volt heater of which there are all sorts: http://www.amazon.com/Direct-Hook-Up-Ceramic-Heater-Cooling/dp/B004EKHZ5U/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1360116202&sr=8-3&keywords=12+volt+heater

 

[ntsqd]

Another way to go about it would be to install a Mojave Heater or a Maradyne heater. Means intercepting the heater hoses and probably a couple holes in the bed though.

 

[Jamesiam]

I don't know if I would do this mod myself. The back door must be open in order to raise the roof, which will suck freezing air immediately into the camper. I also feel that the Atwood heater can warm a camper within three minutes for the most part. But hey, it would certainly look cool. Now that I gave it more thought if traveling for long distances it might keep water and food from freezing.

 

[rodney]

Thanks for the replies and links. Simple is good... That was a major reason for going with an Eagle Shell. This is meant to be a step up from 25 years of tent camping but still maintain simplicity. However, the list seems to be growing each day... solar power system, a/c, furnace/heater, propane tank, boondocking capability, etc...

The combination of a 12v heater and truck-to-camper sleeve will probably be my first approach. I'll check the Tacoma's electrics to see where I can tap into a line that can handle a decent sized heater. Les, it sounds like your "cat sleeve" worked with positive results. In our case it'll be a "little dog sleeve". Never would have thought of the dust benefit until driving on such a road.

The Mojave looks like a fantastic unit that would kick butt with 12k btu's but I'm not ready to commit to such an install right now... even though Summit Racing is only a 20 minute drive from home.

I'll take a look at the Atwood heaters when it's comes time to decide on a more permanent heater/furnace unit.

 

[fish more]

HOW ABOUT A WOOD BURNER?

 

[rodney]

fish more... hey, you bet I thought of that since I heat our entire house with a pellet stove vented with pipe that only needs 1" clearance through the wall. However, I'd like to be able to sleep at night in the camper and that would never happen with a wood burner in there. Plus who's going to crawl through the sliding rear window to stoke the fire while we're driving???

Anyway, a quick look at some 12v 300 watt heaters isn't turning up anything that seems to have enough heat output to make it worthwhile. James, perhaps the propane furnace with 3-5 minute warm up time makes the most sense. My wife can stay in the warm truck while I brave the cold and attempt to survive while popping up the camper and light the furnace!

Another project... rig up a remote controlled electric/hydraulic roof raising system and train the dog to light the furnace...

 

[ntsqd]

12VDC linear actuators are getting more and more common. I've seen some made for opening 8' bed hard tonneau covers. I'll guess that 4 of those would have enough force and stroke to raise and lower the top. Synchronizing them would be the bigger challenge, but I doubt that perfect synchronization is required so long as the limit switches are all set the same.

Good luck with the dog training...

 

[home skillet]

I have 4 linear actuators that raise my top on the Titan EV. They work great. Can't see why a similare system woudn't work on a FWC top.

Check out Progressive automations.
and
Titan EV

 

[pods8]

If I'm reading this correctly, Rodney wants to keep the camper warm as he drives the truck. Seems the simplest thing to do is install a 12 volt heater of which there are all sorts: http://www.amazon.com/Direct-Hook-Up-Ceramic-Heater-Cooling/dp/B004EKHZ5U/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1360116202&sr=8-3&keywords=12+volt+heater


Yeah if you want to keep the unit warm while driving I'd go this route.

I don't know if I would do this mod myself. The back door must be open in order to raise the roof, which will suck freezing air immediately into the camper. I also feel that the Atwood heater can warm a camper within three minutes for the most part. But hey, it would certainly look cool. Now that I gave it more thought if traveling for long distances it might keep water and food from freezing.


It'd keep the contents warm and also keep the thermal mass as a whole warm so even though you'd have an ingress of cold air as long as you shut the door right way it would rewarm to an extent. However now that you're parked you need a real heat source (if you want the heat to keep coming).

The combination of a 12v heater and truck-to-camper sleeve will probably be my first approach. I'll check the Tacoma's electrics to see where I can tap into a line that can handle a decent sized heater.

If you do a heater run a dedicated line from the battery with a relay off an ignition hot source. This will mean the heater will only pull when the truck is on so you don't get a dead battery. The dedicated line is good practice and if sized right will minimize voltage losses. I would not try and utilize any factory wiring for this power source.


I'll take a look at the Atwood heaters when it's comes time to decide on a more permanent heater/furnace unit.


The 8012 only pulls 1.8amps supposedly, that's what I'm putting in my build.

 

[Hittheroad]

Just in case this is what you were worried about it is practical to run the standard propane heater with the top down and the truck in motion we have done that for days on end. Driving from Massachusetts to Texas in January with a 4 week supply of beer etc. we did not want the inside to freeze. We ran the propane non stop for several days (turned down to about 50) and did not have any problems. I was a little careful how I parked in Motel lots as I did not want someone to get burned on the exhaust panel.
It was not obvious to us that we could safely do this so we watched everything lots for the first few days.

 

[rodney]

Well, the dog isn't responding favorably to any furnace lighting training so I'll scrap that idea. She also doesn't seem to like the idea of a doggie treadmill with generator to charge up the battery! I guess when we're on the road it's her vacation, too.

Pods8 - thanks for the suggestions on running a line for a 12v heater. Even though many of the reviews on Amazon for these heaters is negative I don't think I'll know unless I try one out. However, when it's 15-20 degrees outside then such a small heater might end up like pissing in the ocean... At least there will be a 12v line run to the camper anyway for some other purpose.

Hitheroad - What kind of heater did you have in the rig? It's tempting to run it while on the road. But to feel safe it would have to have some kind of gas shut off in case it went out while driving. Again, my only experience is with a simple Coleman heater and a propane canister.

Maybe in the spring (since no heated garage) I'll feel more inclined to tie into the truck's heating system and at least run a auxillary heater core into the camper... unless through more research it turns out that there's an issue regarding a strain on the truck's water pump? I'm not a mechanic.

 

[ntsqd]

More likely to be a spot of effort to get the system bled of air since it will migrate to the highest point in the system.

 

[pods8]

You can just use a thermostat with a remote control to fire up a propane type RV heater while you're still in the warm truck if you're just trying to prewarm the camper. However it really doesn't take long to warm up a small camper with 12000+ BTU heaters...

Honestly not sure how well something like that 300watt electric heater will heat, it isn't a lot but its also a small space when closed, I don't feel like punching the numbers off hand.

RV heaters like the atwood and such have a thermocouple on them, if they don't ignite or if the flame goes out while running the propane gets shut off. Also they are a heat exchanger style heater so the combustion chamber is isolated from the camper regardless.

For a removable camper I would not consider trying to tap into the trucks coolant system. It'd be one thing if it was permanent mount. IF I was going to do anything on that front though it would most certainly be a heat exchanger installed into the coolant system such that after the initial install connecting/disconnecting the camper (or any leaks) would not have any affect on the truck system and the truck system would not be powering the camper stuff. I would put in a separate electric pump to cycle a glycol mixture (or such) on the camper side of things. Between the camper and truck you would have disconnects with inline valves on each side of the disconnects to minimize fluid loss while disconnecting. It would need to be a reservoir based system to allow this periodic air ingress a place to go and a place to top off fluids periodically.

 

[generubin]

How about a warm jacket?

 

[rodney]

Well, upon waking up this morning I'm back to "Simple is Better" so going to pass on the heater core/exchanger.

Pods- thanks, your point about disconnect, et all, made me realise it'll be too much hassle.

GR- yes, a warm jacket seem to be a pretty low tech solution but I'll have to do some research on that to determine all of the complications involved.

This all goes back to driving back to OH from GA and hitting 20 deg at 10:30pm after an 11 hr drive. With the wife (who luckily loves the FWC-Eagle) sick with a cold, the prospect of finding a spot to crash, pop up and fire up the little Coleman Cat wasn't very appealing. Thus, a motel for the night... which we said we would try to avoid since buying the camper.

Now I realise the goal is to become "boondock capable" with a balance between comfort and simplicity. For now, where it will lead regarding heating, solar, a/c, etc... is anyone's guess. But the answers will probable be found in these WTW forums due to all of the great people on this site.

 

[chnlisle]

My personal camper is an ATC Cougar. The interior with the top up is roughly 400 cu. ft. Last may it took the factory frunace about 4 minutes to bring the temp from 20 dergrees to 80 degrees. But I like the sweater idea too.

Now a word about riding in the camper while the truck is running. Don't!!!!!!!!!!!