More Diesel heater questions

[Vic Harder]

It does, normally. I have mocked up a way to feed outside air into the heater if condensation gets bad. So far, no need.

 

[graytrekker]

@Vic Harder does your heater recirculate air from the heated space?

Hi Vic:

I have not installed it yet, but I am leaning toward installing it to the right of my door, in which case, yes, it will

 

[Rainshadow]

I bought a planar diesel heater 2D for my Hawk and it’s not sufficient. It’ll only get the camper to about 50 ish degrees in below freezing weather. I would definitely go bigger, that one outputs 7k btu which isn’t good enough. The propane heater is 12k btu and so I think 9k+ btu would do fine. It does depend on the weather you will be camping in. The planar itself is a great heater, just need a larger one.

Something is wrong with your heater. I’ve been in several Ovrlnd and Project M shells in subfreezing temps that had inexpensive 5k diesel heaters set up outside with an 3-4 foot run of vent before the heat entered the shell and it was downright hot inside. The shells were all well insulated but not any more than a Hawk. I think you should contact Planar as that unit should be able to heat a Hawk to convection bake levels.

 

[Rainshadow]

Imho, having an installed heater (whatever style) that doesn't require any setup is the beauty of things. Jump into cold camper and fire up heater while setting other things up, getting out of whatever gear, etc. Time to move again? Turn off the heater and deal with whatever else and you can roll. It'll likely take more space to store a portable unit that just building one in.

I get what you’re saying, but it takes about 2 minutes to set up an external diesel heater if you have it rigged properly. Either buy or build a case mounted heater. Ovrlnd shells will install a simple 3” port when they build the shell and others with popup campers have rigged the same. Plug the port with a simple waterproof Oatey Gripper plug that you can buy at any big box home store until you need it. Install a waterproof 12v plug near the port and set up is as simple as attaching the vent line to the port, plugging into the 12v plug and turning the heater on. Even the cheapest Chinese diesel heaters come with a remote or key fob to control the heater so you don’t have to go outside to fiddle with it. The nicer units have Bluetooth connections.

The advantage to outside set up is the less expensive heaters have noisy fuel pumps, you’re heating fresh air, and diesel spills in confined spaces last forever.