Q for this still running their old Atwood heaters

[WesAlan]

Searched all over WTW regarding the original Atwood heaters and couldn’t find the answer.

I have what appears to be the original Atwood 8616-III DCLP in a 2000 Hawk that works perfectly when on a charged battery. Don’t feel the need to replace the heater since it has worked so efficiently. I’m due for a battery as I’ve been using an old marine battery that was with the camper when I purchased two years ago. With this setup I can achieve almost a full night of snow camping with the camper staying warm.

I’m due for a battery upgrade and solar and just wanted to see what people are running with this heater to be able to get a full weekend or at least 3 nights without killing a battery.

Also this could be a long shot but is there anywhere to find a possible wiring diagram of this old camper? I need to start a rewire before this winter to install batteries inside as my older setup just has the 3 pin connector that runs off the outside front of the camper on the driver side. I want to get that in the camper to put batteries under the bennch.

Thanks for any info!

 

[Vic Harder]

Getting info from the manufacturer can be tricky. Folks here (including me) have torn these campers apart and rebuilt them, so we have some idea. I'll add what I remember here:
- From your battery outside of the camper, you have two wires, positive and negative. Are they (White+ve and Black -ve? or some other colors?) They should both run into the camper... which side of the floor pack does yours go into the camper on? I've seen both sides used.
- from inside the camper, you should have a battery separator... maybe not if your camper was not wired up from the factory.
- usually a shell will have ceiling lights, maybe a fan, and a 12v power port on the inside.... does yours have that? More/less?
- the wires usually run from the separator (mounted front, passenger side, on the lower part of the plywood floorpack) across the front of the camper (under the window) and then up the driver's front corner up to the cabover area
- from there they run along the bed area on the driver's side, under that 4" tall trim piece under the vinyl window to the front of the camper where they tuck in behind the push panel until they surface at the ceiling and run along the ceiling to where you fan (or vents) are and feed it and the lights along the way.
- if you have running lights, I can't inform you about those because my campers have not had them.

I hope that helps?

 

[Bootboiler]

Searched all over WTW regarding the original Atwood heaters and couldn’t find the answer.

I have what appears to be the original Atwood 8616-III DCLP in a 2000 Hawk that works perfectly when on a charged battery. Don’t feel the need to replace the heater since it has worked so efficiently. I’m due for a battery as I’ve been using an old marine battery that was with the camper when I purchased two years ago. With this setup I can achieve almost a full night of snow camping with the camper staying warm.

I’m due for a battery upgrade and solar and just wanted to see what people are running with this heater to be able to get a full weekend or at least 3 nights without killing a battery.

Also this could be a long shot but is there anywhere to find a possible wiring diagram of this old camper? I need to start a rewire before this winter to install batteries inside as my older setup just has the 3 pin connector that runs off the outside front of the camper on the driver side. I want to get that in the camper to put batteries under the bennch.

Thanks for any info!

I would suggest options: 1) You can add solar charging. I camp in the winter all the time and can go many days if there is some sun. 2) I suggest you get an EcoFlow battery backup.generator and you can plug it into your shore power and charge your battery. 3) Add a second battery in Parallel, which you can also put under the hood. Another thought is to get an Ecoflow and plug in an efficient electric heater to help with the heat. You do have an insulation pack on the walls I am assuming, if not that is number 1.

 

[Saturn949]

Hi. I have installed Truma heater in my Raven but before this I had Atwood in my sprinter van based RV. Atwood takes around 3.5 -4.5A from 12v when it is running. run time depends on how much heat is needed. My personal observation on 37 degree night with thermal pack it my heater run about 20 min out of every hour. 8 hours night =160 min (2hr 40min) - round up to 3 hr so at 4.5A it will use 13.5 Ah from your battery alone each night. Problem is the rv battery is about 75Ah capacity and it is better to use them for about 50% out of full capacity. this is not considering loss of capacity due to the temperature.
Im using now 100Ah LiFePo4 battery. at list you can use up to 80% of declared capacity from Li vs regular flooded one. and Li battery is only 25lb with will save you some camper load. my old AGM weight was 75lb.
Side note i just got Eco-flow 1050w one to test. Great unit however 12v output limited to 10A only, so if you use 4.5A for heater and 4A for Fantastic fan and 4 A for cooler - it will not handle all at once.