Any reason in particular you went with the separate air heater and water heater? In a lot of these builds these days I feel like everyone is going to a combo hydronic diesel air/water heater.
Good, and valid question...
All builds are different for different reasons, here is MY reason for what i did...
SIMPLICITY, RELIABILITY, AND SPACE...
What do i mean by that?
I looked extensively into all options for both air and water heater, tons of pros and cons with each really.
WARRANTY:
There is absolutely zero chance i am going to risk altering the warranty on the drivetrain of my 2020 truck by splicing into the coolant system. There are at least 2 earthroamers that have blown their engines in the last year due to hydronic system failures (coolant leaks), one of which is an Admin on here i believe. I'm simply not willing to do that on a brand new truck.
SPACE:
The way around altering your trucks coolant system is to do a closed loop system. This just simply takes up too much room and has way too many moving parts and potential failure points for my liking. Even without a close loop system, there is still a lot of moving parts, and things that take up valuable space and real estate.
SIMPLICITY:
With an electric water heater, you really only have ONE possibly failure point, the heating element. If it fails, you simply don't have hot water, you are not broken down. If it fails, its a $100, 1 hour fix.
RELIABILITY:
As for the furnace, the Espar D2 is widely recognized as the furnace of choice, and as reliable as it gets. If it fails, i use more blankets, i am not broke down.
If i had a larger rig with a lot more room, i would consider a hydronic system using a closed loop system, but for what i have, it would simply take up too much space, and again, i am not willing to alter my factory coolant system. Not at this time anyway. Maybe later down the road when i am out of warranty and i determine i need more hot water, which i am pretty confident i wont, but ya never know.
Hope that makes sense. Yes, i know some people will disagree, and that's fine... The internetlanders have strong opinions!
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)