Just back from a short road trip to test the heater and other recent upgrades.
Been planning an ice climbing trip up the ice fields parkway to Jasper Alberta and back to Calgary for a while.. but due to work commitments and general laziness I didn't get started on the required winter camping upgrades until the week before. As such the quality of work is subpar as is the documentation but I'll share what I did and learned.
Main goal was to get the Chinese Webasto copy installed so we wouldn't be freezing our arses off.
I wasn't sure if we'd have access to shore power so I also had to install my 195 AH Li-Po battery.
Short of time to do it right.. I had to figure out a fast way for all this.
First.. Heater.
No time or energy to drop the tank and didn't want to tee the existing fuel line. 10 litre jerry can in the former O2 closet. Good place for it as it's vented to outside and the floor has drainage holes.
Heater. As posted previously I put the heater in the closet behind the driver's seat. Convenient spot as all the electrical and fuel line runs were short.
Cut a hole in the door for the intake and a hole in the wall to the box to mount the heater vent.
2nd Battery:
So here's what I did. Instead of trying to replace any of the existing batteries or system I simply added the Li-Po battery bank to what was already there.
I used a Renogy 40AMP DC - DC charger to charge the Li-Po battery and keep it isolated from the alternator. Renogy didn't have the temp sensor in stock so I had to rely on a manual switch to only turn the charger on when the inside temps (battery is behind driver's seat) were over freezing. This was run directly from the existing service batteries. Thus able to charge the Li-Po either from shore power or from the alternators.
I ran #1 cable from the Li-Po battery through a Blue Sea 500 AMP Remote Battery switch (since I had one on hand) and to the service battery side of the battery isolator.
Again, no time to but in a diode to limit the current to one direction only so had to rely on me only connecting the Li-Po to the main battery bank when not plugged into shore power or when running the engine.
It's a bit ugly but.. we had lots of power for the heater and all accessories and I didn't blow up my new Lithium battery.
Yes, I know the unfinished holes in the body are a fire hazard. Will be finishing those properly before the next trip.
While there is lots to improve on, super happy with the results.
It's a 5KW heater and in three nights and about 30 hours of run time I went through about 8 litres.
Didn't have a voltmeter hooked up to the Li-Po battery so don't know the total draw per night but based on the heater's voltmeter we never dropped below 13 volts.
Mostly ran at the lowest settings 1.6 to 2.0 Hz.
Was great to wake up each day to warm dry gear. Usually after a weekend of ice climbing everything is soggy and frozen but not this trip.