The
@Crusty181 man has written the manual on diesel heaters ....some time ago.
It may be out of print by now.....
Just curious but do Jayco ever offer a heater (gas or diesel) as on option on purchase of the van? I certainly don't remember that it was available as an option but that was a few years ago so wondered if they now do it. (I know some manufacturers include them as standard now)
They're certainly gaining in popularity .....do those who have them still use the aircon on reverse cycle? On 240 power, obviously.
Or is the heater mainly for free camping? I'm assuming that is the case.
Personally, when free camping in the cold, we either head for a caravan park and use the aircon on heat or head for somewhere where we can have a fire....and / or go to bed early! But we've never experienced the luxury of a dedicated heater.....so maybe that'll be a future add on if travelling in cold climes.
Diesel heaters are like Amazonian Cross Dressing Left Handed Leprechauns ... once you've had one there's no going back.
Each to their own off course but I find it odd that spending $50k - $100k plus on a caravan and they don't come std with a ducted heater from either the diesel or gas camp, because they are awesome. Its a lot like building a new home (in Vic) and poo poo'ing ducted home heating a favour of a couple of $15 Kambrook blow heaters dangling off the ceiling fans.
I tried very hard to find a solution in space and ducting to mount our heater on the annex side of the van, so i could with a wall vent into the annex.
We use the diesel heater in favour of the other options whether in a caravan park or free camping. Its a more consistent and comfortable heat, and originating from near the floor makes for a more uniform spread of warmth.
The diesel heater uses 100ml per hour running flat out, and it only runs hard for around 20min when its first turned on. After that its silent as it auto adjusts to quietly and stupendously maintain the ambient temp. The heater turns itself down as the van warms up and then turns off as the van warms naturally during the day, only to jump back into life automatically as the tmp drops in the late arvo. 1 ltr of diesel can last around 24hrs. You can continue to run the diesel heater whilst traveling, so I suppose if your only moving a short distance or like the van nice and warm when you stop for the mid morning tea and scones you might want to do that.
Diesel v Gas is much the same as Navara v everthing else .... its a no brainer, Toyotas, Fords, Holdens, VWs, and Mitsys (and gas heaters) are all pretenders. I carry an emergency 1ltr cordial bottle of diesel just in case, I cant carry a ltr of gas in my cordial bottle (or can I?). Don't get me wrong, I stolen just as much gas as I have diesel from napping Grey Gonads, but that's just for sport.
A deal breaker for me with the gas heater was the outside flue cap that needs to attached when not in use, and most definitely detached to use the heater. On more than one occasion I had to throw a moccasin or 2 at the Crusket, pull rank and order him out of bed into the cold and hit the diesel heater 'on' button; not sure I have enough authority to order him outside to pull of the flue cap first.
I know what your going to say, "why doesn't Crusty just attached to "phone in" module to the heater and simply ring the heater to turn on". In short I love throwing stuff at the Crusket (you'll stop laughing when you find on Google that diesel heater "phone in" modules are very real)
