Cab Heater

Good afternoon all
I have arrived back in the UK today after driving up from the Dordogne. The external temperatures on Wednesday rarely got above 0 degrees. The cab heater was OK at slow vehicle speeds but at 90 KPH my lower body was bloomin cold. I turned the air flow to recirculate but it made little difference. Is this a characteristic of the Broadway/ coachbuilt?

My description, not very hot could be a little misleading because if I had my feet under the dash I could feel the heat but legs against the seat and they froze even with the air directed down.

It's not a characteristic of just the Broadway as that uses the same base vehicle as loads of other models. My Sussex isn't great at heating in cold weather either.

It's my belief that the cab heater on these commercial base vehicles is designed just to heat the cab, not the large additional volume of the open habitation area.

I screwed six awning skirt fixing studs to the wooden bulkhead between the cab seats and the hab area; I have a large sheet of material* fitted with matching poppers so that I can have it fixed either floor to waist height or full ceiling height. Even at waist height, it significantly reduces the draught over our feet and legs; fixed at full height it completely isolates the cab area and with the cab heater on this becomes toasty in no time.

It only takes a moment or two to fit or remove it, so access to the rear when we stop for a break is not affected.

* It's actually one half of the zipped side section of a redundant garden awning. So if you ever see a Pollensa with bright green and white vertical stripes behind the driver and passenger, that'll be us!

I'll look out for you Roger. I was thinking of the same sort of thing because I put my hand between the seats and could feel cold air coming through.

rogerblack wrote:It's my belief that the cab heater on these commercial base vehicles is designed just to heat the cab, not the large additional volume of the open habitation area.

I screwed six awning skirt fixing studs to the wooden bulkhead between the cab seats and the hab area; I have a large sheet of material* fitted with matching poppers so that I can have it fixed either floor to waist height or full ceiling height. Even at waist height, it significantly reduces the draught over our feet and legs; fixed at full height it completely isolates the cab area and with the cab heater on this becomes toasty in no time.

It only takes a moment or two to fit or remove it, so access to the rear when we stop for a break is not affected.

* It's actually one half of the zipped side section of a redundant garden awning. So if you ever see a Pollensa with bright green and white vertical stripes behind the driver and passenger, that'll be us!

Thanks Roger.
Good idea when driving in our cold winter weather. Simple to copy and seemingly effective.

Is the engine getting up to temp, my nuevo  seems OK. Is it possible to run Hab heating on the move ?.

I took my Sussex to supermarket today, 5 miles each way. Temp only rose half way to normal, did the shopping , drove home and it reached normal about half way home. Heater was just coming good when we got home.

Do diesel engined vehicles take longer to heat up?  Our diesel Vectra also takes a while before the heater warms up (thankfully it has heated seats!) whereas my daughter's petrol car seems to warm up within a couple of minutes. And I seem to recall all previous petrol cars I've had were the same.

In my experience, diesels do take longer to warm up. The 2.5l TDi lump in my Mk5 Transit took ages (but the original owner specified an Eberspacher Hydronic to help it in winter) and never got very hot, even in the hottest of weather. The 2l CR in the T5 is the same - although when the DPF is regenerating it smells like it's about to catch fire.

I think the simplistic view is that they are more efficient and so waste less of their output as heat.

Yes - you should be able to run most types of hab heating * with the vehicle in motion, but check the manual. I've run the Webasto diesel heater in the Celex a couple of times on the road and it gets toasty pretty quickly!

[Edit: * should have said most types of diesel-powered hab heating - not true of gas, as Paul says below]

Molly3 wrote:Is the engine getting up to temp, my nuevo  seems OK. Is it possible to run Hab heating on the move ?.

Only if you have the Truma Crash Regulator fitted.

Don't all factory fitted underslung tanks have crash regulators fitted  ?.

Molly3 wrote:Don't all factory fitted underslung tanks have crash regulators fitted  ?

Don't know, I think it  depends on year. But think it's irrelevant as the heater requires 12v to ignite and with engine running the 12v system is isolated so can't see how you can run habitation heater whilst travelling.

AS Sprinters are fitted with a Eber auxiliary heater which heats the engine circuit for fast warm up of the engine and hence the cab heater.

PLOUGHLIN wrote:AS Sprinters are fitted with a Eber auxiliary heater which heats the engine circuit for fast warm up of the engine and hence the cab heater.

I couldn't see the heater switch in the new Sprinter cab so they may not be fitted on the latest Euro 6 engines.

A curtain between the cab and the habitation area is almost guaranteed to remedy the situation.

Paulmold wrote:

Molly3 wrote:Don't all factory fitted underslung tanks have crash regulators fitted  ?

Don't know, I think it  depends on year. But think it's irrelevant as the heater requires 12v to ignite and with engine running the 12v system is isolated so can't see how you can run habitation heater whilst travelling.

Thanks

Paul, not all MH have their 12v systems isolated, mine (and most continental vans) don't, meaning we can use the gas heating en route if needed.
I wonder why it's deemed necessary to isolate it? is it UK (NCC?) reg?
what if a rear passenger wanted to read during an evening journey?

Again Chris, I was answering a question relating to Autosleepers as this is a forum for owners of AS's (past or present). Quoting from AandNcaravan  (you'll know them from outandaboutlive forum) "Motorhomes, do not require their habitation electrical systems to be disabled when the engine is started as is commonly believed. It is the path taken by UK Motorhome builders to save them conformance testing each installed product. "

Yep - same is true of the Eber in the Trooper - that will run happily with the van in motion. As will the Webasto in the Celex (though that's not relevant here as it's not built by A/S).

I'm not sure I can see the logic behind AACaravans comment about "It is the path taken by UK Motorhome builders to save them conformance testing each installed product", because it is a feature that is implemented by Sargent (and other control panel makers) and not the motorhome builders. I think a more plausible explanation is that it was a UK interpretation of an EU directive (the reference of which escapes me at the moment) and that a different interpretation of that directive was taken in other EU countries.

ŵqPaulmold wrote:Again Chris, I was answering a question relating to Autosleepers as this is a forum for owners of AS's (past or present). Quoting from AandNcaravan  (you'll know them from outandaboutlive forum) "Motorhomes, do not require their habitation electrical systems to be disabled when the engine is started as is commonly believed. It is the path taken by UK Motorhome builders to save them conformance testing each installed product. "

thanks Paul.
I realised the nature of your answer, I was just curious...

Am I missing the point here, if you travel with gas heatng on and decide to call in at a filling station surely there is a big risk, I know it can be switched of before entering filling station but people being people this does not always happen.

No, you're not missing the point! For the same reasons as with a gas fridge, you shouldn't be on a fuel filling station forecourt with any source of ignition. That also applies to diesel-powered heaters such as Ebers and Webastos, as well as the gas-powered ones.

But, in fairness, it has to be said that the risks of doing so are likely to be low. You may recall that at one time there were instructions at (some) filling stations that mobile phones should be turned off while in the area - but that now seems to have been quietly dropped - probably because it was almost universally ignored. Fuel stations are very well designed, regulated and inspected these days, and there are all sorts of measures in place to make sure that vapour levels can't get anywhere near flammable levels in the public areas, barring an accident or someone doing something stupid.

However - even though the level of risk would appear to be low - it's still essential to turn off any appliance that has a naked flame while at a fuel station, and to only use a gas-powered heater while on the move if a crash safe regulator is fitted to the van.

-mojo- wrote:
However - even though the level of risk would appear to be low - it's still essential to turn off any appliance that has a naked flame while at a fuel station, and to only use a gas-powered heater while on the move if a crash safe regulator is fitted to the van.

Thank you, that's very interesting and referring to the owner's manual, when on the forecourt for ' longer  than fifteen minutes (ie with the ignition turned off) then turn the refrigerator off at it's main switch in order to prevent it from switching automatically to the alternative energy source of gas and producing an ignition spark'. Well I've learnt something today as didn't realise that in any event when the ignition is turned off, it took that long before the fridge freezer switched to gas. Regards.

Lucyc1937 wrote:Am I missing the point here, if you travel with gas heatng on and decide to call in at a filling station surely there is a big risk, I know it can be switched of before entering filling station but people being people this does not always happen.

I think I read I’m my manual that the gas heating can be run while in transit but if the ignition is turned off It will switch off automatically (eg. pulling into a petrol station) and you will need to restart again at the panel.
Obviously this may well be different depending on the van