Having recently bought a van I am loving the practicality and ease it brings to my mtb rides. Transporting the bikes, gear with ease and a mobile changing room is a great thing to have.

After a cold night out last night I wondered if people have suggestions for a van heater that I could safely leave running whilst out for a couple of hours? Just something to take the chill off the rear cabin.

Coleman PowerCat and BlueCat are good heaters but because of the carbon monoxide emissions dangerous to leave running.

Not looking to spend a lot of money so getting a diesel run heater plumbed in is not something I am considering yet.

Just wondered if van owners have come up with any innovative solutions…. 🙂

TIA

Paraffin greenhouse heater

Try finding the details about Eberspacher diesel heaters, a friend had one in his van, I think they can be set and controlled by a thermostat so thevan is always toasty

No idea if it would work, but…………

Household radiator, plumbed into the van’s engine upstream of the actual radiator?

But firstly you’ll need to insulate the van properly, otherwise your just heating the outside world. And once that’s done, you might find it only takes 5 minutes with the engine/heater on to warm it up.

The eberspacher or webasto are the best, if you hunt around you can get them for not too crazy prices. I think I paid £250 for mine, (ebay, poorly listed) with all the fitting gubbins and thermostat/timer. I suppose a cheaper option could be a 12v powered heater running off a leisure batter with a timer on it?

Our van is fully insulated with 1″ of celotex so it stays toasty without the need for an extra heater 🙂

MTFU!?

Isn’t it part of night-riding to undress outside in a remote freezing cold car park!!

My toes were bloody freezing last night. I was gettin chilblains in the shower after the ride.

Beautiful clear night though

Isn’t it part of night-riding to undress outside in a remote freezing cold car park!!

😀

BGB

Eberspachers are great (I have fitted one to my T4 camper) but they can be very pricey even second hand (but that does mean they hold their value) and they also pull quite hard on the battery to heat the glow pin, so multiple restarts can give your battery a hard time. Paradoxically that is when you have the heater set to too low a temperature as it will let the burner go off for periods and then re-fire it, whereas if you keep the temperature up then the flame stays on in the burner even if a low flame with only the fan drawing a bit of battery juice. YOu are of course using diesel too at the same time but it’s not that thirsty.

I run a Propex heater in my van. It runs off propane as the name suggests with the blown air fan running off of the 12v. MUCH quieter than a diesel heater and room sealed flue so no CO worries, plus it’s far more economical to run a heater off gas than diesel. But, if you haven’t insulated the van there seems little point in getting a heater. Also, if you are running any heater for any length of time that draws electrical power then you will need to fit a leisure battery so you can get your van started and back out of the woods when you’ve finished your post ride faffing about.

I run a Propex heater in my van

We had one of those in our camper, installed it myself and very good it was too,even put a vent in the bog/shower room
Wired it off the zig unit, just had to make sure there was enough battery power for the fan to blow the fumes out otherwise it doesn’t switch on

Had a timer too which was great for making sure it was warm after a day out and about. Probably quite pricy now, can’t remember what I paid, but it wasn’t cheap
Very good after sales service and sent me a part for nothing, that’s always a bonus

Just fitted a propex myself, both Ebers (diesel) and Propex (gas) go for silly money secondhand, I ended up stumping up an extra £75 and just bought a brand new one from http://www.justkampers.com/search2?location=shop&method=match_all&keywords=propex

They were much cheaper than anywhere else, quite a lot of their stuff is priced very competitively.

Any non-room sealed heater would be a bad idea, (both propex and eber are room sealed, fumes are exhausted out through the floor) you would get back to the van, jump in a close the door and not realise you are being swiftly poisoned to death by monoxide. It doesn’t smell and just makes you sleepy. Also, burning gas creates condensation.

Probably be cheaper to get one of those posh car alarms where you can set the car to start up in the morning by itself to defrost, although it will cut out if someone tries to drive it off, I wouldn’t want to leave my van ticking over by itself because thieves would still try and take it.

I have seen some great heaters that are perfect for what you want. I struggle to remember the brand name, but I think the initials were M.T.F.U.

Ride from the house?

Isn’t it part of night-riding to undress outside in a remote freezing cold car park!!

I think that’s actually dogging you’re thinking of.

Mate of mine has just removed an Eberspacher from his Motocross van – don’t think he wants silly money for it, drop me an email if interested.

Paraffin greenhouse heater

Don’t use the above they are dangerous in small unventilated areas e.g. vans!

For anyone concerned about the noise of ebers…they are right! I have one fitted to my BT van…it sounds like a small jet engine once its fired up. You can get silencers for them but it’ll never be as quiet as a Propex.

Molgrips speaks sense. What a ridiculously selfish waste of energy.

cbike – Member
Molgrips speaks sense. What a ridiculously selfish waste of energy.

Any more so than driving for several hours to get to a trail in the first place?

Why not consider a proper camper/caravan heater like these

just insulate the panels and fit ply to all places you can the more you cover the warmer it will be. my van only has the side and floor covered with ply but i still find it warmer than changing outside. 😀

Mikuni make diesel powered warm air heaters. Not as cheap as the Propex though.

Just for cbikes benefit…my heater isn’t used for preheating the van for after rides…its used when camping in the winter. Seeing as the boiler at home is off and we are not even reliant on 240v hookup, its a lot more ‘green’ than just staying at home.

You really need to insulate the and line the van first, or condensation, and hence drips, will occur.