Hello all of you crazy excursioners. I am doing something nutty, which is pretty much every day on my ex.

I'm looking at buying a D2 heater for my ex. Link attached:

Espar Airtronic D2 Truck Kit w/Digi-Max controller

Everything about installing it seems relatively straight forward. The biggest problem I have with it right now though is getting fuel to it. I've been told the ex uses a plastic 44g tank. Not sure how I feel about drilling into it.

Just looking for ideas really, can it be drilled easily? How hard is it to tap into fuel? Is it something a Lamen can do? Anyone have any shortcuts on this?

I also thought about just buying a small 2nd tank and welding a chassis for it under the truck somewhere, and feeding fuel to it that way, but I don't like it. I want to just use the same tank.

Here is a guy that did it on a sprinter van, it's apples to oranges, but can give you all an idea of what I'm doing. http://www.traipsingabout.com/2014/0...-installation/

As far as drilling through the floor, I'm hoping I can drill the floor near where the spare tire was, I've got a rear bumper mounted tire now, so that cavity is empty and ready for something else.


The other question is of course, is there any other heating system I can use? I looked into propane heaters, too dangerous in a small cab, electric heaters will draw too much power.

The diesel seems like a nice option because it only takes a gallon of diesel for 50 hours of use, so I could heat my ex camping in it for even a week or two in the snow without an issue.


My ultimate goal is to winter camp in it, I like to drive to the ski slopes the night before, sleep in the truck, wake up and ski before crowds and stuff. I also deer hunt with it, I just did back in October and it was 22 when I woke up. I froze my *** off.

 

Installing a port on a polyethylene tank is pretty straight forward.
Use a unibit style drill so your hole comes out nice and round and then install the bulk head fitting of your choice.

You can get an idea of how fuel cells like Jaz do theirs and copy it.
Fuel Cells at Jaz Products

The difficult part may be finding the spot on top of the tank that has the access and clearance you need without rubbing anything.

 

I guess that's my question, is there any clean way to tap it without dropping the whole tank?

If so, that's probably not something I can do in my driveway

 

Plenty of people have dropped their tanks to do the hutch and harpoon mods. While cumbersome, it's not impossible with an empty (or close to it) tank.

 

We install these and Webasto heaters on the daily at work. Luckily most of them are on bare chassis which makes it super easy, but we do them on vans and did a Suburban 1500 (gas) and the best part is they come from the dealer topped off with fuel! haha

 

Hi Alaskan, thanks for the reply. I see you on here a lot

Do you see any concerns or dealbreakers with installing one in my ex? Do you see any reason not too? I see a lot of semi truck drivers use them, they are popular.

I thought about an external propane tank and a Mr. Heater, but these Espar/Webastos seem more like the real deal for multi-day safe indoor heating.

I'm waiting on quotes from local shops for the diesel tap, I can handle the vents , 12v, and the rest myself.

 

None at all it's no different then any other installs we've done, I've been debating on putting in a Webasto 2000St AirTop in my Ex.

Drop the tank, drill the tank and install the pickup tube. Mount the pump and put it back together.

The companies we sell them to use them daily for heat in truck cabs, great safe way to heat a cab. They will leave them run full blast, the trucks also have 10A chargers on board so when they are parked the heaters are running and the truck is plugged into a bull rail. I'll try to find some installed photos.

 

I have always wanted to install one of these on my Excursion, just never had the extra cash. When I dropped the fuel tank on mine there looked like a area towards the passenger side on top that appeared ready for an auxiliary fuel pick-up. I did not take enough photos to check my memory. Perhaps someone else has a good photo of the fuel tank out of the truck.

 

I'm looking to install a Webasto Thermo Top C onto my 2015 F-350 6.7L. I have found one for a relatively decent price (considering the price of them) and he stated "But someone who knows how to install will have to make the installation. With all the electronics in that kind of vehicle its not an easy install".


Just curious if you do them on a day to day at work, are they relatively simple to install? I apologize if this seems like a dumb question, but I am quite mechanically inclined and also good with electrical.


Just want to make sure I know what I'm getting myself into before I spend the money on the unit.

 

It's kind of a pain, you need to access the fuel tank to put the pickup tube in but that's the easy part. We typically pull the pickup box as it's easier all around and we have overhead cranes. This can be done with 3-4 guys easily though!

The Thermo top C coolant heater is a great unit but the old system they had that would tie into the factory blower motor is not great.

I would advise to install the normal timer system, it will heat the coolant and when you do start the truck you'll have heat coming out of the heater. But trying to integrate the system into the OEM blower motor is just short of a nightmare. Plus the amount of battery draw the blower motor takes is not a positive.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. As far as the fuel tie in goes, I have a slip tank in my truck and was considering tying the Webasto into that rather than into the trucks fuel tank. If I was tying into the trucks tank, the center of the bed also lifts out on these if I'm not mistaken and possibly get at the fuel tank that way? Correct me if I'm wrong on that statement as I have never actually lifted it out. And for tying into the blower motor I wasn't planning on that, just wanted it for preheating the engine to extend the life of the 6.7 as I live in Canada and temps can be a bitter cold -40.

 

You could run it out of your slip tank, I would suggest the factory tank though.
No the truck bed is all one piece for all intended purposes and will need to be removed as such. It's just 6 bolts and 3-4 guys can lift it out of the way to do the work.

Well aware of the issues -50/-60F temps cause, that's what I do for work is make trucks work in those conditions.

 

Why wouldn't you just T in to the draw line that's already there for the engine's fuel pump?

 

Multiple reasons why this would not be a good idea.

Main issue being the hose and pickup tube are sized exactly right (IE: very small) for the heaters fuel pump. I once had a guy run out of the correct fuel line and use rubber hose. The heater would not fire and we spent hours trying to figure it out. After a while on tech support they asked the question "did you use the provided fuel line?" once it was corrected it fired up and worked perfectly.

Putting the pickup tube in is not a hard task, just a little time consuming. It's easier on brand new trucks of course as the fuel pumps come out easy and the bed bolts are not rusted.

 

Oh okay. I didn't consider that the fuel pickup is also the metering orifice. Good reason!