Yeah, I've had my eye on the small espar and webasto hydronic heaters for a while now. There are even ~500 dollar chinese knockoffs now, even with petrol versions. The thing is I kinda want to keep one fuel source for everything I use (dirt bike, generator, truck, heat). I even thought about using unleaded in a multi-fuel stove, but quickly decided I'm not trying to die of benzene-induced cancer (or whatever) any time soon, so I'm going to stick to induction hot plates with a white gas stove backup for now.

I have mixed feelings about falling asleep with even-a-german-engineered gasoline-powered heater running somewhere underneath me while I sleep. I think I'd be ok with a diesel or propane one, but I guess that's about where I draw the line? The local webasto dealer even called the petrol ones "accidental-fire-machines". Also, they have issues with coke build up when run at low heat (which I would want to do), and apparently only espar sells a high-altitude kit (and even that, at a cool ~$400 for what is probably a barometric pressure sensor, $1 micro, and a switch, 1) doesn't work above 10k feet, and 2) only works with the hydronic 2 line, not the hydronic 3 line).

Thus my interest in the remote-start route. Lately though, I've been leaning towards just adding just a little bit of electric heat to keep things above freezing, and/or just building my own gasoline powered hot water circulator (with a multi-fuel stove and a radiator) that runs some distance from the vehicle just for the rear heater core (without the hot water tank).

 

The hydronic heater setup is out of my budget for now, but still fun to think about.

I am going to install a version similar to yours. However, I am considering tapping into the rear HVAC coolant lines. Then to decide whether or not I want a hot water holding tank (with recirculating pump that can be turned on while driving) to store some hot water for the next morning. Currently going back and forth on keeping it as simple as possible or letting my ideas snowball.

Does anyone happen to have the coolant circuit diagram for the Excursion in its entirety (including rear)?

 

For those wondering about using the Ex heater cores for hydronic heating: I pulled the lower dash panel off the passenger side to look at the re-circulation door. It is open (and the blower fan pulls air from inside the car) when the controls are set to "Off" and/or "Max AC". All other settings leave the door closed (and the blower pulls air from outside the car). The door appears to be electrically controlled (vs by vacuum), because when I shut the car off it never changed state from open--> closed or closed-->open. (That said, I'm pretty inexperienced with vacuum controls and this could be something easy to do with some kind of vacuum motor? Also, the door actuator kind of looks like a vacuum motor, to be honest...)

Question for the experts on here: Is there another vacuum/electric actuated door hidden under the plastic rain catch thing covering the windshield wipers? The channel that carries air is completely closed off (encased in steel) on the passenger side where the blower connects, and even shining a flashlight down it from the driver's side (where it's open on the top side), I'm unable to tell if there's a door inside (to allow or block outside air when set to "Off" and "Max AC"). If there is a door, I think I'd like to make sure that this door is closed when running hot coolant through my heater cores and manually driving my blower motors with motor drivers off coach batteries.

 

Very cool addition to your rig @sideburnie ! Reps!

 

Thanks! I'll update once I finish the hydronic piece. It'll probably be similarly hacked together.