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Installing AM Auto (Adhesive-Bonded) Windows In Your Camper Van
AM Auto windows use automotive urethane adhesive to bond directly to the van body rather than relying on an interior clamp ring. This “fully bonded” design creates a permanent seal between the glass and sheet metal. Because there is no interior frame, installation depends on proper surface preparation, consistent adhesive application, and careful placement. This guide outlines the tools, preparation steps, and installation process to help you achieve a secure, weather-tight fit. Why Choose Adhesive-Bonded Windows? Urethane-bonded windows attach directly to the van body using automotive adhesive rather than relying on an interior clamp ring and gasket. For many DIY installers, this approach can simplify the installation process and reduce some common pain points. Key advantages: More forgiving cut tolerancesBecause there is no interior frame that must fit precisely inside the opening, the cut does not need to be perfectly uniform. This can save time and reduce stress during the cutting phase. Fewer mechanical fasteners to installThere are no interior clamp rings or dozens of small screws to align and tighten, which can be difficult to access and prone to stripping or failing to grab. Reduced reliance on foam gasketsThe weather seal is created by a continuous bead of urethane rather than a thin foam gasket, which can compress unevenly or degrade over time if not installed correctly. Simplified installation workflowWith proper prep and adhesive application, the process is more linear: cut, prep, bond, and secure while curing. Start by watching this short overview video and then follow along with our detailed steps and recommended tools below! Before You Start Taking time to prepare your workspace, tools, and conditions will make the installation smoother and help ensure a strong, weather-tight bond. Environmental Conditions Ideal install range is 50–90°F (10–32°C). Cold temperatures slow urethane curing and make it harder to dispense. Very hot temperatures can cause the adhesive to skin over too quickly, reducing bond quality. If possible, work in the shade. Avoid installing in rain or when moisture is present on the van body. High humidity can interfere with proper adhesion and cure time. Workspace Preparation Park on a level surface to help with window alignment. Ensure you have adequate lighting for marking and cutting. Protect the interior with plastic or drop cloths to catch metal shavings. Keep a vacuum or magnet nearby to remove metal debris that could cause rust. What You'll Need AM Auto window (or any other urethane adhesive bonded windows) Rubber edge trim that will cover the metal edges of your cut out. Automotive urethane adhesive. You'll need about 2 tubes of adhesive for a large window or about 1 tube for a small window. Primer for the sheet metal surrounding the window that the urethane adhesive/window will adhere to. These "daubers" work well for applying the primer. A high strength caulking gun with a minimum of 26:1 "thrust". Urethane caulking is very hard to get out of the tube. Don't try to use a "normal" caulking gun! A jig saw with a fine metal blade for cutting the opening Blue painters tape - both for protecting the van sheet metal/paint while cutting the opening and for securing the window in place after it has been placed into the urethane adhesive. We also recommend that you use gloves when working with the primer and adhesive, and wear safety eyeglasses when making the cut in the van's metal body. *If you are replacing an existing factory window that is glued in, you may want to talk to a professional for removal and replacement. The best tool to use for removing an existing glued in window is a wire cutter such as the Equalizer Window Cut-Out Set but this is a difficult job. Once the existing window is removed, you will need to remove the urethane down as flat as possible and clean as much away as you can CRL Adhesive Cleaner. Cutting The Opening This window uses the van's factory metal stamping which makes it easier to cut the opening because the "size and shape" of the cut out is built into the vehicle. If you take a look at the interior of the van you will notice an area where the inner metal ends. You will cut right along that edge all the way around your van. Some openings may include thin vertical supports within the stamped area. These are typically non-structural and can be cut if they fall within the factory window recess, but verify your specific van model before proceeding. It's typically easier to cut the opening from the outside. Many people will drill small holes from the inside of the van at each corner of each of the radius curves (top right, top left, bottom right and bottom left). Once these guide holes are drilled you can essentially "connect the dots" with a marker on the exterior of the van to mark the location of your cut. A jig saw with a fine metal blade works well. Be sure to protect the paint around the cut out with blue painters tape where the saw will be moving over the sheet metal. We also recommend trying to capture the metal shavings with plastic and/or a vacuum. Be sure to "dry fit" the window to ensure that your opening is the right size/shape and that the window will fit into the opening in the place you want it. Make any adjustments to the opening before proceeding. Preparing the Opening Once the opening has been cut (or existing window removed) you'll want to file the edges of your cut and then primer those bare metal edges to prevent any corrosion. When the primer has dried, you can apply your Trim-Lok edge trim around the perimeter of your cut out. It's generally best to start at the middle of the bottom of your cut out/opening and work the Trim-Lok around the opening. The Trim-Lok can be cut with a razor blade to the correct size. Next you'll want to clean the outside metal/paint of the van around the area where the window will be installed with rubbing alcohol in order to ensure a good bond between the sheet metal/paint and the urethane adhesive/window. Also clean the window itself where it will interact with the adhesive with rubbing alcohol. Use your vacuum to remove any metal shavings on the outside of the van, and anywhere the plastic sheet inside did not catch. If left, these metal shavings can cause rust over time. Applying Urethane Adhesive Apply your urethane primer the outside of the body in the area that the window will be glued to. Consider using blue painters tape adjacent to the area you're applying the primer to prevent any primer from getting on areas of the van that the window will not cover. The primer looks like a thin, matte black paint when applied. Maintain an approximate 1/2" gap around the edges - do not go all the way to the edge of the metal that the window will cover. Follow the adhesive manufacturer’s instructions regarding glass priming. Many urethane systems do not require primer on the glass, but always verify. Allow primer to dry for about 10 minutes. Be careful not to block the weep holes on the window track with sealant. Next, apply the urethane adhesive. Cut your urethane adhesive tube tip "straight across" (no v-notch). When applying you want a heavy bead (about the diameter of a "Tootsie Roll"). The adhesive should be applied sheet metal rather than the window near the edge of the cutout. Be sure to evenly distribute to urethane adhesive and avoid any high or low points. When changing directions or starting/stopping the application, be sure to overlap your beads slightly to prevent any gaps. The most important part of a urethane window installation is consistency in the bead of urethane. Placing the Window When placing the window you'll want to get it as close to desired location as possible in one movement so that you can fine tune the placement slightly but not need to make significant adjustments which could either move the adhesive into areas that it shouldn't be or spread the adhesive too thin. It's ideal to have two people - one on the inside that can pull on frame and help position the window and the other outside ensuring the window does not fall out! Once you've fine-tuned the position of the window, press on the window with an open palm all around the area/perimeter where the urethane adhesive was applied in order to press the glass into the adhesive for a strong bond. The goal with a van window installation is to have the glass about even with the outer body. You want to have an approximately 1/4" gap between the glass and the van's sheet metal. Avoid too small of a gap - while you may feel the aesthetic look is nicer during installation, you want to maintain the small gap for fluctuating temperatures/etc. so that the glass does not shatter in these conditions. If any urethane adhesive oozes into the interior of the van, liberally spray the adhesive with glass cleaner and then use a plastic putty knife to smooth the urethane out like you might with spackling or caulking for a nicer appearance and adequate bond. Finally, use blue painters tape to secure the window into place while the adhesive cures. You can drive your van after 3-4 hours and remove the tape after 24 hours. Do not wash the van for 72 hours. A Note on Ford Transits Ford Transit windows have a drastic curvature as opposed to other van makes like the Sprinter or Promaster. They sometimes require suction clamps when installing the windows to ensure the curvature is correctly aligning with the body of the van. To determine if this is necessary for your Transit window install, we recommend doing a dry fit first to see if there are any spots that sit higher off the van body. The suction clamps are applied right away once the window is positioned in place with adhesive. You should place them in the location where you would like to improve the curvature. The suction clamps stay on as long as the adhesive takes to cure. Disclosure: This page contains Amazon affiliate links, which means that if you click a product link and buy anything, we will receive a small commission.
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Installing a Nations Secondary Alternator into a Promaster Camper Van
In this video we’ll show you an overview of the process for installing a Nations high output secondary alternator and Wakespeed WS500 regulator in a Ram Promaster (Similar process for Mercedes Sprinter and Ford Transit). This van was built out a few years prior but the owner wanted to be able to recharge his batteries quicker than standard combination of vehicle alternator charging with a DC-DC charger and solar. Because his van used Battleborn batteries, which are approved by Wakespeed the upgrade was fairly simply from an electrical point of view. Battleborn is one of the very few internal BMS (“legacy”) batteries that are officially supported by the Wakespeed regulator. Learn more about the Wakespeed and why some battery brands are approved in our deep dive with the creator of the Wakespeed. You’ll see how the secondary alternator addition becomes the most powerful of 4x charging sources in this van (solar, shore power, vehicle alternator, secondary alternator) making it a worthwhile upgrade for those that like to be off grid while staying comfortable! This is especially true for vanlifers who are looking to install a 12v, 24v or 48v air conditioner in the camper van. You might also be interested in our complete secondary alternator power system bundle with Victron batteries and components.
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Installing the Mabru 12-Volt Rooftop Air Conditioner in Your Camper Van
Introduction Well, it’s summer in Florida, so what better time to dive into the world of air conditioning for your van? In this blog post, we’re going to take an in-depth look at installing the Mabru 12000 BTU rooftop, 12-volt DC air conditioner. We chose this unit for its quiet operation, energy efficiency, and overall value. I have one in my personal van, and it keeps me cool even in the Sunshine State’s scorching heat. We’ll also discuss how to modify the unit to fit a standard 14-inch by 14-inch hole, just as I did in my own van. You can find this unit for sale in our store, and as always, you’ll discover a wealth of information on our website at vanlifeoutfitters.com, including a handy spreadsheet comparing various 12-volt rooftop AC units on the market. Before we dive into the installation process, let’s first discuss the tools and materials you’ll need Jigsaw (or your preferred tool for cutting the roof opening) Metric socket set/wrench ½” drill bit and a step bit Caulking gun and sealant (we recommend Loctite Marine PL or similar) Small zip ties Plastic bag or plastic sheeting File Rustoleum paint (or similar) to protect bare metal “Solar entry gland” for passing the wiring harness into the van roof (and grommet) Roof adapter, butyl tape, or PVC shims (if needed to fill in roof corrugations) Lap sealant (such as Dicor, if needed) Let’s start by unpacking the contents of the Mabru AC unit’s box and understanding what you’ll use and what you might not need Paper roof-cutting template Manual (though we’ll provide you with a more detailed guide) Bag with 15mm nuts and LED lights (for fastening the unit with brackets and optional interior lighting) 6x mounting bracket pieces (for unit installation) Bag with the remote control and wires for optional LED lights Bag with rubber spacers (not used in standard installation), large black screws (for flanges on installation brackets), wire ties and mounts (for wiring harness routing) Plastic “L-bracket” things (not used in standard installation) The Mabru AC unit itself Note that the video shows some hoses at around 29 seconds. These are no longer included. They were for routing the condensation from the base plate to somewhere else – perhaps to use that water for another purpose. You can see the “ports” on the baseplate where the condensation drains onto the roof where those hoses, or something equivalent could be connected. Turns out no customers used them so they omitted them from the box. The video below shows all the items in the box in the same order as the list below… Finding the serial number Before we dive into the installation, it’s wise to locate and make a note of the unit’s serial number for future support or repair needs. Starting in the summer of 2024, the serial number for the units is located inside the RV cover. Prior to that it had been in a different spots including behind the interior vent panel inside the return air compartment (example photo). On newer versions, you can also find the serial number inside the remote battery cover as shown in the photo. Step 1: Finding a suitable location & cut opening Begin by finding a suitable location for the AC unit on your roof. We’re often asked if it’s better to have the AC in the front of the van or the rear of the van and this really comes down to personal preference. For me, I prefer to have a Maxxfan over my bed area in the rear of the van because I actually use it more often and I also don’t like having cool air from an AC blowing directly on me. Others want their bed area to be the coolest part of the interior space so they may prefer to have it located in the rear. The other consideration is to look for a “bay” between the support ribs of the van roof that is wide enough for the unit to drop into but not too wide such that the support brackets that must span between the ribs would be too short. Once you’ve identified the placement you must transfer that to the exterior. There are many ways to do this but many installers will use a small drill bit to make a pilot hole from the interior that marks one of the 14 x 14 opening corners. By doing this from the inside and then using the paper template on the outside, lined up with the corresponding corner on the template, you can have confidence where you cut your roof opening. Preparing the roof opening You can install the unit into a standard 14” x 14” roof opening or the Mabru’s native size of 14.62″ long x 20.125″ wide. The unit comes with a paper template that includes both roof opening sizes and bolt-hole location. The easiest method uses the native opening size (no modifications), but we’ll guide you through modifying it for a standard 14” x 14” hole. Cut the template and use it to mark your roof opening, ensuring precise measurements. To use the paper template, cut out the opening with a razor blade or scissors. In this case, for the 14” opening, we’ll be cutting along the dotted line. Some installers prefer to transfer the template to plywood for a more rigid template. Prep pro tips: tape plastic underneath to catch metal shavings and use a large piece of plywood with a blanket underneath to distribute weight on the roof which will prevent indentation. It’s also very helpful to tape the area of the sheet metal that will be cut out to help stabilize it and prevent it from falling through and shearing during the cut. You might even stop periodically during the cut to re-tape areas. Cut the main roof opening AND drill the 4x mounting bolt locations with a ½” drill bit. If you’re using a jigsaw with a metal blade, you can expand the pilot hole you might have made earlier when locating the installation area, or you can drill a new pilot hole in one corner, inside the cut-out line that is wide enough for your saw blade and then drill another hole opposite the first. Most installers are using either a jigsaw or metal cut-off disc on an angle grinder. File the edges, clean the area, and apply rust-prevention paint to all bare metal. Installation using a “standard” 14″ x 14″ roof opening The photo shows the unit turned upside down with the baseplate facing up. The area with the blue painter’s tape indicates how the unit would drop in over a standard, 14” x 14” roof opening. You can see that the area for the cold air outlets (larger, upper rectangular hole) and return air (lower, smaller, 2x, rectangular openings) fits comfortably within this space. However, the interior panel/vents are wider than 14″ (about 18″ wide) which you can see in the image below. So, if you want to install the unit into a standard opening size, you’ll have to do some basic modifications. Since most of our customers want to use the 14″ x 14″ (standard size) roof opening, this is the process we will detail in the rest of the post. Step 2: Installing the Gasket and Sealing Place the gasket around your roof opening (and bolt holes), ensuring it forms a rectangle. You’ll want to place the rubber gasket around your openings. It ships flattened. Start by stretching the two sides apart from each other to begin reshaping it into a rectangle (video of this process below). One side has an adhesive below a protection tape and the other side does not. We place the side with the adhesive down onto the sheet metal of the van so that it will stay positioned while we seal it. The gasket should form a rectangle around the perimeter of your roof openings – both the bolt locations and the 14” opening (see photo below). It can be difficult to get the gasket reshaped and positioned correctly but it is possible with enough care and time. For van models with a prominent roof curve (IE Ford Transit), You may need to cut the gasket so that it fits snugly around the outer bolt holes. See photo below. Later in the installation process, the AC unit will be placed on top of this gasket and eventually bolted down such that the gasket will compress to create a waterproof seal. So, it’s important that all the bolt holes are inside the perimeter of the gasket. We recommend using a marine sealant such as Loctite PL Marine or 3M 5200 around the inner and outer perimeters of the gasket. Fill in any roof corrugations if needed and apply marine sealant around the inner and outer perimeters of the gasket. If your roof has corrugations where the gasket is positioned, you’ll want to fill these in before placing the gasket. There are a number of methods to accomplish this. DIYVans in Oregon sells very nice adapters, you can fill in the valleys with layers of butyl tape or buy/cut PVC adapters like we sell for a Promaster van. If you use butyl tape or PVC adapters be sure to follow up with a generous layer of Dicor lap sealant. Video of shaping the gasket into a rectangle Step 3: Mounting the unit onto the roof Lift the AC unit onto the roof with help (2-3 people). Typically it’s best to leave the unit in the box while lifting. We use a forklift which works great but not everyone has that luxury. Scaffolding also works well. Two people on ladders is tricky but it gets the job done. Once it’s on the roof, you can carefully unbox it and turn it upside down on the roof such that the exterior shroud/cover is on the van roof and the interior panel/vents are facing up. Since we’re installing this into the “smaller”, 14″ roof opening, you’ll need to remove the interior panel/vents and styrofoam air director to be able to place the unit through the opening. Start by removing the 4x, 10mm nuts that attach the interior panel/vents to the unit then you can lift it off. As you do, find where the wiring harness is attached to the baseplate of the AC along with a temperature sensor and carefully cut this wire tie to release the wires. Once the wires are released the interior panel/vent should lift off completely. Next, remove the styrofoam air director that is below. This will need to be modified later, so you can set it aside for later in the installation. With everything ready, you can now place the AC unit over the gasket/opening and bolt it down using the metal mounting brackets. We recommend that you recruit a few extra people to help you with this step. It works best with two people on the roof positioning the AC unit into the right place with another person inside the van holding the interior panel/vents that need to be passed through the opening and managed safely while the rest of the unit is positioned, otherwise, it will sort of dangle and can be damaged. The inside person can also guide the folks on the roof on positioning since the most difficult part of the process is getting the bolt holes lined up correctly so the unit can drop into place. If necessary, you can expand the ½” bolt holes with a step bit to make the 4x bolts line up for dropping into place. Be cautious not to over-tighten, and consider attaching the brackets to the roof supports. Step 4: routing the wiring harness There is an approximately 11-foot piece of wiring harness that comes off the unit itself that is terminated with a grey, Anderson connector (photo below) and there is another section of the wiring harness that is also approximately 11 feet included in the kit that has a pairing Anderson connection to extend the wire from the unit to your 12 volt DC bus bar. The wiring harness is two 6 AWG wires, one red for the positive DC supply and the other black for the negative. The positive wire includes an inline, 80 amp fuse to protect the circuit. Since the Mabru uses around 55 amps on max, it’s too high a draw to wire to a typical DC fuse panel/load center. So, many installers will connect the wires to the “right side” of a Lynx Distributor that is designed to attach to another Lynx Distributor to expand the connections available. You don’t need to use a fused terminal on the distributor because of the fuse provided on the wiring harness. Begin the wiring harness routing by deciding on the location for your solar entry gland that will provide a waterproof path for the wiring harness through the roof to wherever your electrical system is located. We recommend locating the entry gland behind the unit as closely as possible while avoiding any structural supports or other obstacles inside the van. After you drill the hole for the wires, that the entry gland will “cover” we recommend using a rubber grommet to protect the wires from the sheet metal, and don’t forget to file and paint this exposed metal as well. Also be sure to fasten the gland to the roof and seal it with a lap sealant like Dicor. You’ll also want to make sure the wires are protected by wire loom and any length of wire secured to the roof. Self-adhesive cable tie mounts work well for this purpose. Next, you’ll have to choose how you want to get the wiring harness through the hole you created. The tricky part of this routing is that the Anderson connection at the end of the section of the wiring harness (photo below) prevents you from being able to route the black and red wires through the “glands” on the solar entry since they cannot be separated. There are a few ways to manage this.\ Option one is to remove the wires from the Anderson connection temporarily to get them through the entry gland and then put them back. You can do this by opening up the connector with small screw driver. Option two is to cut off the Anderson connector about 6” from the end with the connector of the wiring harness section that comes off the Mabru unit, separate the wires to get through the entry gland, and then splice it back on using 6 AWG butt connectors and heat shrink. Option three is to remove the exterior shroud/cover from the Mabru unit to locate where the DC supply wires connect to the unit itself on the left side (driver side) and disconnect these wires. This allows you to separate a section of the red and black wires to route through the entry gland and then you can reconnect the wires to the terminals on the AC. Below is a photo of these connections. With the AC unit mounted on the roof and the wires routed to the interior, we can move on to the interior installation! Woot! Step 5: Interior Installation Assemble the supplied mounting brackets and secure the AC unit to the vehicle. The brackets come in 6x pieces that will be assembled into 2x separate bracket assemblies – one for the passenger side and the other for the driver side. The bracket pieces are painted black but they often get a little dinged up in transport. However, they are stainless steel and, in most cases will be hidden away in your ceiling, so there is no need to be concerned about any small dings. You’ll take one “middle” section and pair it with two “extensions” (photo below). The “middles” do not have “flanges” on the end and the “extensions” do. Place a middle flat on a surface with the C-channel facing down and the bolt holes facing up then grab an extension and turn it so that this channel is facing up and the flange is on the flat surface. Then slide the extension into one end of the middle. Do the same on the other side of the middle. Now you have a bracket that can expand from both the front and rear to the length needed to span between the structural supports that form the front and rear of the “bay” you installed the AC into on the van roof. The maximum span is about 30” from front to back when the extensions are fully extended. Below is a video of this process. Worth at least a few thousand words. Assembling the Mabru installation brackets Once you’ve assembled both brackets, using all 6x pieces, you can install them onto the passenger and driver side, over the mounting bolts from the AC unit that are now hanging down into your van. The holes in the brackets should line up with the bolts and you want the flanges on the end of each extension to press firmly against the van supports. If there isn’t a factory support structure where your bracket flanges land, you will have to install your own support with adequately sized metal or wood that is attached to the vehicle roof with something like a heavy-duty construction adhesive. The brackets are held in place with the supplied, 15mm nuts. You’ll want to tighten each of the 4x nuts in a rotating fashion – moving from one nut to the next in circulation so that you can create even pressure around the gasket. You want to make sure that the gasket (on the roof between the AC unit and the roof of the vehicle) shows some compression. Don’t exceed more than 15 newton meters of torque. Once torqued down you can choose to use the provided, black screws to attach the “flange” part of the brackets to the roof supports if you’d like. We don’t typically do this since the system is so tightly installed. Reshaping the styrofoam air director to fit your desired ceiling height and fit the 14”x14” hole Pause for a minute to take a look at the interior of the AC at this stage. On the baseplate, there is a thin layer of foam. In the front part, there are two rectangular openings. This is where the cooled air comes out. To the rear of that is one larger rectangular opening. That is where air is pulled into the unit from the interior of the van to be cooled. See the image below. The function of the styrofoam air director is to, you guessed it, direct the cooled air to the vents. You can see that the shape of the foam is the same as the vents on the interior panel. If you were installing into the Mabru’s native (larger) roof opening size, the styrofoam air director does not need to be modified since the opening would be large enough for it to press against the baseplate with no modifications. But, if you look at the 14” opening install, the air director is wider than the roof opening and where it passes the area where the Mabru base plate is visible you can see that the metal roof of the van is “lower “. Since it’s no longer one flat plane, we have to essentially reshape the air director so there is a notch on the driver and passenger sides. We’ve tried a number of tools for this and a serrated knife or a hack saw blade, removed from the saw, seems to work the best. You can hold up the air director inside the van in the area where it is installed – lined up with the bolt locations with the air vents facing forward and mark where the notches need to be cut. Below are some images of this process. Click on any image to open it larger. Once you have the notch cut, you can consider another modification: Depending on how deep your interior ceiling will be – which is normally a combination of the van’s metal supports, furring strips, and ceiling material if you want the interior panel/vents to be as high as possible so that it doesn’t come down into the living space as much, you can shorten the foam air director to the height that you need. This is optional. One additional tip on all this surgery: if your modifications are a little sloppy you can use foam tape lon the cut portions so that, when the air director is installed into place and the interior panel/vents are installed, it will be pressed up against the baseplate/van metal and the foam will compress to fill any small gaps. This is important because you want as good of a seal between the air director and the baseplate on the AC so that cooled air doesn’t leak into the ceiling cavity or anywhere else it’s not cooling your rig. Putting it all back together With the foam director reshaped, you can now reassemble it with the interior panel/vents. You want to re-attach the wiring harness and temp sensor to where it was wire-tied before. The temp sensor needs to be in that location, directly adjacent to the air return to sense the temperature of the air inside the van. This is how the thermostat on the unit works. Now you can re-install the interior panel/vents by sliding it over the 4x bolt locations and re-attaching the 10mm nuts to secure it into place. Note that there are two sets of bolts for the interior panel/vents, you can raise or lower the lower bolt to set the correct height of the interior unit if you’ve cut down the styrofoam air director. Return air: ensure proper venting for return air to avoid cycling issuesWhen the unit is running you can use the various vents to direct the cooled air. One thing to keep in mind is that you don’t want to create a situation where the cooled air is going “directly” into the return air vent(s) such as pointing the cool air vents directly at the return area. If you do that, the thermostat will interpret this cool air coming from the AC unit as the “interior air temperature” causing the AC unit to cycle the compressor on and off too rapidly. Instead, you want the return air to be more representative of the actual ambient air temp inside the living space. Some customers prefer to make their own return air grille. The return air trim ring that comes with the Mabru is unnecessarily large and unattractive. Directly below are some photos of what some of our customers have done. Note, the return air grille should be at least as big as the return air opening on the baseplate of the unit itself, if not a little larger. Finish wiringAt this point you’re ready to finish routing the wiring harness to your 12-volt DC supply – often the right side of a Lynx Distributor or other bus bar connection. Powering on, testing, and tips Now you can turn it on for the first time and ensure that it’s working! In our testing, with a laser thermometer, we normally see between 25-30 degrees F delta between the temperature of the air coming into the unit and the cooled air coming out after a few minutes of operation on “max” mode. When it’s really hot inside, this might look like 90 degrees inside the van and 65 or 70 degrees of cooled air coming out of the unit. Over time, as the interior temperature goes down from the cooling effect of operating the AC, the cooled air will get increasingly cooler. On very hot days, we recommend pre-cooling your van as you drive by running your vehicle air conditioner as powerfully as you can AND running the Mabru unit on high. The initial cooldown of the living space takes much more cooling/energy than maintaining the temperature. In many camper vans or RVs the house battery bank, that is powering the Mabru unit will be charging from the vehicle alternator while driving and some of that energy can power the AC unit without discharging the battery as much. Then, when you arrive at your destination a pre-cooled van can generally be kept cool by the Mabru even in low or eco mode. Obviously, the size of the van, how it’s insulated, the exterior color of the van, using insulated window coverings, and locating the van in the shade all help a lot as well. The remote control is pretty confusing so we have a handy “guide” that maps the buttons to the various functions. Congratulations, you’ve successfully installed the Mabru 12000 BTU rooftop air conditioner in your van! Now you can enjoy cool, comfortable journeys during even the hottest days. If you found this guide helpful, please consider supporting our store for other great road-tested products designed to support DIY van builders like you. Stay cool out there, and happy van adventures! As of 2026, we no longer have any stock of our flush mount interior faceplate. Bonus Instructions for customers who purchased a Flush Mount Faceplate for Mabru RV12000 Air Conditioner There are a few easy steps to relocate the electronic Control Panel from the factory trim piece to your new Face Plate. Step 1. Using a wire side cutter, carefully snip the zip ties holding the wiring harness and the temperature sensor from the inside of the return air cavity. This will allow you to move the factory trim piece off to the side for convenience for the next steps. Step 2. Remove the four screws on the black control panel housing on the back side. No need to pry up here as I did the first time… there are four more screws on the front side. Step 3. Remove the Control Panel face sticker to reveal four screws behind it. You can add a little heat from a hair dryer or heat gun to soften the glue a little. Carefully remove the sticker using a putty knife or similar wide blade. The sticker is pretty durable, but you don’t want to nick it as you will re-apply it once the control panel is installed in the new flush mount face plate. Step 4. Remove the four phillips head screws and the white trim piece. Pull the control panel forward and rotate 90 degrees, then pull it back through the factory trim piece. Step 5. After the A/C unit is mounted on the roof as described in the other sections, cut off the 4 bolts so they are above your planned ceiling height. The front two bolts should be left long enough to secure the styrofoam deflector. Step 6. Cut the styrofoam deflector so that it fits flat against the black bottom of the A/C unit (trim away the excess that hits the metal roof of the van. The table saw with a tall fence works great. Step 7. To ensure the air will not short circuit, you can install 1” thick foam tape between the roof of the van and the A/C unit and cover it with aluminum tape. Step 8. Hold the foam piece in place and mark the location of the ceiling framing. Then add the thickness of your ceiling material and cut the styrofoam to the correct height. Then install the foam, securing it with the two front bolts. You can also use thin foam tape to close any gaps to prevent the air from short circuiting. Step 9. If you use very thin ceiling boards, such as ¼” cedar, consider installing 2×2 framing on the sides of the Styrofoam such that the screw holes in the Face Plate align with the framing. Otherwise, you can screw directly into the ceiling material to secure the Face Plate. Step 10. Re-install the control panel removed in steps 3 & 4 in the same way, insert it through the hole in the flush mount faceplate then rotate so the screw holes line up. Install the white trim piece and four Phillips screws, then the face sticker can be re-applied. Step 11. Replace the four screws on the black control panel housing on the backside. Step 12. Use two new zip ties to re-attach the wiring harness and temperature probe from step 1 above. Step 13. Secure the flush mount faceplate to the ceiling using screws of your choice. Thin foam stripping can also be applied on the bottom of the styrofoam deflector to provide an air-tight fit with the faceplate. (You may need to glue wood or metal strips on the backside of the panel to help the screws grip into the control panel). As always, if you have any issues or questions with installation please give us a call or email us.
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Video: Installing a Webasto Heater with Tips
Over the last many years we’ve installed a bunch of Webasto heaters and over the last two years, we’ve sold hundreds of them to our customers. Along the way, we’ve learned a lot about them that we share in this extensive installation and tips video! We hope it helps you with your install and, of course, we appreciate your support of our store including Webasto heaters. Updated Video for SmarTemp 3.0 Controller Wiring Shortly after we produced this video, Webasto upgraded from the 2.0 version of the SmarTemp digital controller to the 3.0 version (check it out in our store). So, the video below details how the wiring for the SmarTemp 3.0 works which is different than what we show in the main video starting at around 32 minutes.
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Installing a Grey Water Tank on a Promaster Van
Promaster vans have very limited space under the van for tanks. So, we designed a custom-molded grey water tank for Promasters that fits up into the underbelly of the van perfectly and practically disappears without compromising ground clearance. While you’re here, you might be interested in our other video about plumbing your drains and grey water system. We prefer to use flexible, marine-grade hose for routing drain lines. Purchase Promaster Grey Tank
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Installing Lonseal Marine Vinyl Flooring In Camper Van
Adhesive Note This blog post details how to install Lonseal flooring using the company’s recommended 650 epoxy adhesive. That adhesive is the highest performance option but it’s also significantly harder to work with and much easier to screw up largely due to its epoxy nature including the relatively short (30 minute) working/pot time. While we can’t recommend NOT using the officially recommended product, we can warn you that it is not an easy project and any mistakes you make tend to be highly visible. In other words, it is not forgiving. Meanwhile, I’ve been installing Lonseal into my camper vans long before we were started selling the products (going back to 2017). In those vans I used Roberts 2310 vinyl adhesive which is substantially easier to use, can be purchased locally, and is less expensive. My current van (as of May 2022) has held up very well for about three years now in all conditions from extremely hot (120 degrees or more) roasting in the Florida sun to extreme cold (-20 degrees) in Colorado along with the radical swings in humidity between these two very different locales. I’m sure there are some applications where the extra high performance of the epoxy adhesive are needed – perhaps something harsh like the deck of a boat – but, in my camper van, I have not personally seen a need for something more substantial than the standard adhesives. Your mileage may vary! This short blog post is a high-level overview of Lonseal installation. I recommend that you also read through Lonseal’s own documentation including their Interior Flooring Installation Guide and Vehicle Installation Guide. Why Use Lonseal Flooring In Your Camper Van Lonseal is a heavy duty sheet vinyl designed for marine environments. As such, it’s incredibly durable and tough which is perfect for a camper van environment. It comes in a wide variety of patterns/finishes including wood look and “coin” style. One piece of general advice for flooring in your van is to avoid materials that will have cracks or seams which, over time, will trap dirt or allow water/liquids to seep in. These “plank” floors also tend to develop uneven gaps with all the constant movement and expansion/contraction in a van. In addition, vinyl is environmentally friendly. Its primary raw material is obtained from the nearly inexhaustible supply of sodium chloride (salt). Its manufacture has a smaller impact than other plastics, produces virtually no dioxins, and relies on fewer oil by-products than rubber. Vinyl is naturally fire retardant, highly recyclable, and products can be easily manufactured to meet strict indoor air quality (IAQ) requirements. Lonseal Antique & Ivory Wood Look flooring in my Miles Van Camper. Sizing Lonseal is sold in sheets that are six feet wide and you determine the length by specifying how many linear feet you need. In most cases 10-15 feet is plenty for a cargo van. However, some cargo vans (like the Promaster) are slightly wider than six feet. Often there is cabinetry or other “stuff” in the van that covers the subfloor so the fact that the flooring doesn’t quite go “wall to wall” isn’t a problem – you simply put the flooring where it’s seen. If your layout requires you to join two pieces of Lonseal resulting in a “seam”, there are two ways to “weld” the seam together – one uses heat and is considered more difficult and the other is a chemical process. Importantly, Lonsealer is not compatible with Lonseal’s recommended 650 epoxy adhesive because Lonsealer requires seam tape (double face tape) to be used in the seam area to keep adhesive out of the seam. The Lonsealer has a chemical reaction with the adhesive (both the #650 and #813) and requires that the seam be free of adhesive residue. Lonseal recommends using a simple butt seam or heat welding instead. Lonseal makes a product for the chemical sealing. It sells for $38 and one tube should be plenty for a small space. I have never had to do this myself but this (strange but informative) video details how to cut the flooring using an “overlap cut” and use the Lonsealer product. Preparation According to Lonseal, your subfloor must be at least 5/8 in. (15.9 mm) thick. They recommend “exterior grade plywood”. Also, the temperature where you store and install the flooring should be “maintained between 65 – 85 °F (18.3 – 29.4°C) for 48 hours before, during, and 48 hours after installation” and “relative humidity level extremes should also be avoided because of their influence on proper drying and curing of substrate preparation materials and adhesives. General recommended humidity control level is between 35 – 55%.” Finally, the substrate/subfloor should be totally clean and as smooth as possible prior to the flooring installation. Make A Template & Cut To Size I typically make a template using “kraft paper” or the heavier duty Ram Board. Once you’re happy with the shape of your template you can trace that outline onto the flooring with a pencil. Be sure to triple-check your orientation! The Lonseal cuts easily with a razor blade and I find that sharp scissors work best for curves and contours. Lonseal flooring cut to size, ready to install. Choosing Adhesives & Laying The Flooring OK, here comes the tricky part… Lonseal recommends their 650 Epoxy Adhesive for horizontal applications in vehicles (floors) and their 400 Contact Adhesive for vertical surfaces. Many people will use coin flooring on walls/vertical surfaces in places like their “garage” area under a platform bed which is an example of a vertical installation. If you really don’t want to use Lonseal adhesives, they have a list of alternatives (PDF). However, they do caution against using off-the-shelf products such as Roberts 7350 “universal” adhesive because they are typically intended for environments where the temps are between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. During hot weather the temps inside your van can be well above that which could result in slipping or shrinking of the vinyl. Installing With Lonseal 650 Epoxy Adhesive Lonseal’s 650 Epoxy Adhesive is a two-part epoxy and they recommend you mix the entirety of both parts (part A and part B at once in order to ensure the correct proportions. The directions specify that you should use a mechanical mixer at low slow speed (less than 375 RPM) until you achieve a smooth homogeneous mix and to avoid getting any air trapped in the mix which will shorten the working time. That said, I was able to mix it by hand. I highly recommend that you have someone helping you with the installation. Once you start mixing the epoxy, you only have about 30 minutes of time to use the adhesive (the “pot life” at 73°F is approximately 30 minutes) so do not mix more adhesive than can be used in a 30 minute period and be prepared to move fast and have everything ready to go once you start mixing the epoxy. Immediately after the epoxy adhesive is mixed, one person can pour it onto the subfloor and begin troweling with a 1/16″ x 1/32″ x 1/32″ u-notched trowel while the other person manages the flooring which can started rolled up and then placed into the “wet” epoxy. After the flooring is laid, you should use a roller to smooth it out and push it into the adhesive. Lonseal’s installation instructions tell you to use “a minimum 100 pound, three-section roller” which is impractical in a small van. Instead you can use a “three-section laminate roller” making sure you put enough weight behind it to ensure strong, positive contact. After 2-3 hours you should roll the floor again. You can use ethyl alcohol applied to a clean, dry cloth to wipe up any adhesive residue from the surface of the flooring while still wet. Do not apply ethyl alcohol directly to the material. It’s often a good idea to place some heavy objects on the floor during the curing process. They recommend that you avoid any traffic on the floor for 24 hours. The complete cure time is listed as 72 hours. Installing With Lonseal 400 Contact Adhesive If you’re using Lonseal on a vertical surface, they recommend you use their 400 Contact Adhesive. First you should make sure that whatever you’re attaching the flooring to is totally clean and free of oil/dirt/grease/etc. Then uniformly coat both surfaces (flooring and whatever you’re attaching it to) with the adhesive with a paint brush or non-shedding, 3/8 in. nap roller and wait until the adhesive to become “tacky” to the touch and then then attach the flooring to the surface. Importantly, this stuff is SUPER sticky. Once you attach the flooring to the surface you will not be able to adjust it’s position so be very careful when applying to make sure your positioning is accurate. Here’s a great time lapse video of someone installing Lonseal Loncoin flooring for a Sprinter van. They did this with the floor outside the van but the process is the same. They use some kind of tank instead of a roller!
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Installing a Webasto Gasoline Heater in a Camper Van
This post was originally written in early 2020, and it documented a Webasto installation process from the summer of 2019. We highly recommend that you check out our newer installation and tips video post here. This updated version of the article starts below with a “preamble” of all the stuff I didn’t know and then dives into how to install a Webasto heater into a Promaster van. You can jump to that section if you want to skip the preamble. There is also an installation tips and advice section that you can jump to. We Started a Web Store and We Sell Webasto Heaters In late 2020, we launched the store here on Vanlife Outfitters. The goal of the store is to help DIY van builders by selling the best products available at reasonable prices, and obviously, one of the best things for a camper van is a Webasto heater! But, why would you buy from us instead of purchasing the heater from Russia for half the price? I’ll give you some context on that in this preamble and let you decide for yourself. Again, you can jump right into the actual installation if you’d like. As part of launching the store, I set out to find an authorized distributor for Webasto products and discovered VMACS (short for Virgina Mobile Air Conditioning Systems). They have been selling and supporting Webasto products for 20 years. I could tell immediately how knowledgeable Scott at VMACS was about the products, and he was also excited to support the vanlife community! By partnering with VMACS we can not only offer you the entire line of Webasto products (in-stock for quick shipping), but also back that up with the absolute best service from true experts during your installation and service/advice when you’re out on the road with any issues. More on warranty service below. We also felt that there was a lot of room for improving the buying experience. Purchasing a Webasto heater was way too confusing. The information presented by retailers seemed to be coded in “Webasto-speak,” nothing was consistent or clear and the descriptions were filled with part numbers that had to be deciphered. So it was always a mystery what you’d get in the box which was exaggerated by the wide variances in pricing that left you guessing why one thing was so much more expensive than another. Especially if that one thing was from Russia. More on that later too. Then there was the issue of trust and service. Who could you buy from that you had confidence would support you and understand the camper van customer? We think we’ve addressed these “pain points” with our store and the partnership we have established with VMACS. We have developed kits specifically for vanlifers converting Promasters, Sprinters or Transit vans. Each kit has is clearly described and details everything that comes in the box. We’ve also added other Webasto parts that are compatible with the Air Top series heaters including ducting, vents, digital controllers, etc. to help you complete your installation with ease. All The Things I Didn’t Know Could Fill A Blog Post! Working with Scott at VMACS sure opened my eyes! So much of the information about Webasto heaters on the internets is either entirely or partially incorrect and I’m afraid my blog was no exception. However, to be fair, Webasto does a lousy job of communicating and there are very few Webasto distributors who are really focused on the vanlife community. So, a lot of well-meaning folks (like me) have been perpetuating myths. We’re going to be doing our best to get reliable information to the vanlife community and updating our content as we learn things! High Altitude Information The Air Top 2000 STC is Webasto's smallest heater which is a great form factor for a camper van and is generally plenty powerful to keep you warm (2 kilowatt heating capacity). However, the small burner on these heaters is susceptible to excessive carbon build up - particularly the gasoline models. Webasto has designed the heater to work optimally up to 4,900 feet altitude. If you're going to be spending a lot of time at higher elevations you should consider the Air Top 2000 STC (Altitude Adjusted gasoline or diesel) heaters that has been professionally pre-adjusted to work at up to 6,400 feet, or even the larger EVO 40 heater (4 kilowatt heating capacity). The gasoline EVO 40 can be used at up to 7,200 feet, and the diesel EVO 40 can be used at up to 18,000 feet! The EVO 40 is physically larger and therefore has a larger burner chamber, which reduces the risk of carbon buildup issues, and it has "automatic" altitude adjustment capability. So, while the Air Top 2000 STC will work at higher altitudes for shorter periods of time, Webasto does not recommend it and, if you do, you should run the heater at "full load" (turned up all the way) when you return to lower altitudes for at least a few hours in order to try to clean out the burner chamber. Want to learn more? Please check out this post for more information. We also recorded a one hour video interview with a Webasto tech that has a lot of great information. You can watch the full video or use this link to jump to the part of the video where we discuss using an Air Top 2000 STC at altitude. High Altitude Mode “Hack”In my original post, I wrote about how to put a Webasto heater into this mode. If you’re interested, I kept the procedure below. But, what I didn’t know is that Webasto doesn’t actually recommend doing this because it’s almost never necessary and you can’t do it “correctly” (according to approved procedure) without using a Co2 meter and the having training to do so. If you’re curious, here’s a PDF of page 603 of the Webasto Air Top Workshop Guide that details the official procedure for high altitude mode. Importantly, it states that you should be making that adjustment when you’re at the specific altitude you wish to calibrate for rather than an arbitrary adjustment. In my case, I was setting the “high altitude” mode at sea level in Florida, which is pretty funny in hindsight. Why Were We Doing This?People (like myself and Far Out Ride) have recommended fiddling with this “high altitude” mode to minimize carbon build up. However, my current understanding is that this isn’t necessary under normal operating conditions. In fact, without proper calibration, it’s possible that “hacking” the high altitude settings might actually backfire and result in more carbon build up. There are other tips such as running the heater at “full load” for long periods of time, which delivers the highest airflow through the combustion chamber to help blow out any carbon. What About The Russians? When I ordered my Webasto Air Top 2000 STC from Russia back in 2019, did it come with love? Well, kinda. The heater shipped quickly and arrived in brand-new condition. I installed it and have used it for over a year with no issues at all. So, the experience wasn’t bad at all and the unit was a genuine Webasto. No problems so far. However, I always wondered how Heaters4You could sell these for less than half the price of anyone else. Back then, I was too busy building a van to find the answer, but now that I’m working with a reputable USA distributor and know what’s going on, the answer is too important not to share! So, let me break it down starting with how it affects you – the van builder – and then get into the unfortunate consequences this has on legitimate Webasto dealers. What’s Wrong With The Russian Kits For Van Builders? First of all, you’re not getting the same stuff you would in a North American kit. As I wrote before, one of our goals is to make it more clear what you’re buying by decoding the confusing Webasto product line-up and detailing everything as much as possible in our store. Going through this process I found the following differences between what I received in the Russian market kit from Heaters4You and what is supplied in the proper North American kits we sell. By the way, here’s a detailed video comparing what is included in the Russian heater box versus the North American box. The air intake hose I received was plastic instead of the aluminum hose supplied with the North American units. The North American heaters do not come with the black plastic air intake silencer, but my Russian heater did. This along with the combustion air silencer are available in our installation kit add-ons. My heater did not include a fuel filter! In hindsight this seems so important and I will be ordering that and installing it where it belongs – just after the fuel port/pickup inside the Promaster fuel tank access panel. That's another $20-something. I also did not receive the standard mounting plate that comes with the North American heaters. I ended up purchasing one which is quite similar, but actually makes the installation a bit more difficult. If you buy a North American kit you get this mounting plate ($25) and this foam gasket ($20) that seals the plate to the van floor. I received the “old style” fuel pump mounting bracket, which is a rubber coated metal bracket that tends to transfer the “ticking” sound that the fuel pump makes when running more than the newer style ($15) which is all rubber except for the mounting hole making it quieter. The wiring harness in my kit was visually different and did not have any wire loom. All that adds up to about $90 in missing parts but some things, like a missing fuel filter, could cause you other headaches. The other potential problem is that many of the North American components are not compatible with the European/Russian units. Some examples: European heaters have different programming than North American heaters making all digital controllers partially incompatible or completely incompatible between European heaters and North American heaters European heaters have different wiring harnesses than North American heaters making it impossible to physically connect North American Accessories including some controllers The Multi-Control for Air Heaters is specifically a European control, therefore replacements of any wiring harnesses connecting to a Multi-control or replacement Multi-Controls controllers must be obtained from a European source. Russian heaters are frequently packed with the wrong wiring harness for the control upgrade to a Multi-control I would love to hear from you if you ordered a Russian kit and had a different experience or received different parts that what I described. No Warranty Example of the serial number sticker of a Russian Webasto unit. I knew that buying from Russia meant that my heater wouldn’t have a warranty in the USA. In fact, it says as much right on the serial number sticker. However, at the time, I had heard that Webasto warranty service wasn’t that great AND I could literally buy two units for the cost of one single North American one. The latter is still true (with the caveats), but it turns out that having a warranty is more valuable than I thought if you buy from the right distributor. Not All Distributors Fully Support DIY InstallersI think the reason I had heard Webasto warranty service wasn’t great is because not all authorized distributors are willing to fully support DIY installers. There is a myth on the internets that if you install a Webasto heater yourself it will void the warranty. That’s not true but it may be sort of effectively true if you buy from some distributors. Many distributors are reluctant to support DIY installations because it’s difficult and risky. It can be really hard to troubleshoot issues with DIY installations that vary so widely and might have been done incorrectly. Also, any replacement parts sent out under warranty come from that distributor’s stock and they are only reimbursed if the customer sends back any faulty parts – which doesn’t always happen – and, even if they do, it can take more than a month for Webasto to complete these claims. If you buy from us (fulfilled by VMACS), you can be assured that you’ll be fully supported as a DIY builder. Since that is our primary customer, this was critical to us and one of the reasons we didn’t want to become a Webasto distributor directly. They maintain a significant amount of products and replacement parts in-stock. If you experience a problem with your Webasto unit within the warranty period, they will work with you to determine the cause of failure and will either attempt to give instruction on how to correct any faulty workmanship or supply a replacement part. If a replacement part is needed they will send you the part immediately from their stock at no charge so that you can get up and running as quickly as possible. Of course, they rely on you to return any faulty parts in order to be reimbursed for the warranty repair. Not all Webasto distributors won’t do this. So, How Can The Russians Sell Them So Cheap? Well, nobody really knows for sure. But, here’s my take on the situation based on the little bit I know. None of this is official of course, I’m just reading between the lines. Webasto must offer distributors in Russia very low pricing…So low that they can actually make a profit reselling the units they receive for the prices you see (about $560 last I checked). But, what I do know is that they are specifically prohibited from selling these outside of Russia which, of course, they are doing at volume. So, that’s pretty shady. Will Webasto eventually trace these Russian units that are “leaking” into the so-called free world? Maybe? The Russian Impact On Local Dealers Pretty simple: they’re getting screwed by a wildly uneven playing field. A legitimate North American distributor’s wholesale cost (when purchasing at huge volumes) is more than Heaters4You is selling them to end users. It’s literally impossible for them to compete on price so they are loosing a lot of business unfairly. These distributors are typically small, locally owned businesses and this impact is very real for them. Bottom Line At the end of the day, the truth is that it does cost twice as much to buy a Webasto heater from a proper North American seller like ourselves. So, if all you can afford is the Russian units, I totally understand. In my view, a real Webasto heater, even from Russia, with all the caveats, is still a better option than a cheap Chinese heater, which are rife with all kinds of issues – some of which could kill you. But, if you do have the means to buy from a North American seller I would highly encourage you to do so. What About Amazon? We all love Amazon and fast Prime shipping, so what’s the deal with them? If you do a search from the USA on Amazon for Webasto Air Top 2000 you’ll likely see some knock off Chinese heaters and then a bunch of genuine Webasto stuff but all from poorly rated sellers and ones like Butler Technik. This means that you’re getting a European unit that is not compatible with many of the North American parts just like the Russian kits. See the photo below where I have highlighted with a blue outline the MultiControl controller in their kit and the bullet point about how they are a UK distributor. And what exactly does the phrase “genuine UK dealer guaranteed replacement heater” mean? You will have a valid warranty but any support or parts will have to come from the UK through them (Butler Technik) and you won’t be able to have any service in the USA because of the compatibility issues. OK, Finally… The Installation Part In my first two builds (Miles v1 and Miles v2) I used a Propex furnaces and with a under-mounted propane tank. These worked great but, I wanted to eliminate the propane tank from my third build (Miles v3) to simplify things. What I Used My heater system is based around the Webasto Air Top STC. This heater comes in both a diesel or gasoline (petrol) version. Since my Promaster uses gasoline I used the gas version. Recommended Parts: A Webasto Air Top 2000 STC heater plus the fuel line tapping add-on for either Promasters/Sprinters or Ford Transits. We also recommend the intake and exhaust silencer add-ons. If you read the preamble to this post, you’ll see that I purchased my Webasto from Heaters4You because I didn’t know any better! That required me to purchase some extra parts separately like a mounting plate. The North American kits we sell come with these things. 2x – Webasto 60mm louvers/vents. I wanted these for the cabinet that Webasto is installed; one for air inlet and another for the heated air outflow. You may not need these. 1x – meter of 60mm ducting that connects the heated air outflow to the louver/vent. The kits above come with the standard rheostat-style controller. If you want to have a digital controller that can be programmed you might want start with a kit with a SmarTemp controller. Or upgrade your existing air hear, and we include this as an option in ours store. Note that many of the Russian/European Webasto units are sold with a MultiControl controller. This is NOT compatible with the North American heaters. So the only “upgraded” (digital) controller is the SmarTemp controller. Conversely, if you have a European/Russian unit you cannot use the SmarTemp controller. Another great feature of the SmarTemp controller is that it has a temperature sensor built in. More on that below… Temperature SensingThe rheostat-style controller included with the Webasto Air Top 2000 STC heater does not have a temperature sensor in the controller. Instead, the heater itself has a temperature sensor located in the cool air intake. Since warm air rises and most people install their Webasto onto the floor of their van, the built-in temperature sensor is monitoring the considerably cooler/lower air. So, you might consider adding the remote/room temp sensor that can be located wherever you want the temperature to be monitored. Installation is simple – it just plugs into a connector on the heater unit’s wiring harness. If you upgrade to the SmarTemp controller it has a temp sensor built in so you don’t need a remote/room temp sensor. Installation Guide Installation Guide PDF Other Parts You Might Need For Your Installation We also sell a variety of helpful installation parts including ducting to mounting plates. If you plan on having more than one vent/louver from your heater's hot air outlet, you may want some "T" or "Y" fittings or ducting. This PDF file illustrates all the parts available from Webasto for this purpose which we can special order for you and you can check out our ducting/vent configuration tool. Anytime you’re using a combustion device like a Webasto heater or others, I highly recommend installing a carbon monoxide detector in your van. I normally use something like this one that is also an propane gas detector. Location The Webasto is installed in the same place that I put my Propex heater in the first two builds – directly behind the driver seat on the floor. The Webasto Air Top STC manual makes it clear that there needs to be an airtight seal between the bottom of the heater and the surface it’s attached to. I wanted to install the heater directly on the metal van floor rather than the plywood subfloor. So, I cut out a section of the subfloor for the heater. However, the van floor is NOT flat in this area – there are the structural corrugations in that spot which is where the mounting plate comes in. In addition, the bolts that come with the Webasto to mount it to the surface are pretty short. Also, I wanted a way to remote the heater from inside the van with relative ease if (when) it needed service. So, I decided to fasten the heater to the mounting plate and then attach the mounting plate to 1″ tube steel that I painted black. NOTE: had I received a North American heater it would have come with this mounting plate that couples up with this gasket to seal with the floor – even if it is uneven like the spot I located my heater. It also comes with longer bolts. So, this part of the installation would be much easier. That assembly or “sandwich”, from top to bottom, is made up of the heater, the rubber gasket, the mounting plate and then the tube steel. You can see that the mounting bolts for the Webasto are “below” the bottom of the tube steel. This allows the entire assembly to be fastened through the van floor with 4x screws that are placed on the far edges of each piece of tube steel. This means that, if (when) I need to pull out the heater, I can remove the clamps holding the heater’s combustion air hoses, disconnect wiring and the fuel line from below, remove the screws holding the assembly to the floor and then pull that entire thing up. Inside The VanBelow is a photo of my installation from above. You’ll see the heater itself mounted on the metal van floor using the mounting plate (details above). Eventually, I would box this in so that it sort of lines up with my galley cabinetry. Below The VanPictured below is what this all looks like from underneath the van. In this photo you can see the combustion air intake hose with it’s “silencer”, the combustion air exhaust hose and the fuel line and fuel pump for the heater. Once I had the heater “assembly” (above) built, I attached the combustion air intake (plastic hose) and combustion exhaust (stainless steel hose) to their respective connections on the bottom of the heater. I chose to add some high-temperature silicone on these connections to ensure they are full sealed and that no combustion exhaust leaked into my van. There is some wiring that comes out from combustion air intake connection and a “slot” in that connector. This wiring connects to the fuel pump and the slot allows you to route the wire “outside” of the intake hose itself. It’s an odd setup. Below is a photo of the connections on the bottom of the Webasto heater. Next, I prepared to mount the heater “assembly” including the hoses to the floor. The Webasto comes with a paper template for locating where the holes should go including the combustion air intake and exhaust hoses, fuel line connector and the 4x mounting bolts. Since I was not using the 4x mounting bolts (heater was already mounted), I marked the locations for the holes which were the combustion intake and exhaust and fuel line. In addition, I marked another hole location for the wiring that would supply power to the fuel pump which I put directly adjacent to the combustion air inlet hole since this wire comes through it’s “slot” in that location. Once marked, it’s a good idea to double check that the heater will fit in the spot you want to put it before you drill those holes! I also recommend drilling a small “pilot” hole in the center of one of the combustion hose locations so that you can go below the van and “see” where these hoses (and the other connections) will down there so that you can make sure there is adequate access. I confirmed all of this and then drilled each of these 4x holes in the van floor. This was difficult at times since a few of the hole locations “spanned” a floor rib. With the floor holes drilled, I was able to push the combustion intake and exhaust hoses through the floor and drop the heater “assembly” into place on the metal van floor and screw down the entire assembly from above through the tube steel. Next, I moved onto the gasoline fuel line. Very conveniently, there is a built-in auxiliary fuel pickup on Promaster vans! To access this port, you remove the floor panel that is between the seats in the cab. Underneath this panel you’ll see something like the following. There is a sort of “cap” on the auxiliary pickup that comes off easily enough. From there it’s simple to “snap on” the Doorman Fuel Line Connector. The Webasto kit that I ordered came with fuel hose and some slightly larger sections of hose that the smaller fuel hose can slide onto. These larger bits of hose act as “couplers” and one of these can be used to connect the outlet on the Doorman connector to the fuel line. The kit also included plenty of clamps. From there, the fuel hose curves around the front section of the fuel area and then down below the van toward the pump. This area is “open” to the elements so there is no need to drill any holes and the hose is rigid enough to simply poke through this area from the top and then be able to find that hose from below the van to pull it into the location where you’ll be installing your fuel pump. I ran the fuel hose inside blue, 3/8″ plastic tubing that I had leftover from another project which serves as a sort of conduit to protect the fuel hose itself. At this point I spend some (more) time under the van! First I chose a place for the fuel pump and installed it. The kit comes with a clamp for the pump and I used a #10 stainless steel self-tapping screw to fasten it to a support beam. Then I routed the fuel line to the pump and also connected the pump’s outlet to the fuel inlet on the Webasto itself. I decided to “prime” the fuel line that ran from the van’s gas tank down to the Webasto pump. I did this by simply sucking on the fuel line until the gas flowed out. Try not to do that. Gasoline is a horrible thing to have in your mouth! I also routed the fuel pump’s electrical wires to the pump. All of the fuel lines and wires are protected in wire loom. Next, I mounted the combustion air inlet “silencer” that was provided with the kit, cut the plastic hose to the correct length and connected it to the silencer. Then I routed the stainless steel combustion exhaust hose away from the heater and to the driver side of the van. It is important that there are no low points or dips in the path of this hose where water from the exhaust vapor can collect. If there are low points, it’s recommended that you drill a 3/16″ hole at the bottom of the hose at each low point to let water escape. I tried to route my hose so that it sloped evenly down to the side of the van. You also want to create a downward bend in the hose where it meets the van sidewall as shown below. Note: you should make sure that there is some distance between the combustion air intake hose and the combustion exhaust hose and that these face away from each other. With all the hoses and wiring routed, I sealed up all of the holes from below the van. I sealed around the combustion exhaust with High Temperature RTV Silicone and the other holes with Loctite Marine Sealant. When the sealants were dry, I sprayed them with grey primer. Back inside the van, I turned my attention to wiring up the heater. The gaggle of wires that come with the Webasto seem very confusing when you first encounter them. Or at least they did for me! However, once I began laying out the wires in the relative direction they were going to go (i.e.: toward the fuel pump, up toward the rheostat controller, etc.), the wiring harness started to make more sense and since each connector is unique it made it easier to determine which “lead” went to which device/part. Once I had a sense of how the wiring harness worked, I removed the access panel from the top/front of the heater to connect up the main, 18-pin electrical connector to the corresponding connection inside the heater. Then I connected the analog, rheostat-style controller that came with my kit to the cable that extends from the wiring harness. The wiring for the controller is sufficiently long to place it pretty much wherever you’d like it. In my case, the controller was mounted just above the heater, behind the driver seat a bit forward of my galley area. None of that stuff was installed yet so, at this time, I just laid the controller on the driver seat. Finally, I connected up 12VDC power wires to a temporary supply cable that I had run from by battery bank. On the Webasto wiring harness, the red wire is positive, brown is negative and it comes with a built-in fuse. To wrap things up, I also put on the plastic protective “screen” that covers the air inlet on the “back” side of the heater (opposite the hot air outlet). Turning It On Yay! The moment of truth! With everything seemingly ready, I turned the knob on the rheostat all the way to 11. It was summer in Florida (a million degrees) so I wasn’t sure it would turn on at all but it seems that the turning the knob up to 11 (all the way to the right/fully clockwise) forces the heater to turn on even if it is summer in Florida. When first powered on, the Webasto turns on the fan at a slow speed and then, after about 30 seconds or a minute (never timed it), you can hear the pump engage (making a clicking sound) and shortly after that the heater should turn on with the fan increasing in speed once there is combustion. Notably, whenever the heater is “on” and regardless of where the controller’s rheostat knob is set, the fan will run at low speed constantly. When I turned on the heater I heard the fan and eventually the pump engage but it did not start. So, I turned it off and then on again to repeat the sequence. I did this about three times and eventually it stopped running and the green LED on the controller knob started flashing indicating that there was a fault. Below is a screenshot from page 75 in the manual that details the various faults and how to read them. Basically, when there is a fault, that green LED on the rheostat-style controller will blink 5 times quickly and then will come on for a series of longer flashes. In my case there was one of these longer flashes which was the pattern for the “no start (no flame formation)” fault. That pretty much lined up with my theory that the gasoline wasn’t making its way to the heater. To “clear” a fault, according to the manual you, “briefly switch the heater on and off (at least 2 seconds) to reset fault lockout”. I did this and after another attempt, the heater actually fired up and hot air starting coming out! High Altitude Mode “Hack” High Altitude Mode & Why I Recommend It For Everyone I have intentionally re-characterized this as a “hack” because of the reasons I wrote about in the preamble of this post. I don’t actually recommend this anymore however, I’ll leave this here for anyone who wants to know the procedure but do take it with some grains of salt. If you want to know about the actual factory recommended procedure and have a C02 meter handy, here is a PDF of page 603 of the Webasto Air Top Workshop Manual that details the process. Note: you need the standard, rheostat-type “controller” to put the heater in “high altitude mode”. So, here’s how to do it: In the main wiring harness, there is a wire that you need to “ground” in order to change the mode. It seems that Webasto changes the colors of their wires sometimes so, from the main wiring harness (that connects up to the heater), you should look for a two-wire “pigtail” with either a brown and green wire or a red and gray wire (mine was the brown/green combo). It’s pretty far down the wiring harness – far away from where the harness connects to the heater. Once you find that proceed with the steps below. First, you’ll want to connect the brown (or gray) wire to “ground”. For example, you’d take a length of cable that is temporarily spliced/connected to the brown (or gray) wire and connect the other end to either bare metal on the van (ground) or the ground terminal on your van or camper battery. Turn on the heater and set the knob on the controller to the 12:00 position. After a few moments, the green LED on the controller will begin to flash. At this point turn the controller knob to the 9:00 position. Note: From what I can tell, this is the part that diverges from Webasto’s official procedure. It seems like the “9:00 position” is a sort of random adjustment. Keep the heater running with the controller knob set to 9:00 for 3 minutes. While the heater is running, remove the brown (or gray) wire from whichever “ground” you have it connected to. The following chart shows the altitude capabilities of the various Webasto heaters: How Does It Work? For many months after I completed the van I was in Florida and it wasn’t cold enough to test. But in early December, 2019, we left for a two-month trip from Florida to California and onward to Colorado. Of course, we took the “southern route” since it was winter but we encountered plenty of cold (for Floridians) nights along the way. So, we ended up running the heater most nights in most places. Overall the heater performed awesome. It heated the van quickly and efficiently. Many people complain about how loud it is but I didn’t find it any louder than the Propex heaters I had used in the past. The one notable difference in sound is that, with the Webasto, you hear a “click, click, click” sound when the fuel pump is running whereas there is no need for a fuel pump with a propane heater. Both the Webasto and Propex have a fairly loud exhaust sound if you’re outside near that area of the van but, with my well-insulated van, I don’t hear that inside. However, it is something you should be aware of and “listen to” if you have these heaters to know how it might affect your camping neighbors. We camped at State Parks, National Parks, Walmarts, back roads, BLM land, urban streets and everything in between and never had an issue with the sounds inside or outside. Toward the end of that trip, we drove from northern California to Colorado in late January 2020 where the bitter cold pushed the limits of the Webasto heater. Our coldest night was in Wyoming where the outside temperatures dipped to -15 degrees Fahrenheit. The heater ran constantly but it wasn’t enough to stay warm. During those really cold nights across the high plains, my experience was that the heater could make the inside of the van about 40-45 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than outside temperatures. So, even if it’s literally freezing outside (32 degrees Fahrenheit), that’s plenty to stay comfortable. But, when it’s ridiculously cold it couldn’t keep up. For some context, my van has 3/8″ closed cell foam insulation on the floor and 3M Thinsulate throughout the walls and ceiling. So, it’s pretty well insulated. However, in addition to the cab windows, I have a CR Laurence T-Vent window in the slider door and 2x Motion windows in the rear doors. The cab windows have insulated covers but the other three windows only have roller shades. It’s well known that the greatest area of thermal loss in a camper van is the windows. So, with less windows or perhaps insulated window coverings for the slider and rear windows, the Webasto might have performed even better. I was also impressed with the fuel efficiency! According to Webasto, the gasoline consumption is anywhere between .04 to .07 gallons per hour. That seemed to line up with my experience. Most nights we’d let the heater run at our desired temperature all night with no noticeable difference on the van’s fuel gauge in the morning. It’s great to fill up on gas and not have to worry about adding additional fuel like propane. Overall, the installation process is somewhat complex, as you can tell from this post, but the heater works great and I would definitely recommend it for a van camper! Installation Tips and Advice Making HolesThere are two ways to make the holes in your van floor for the combustion air intake and combustion exhaust outlet hoses when using the included (with the North American kits) mounting plate and gasket. One is to make a hole for each plus the fuel line inlet. The other is to make a larger, 4″ hole using a hole saw which is big enough for each of these which is much easier! Fuel Line RoutingWhen you are routing your fuel lines using the rubber couplings included to connect the fuel line to the various components, be sure to “butt up” the hose inside the coupling. For “straight through” connections there should be no gap between the hose itself inside the coupling in order to prevent any air bubbles. The photo below, from the service manual, illustrates this. Also when routing your fuel lines, be sure to ONLY use the provided hose clamps and tighten them all the way. Your standard, hardware store style, worm clams are not the same as the Webasto-provided clamps and will not work as well. Tightening the clamps all the way and using the right clamps ensures no air gets “sucked” into the line causing start up issues with the heater. Try to keep your fuel line as short as possible. The fuel pump is a better pusher than puller, so we recommend locating it as close to the fuel tank as practical. Refer to the diagram lengths in the instruction manual if you have any questions. Flash Codes and Typical Issues On New InstallationsIt is very common in new installs for the heater to report a “no start” condition using the “flash code” F01. If you have the standard rheostat controller, you will know your heater is in a fault “state” when the LED light on the standard rheostat controller flashes super fast 5x times. The specific “flash code” is indicated by the number of longer flashes of the LED. I have provided a table of all the “flash codes” and what they mean below. If you have the SmarTemp digital controller it will show you the code number on the screen which is certainly easier than counting flashes. In new installations it’s really common to get this F01 code (one single long flash after the 5x quick flashes) because the pump isn’t getting the fuel all the way to the heater. Priming Fuel LineSo, I highly recommend “priming” the fuel line prior to running the heater for the first time. I find the easiest way to do this is with a syringe. This particular syringe fits nicely into the supplied fuel line allowing you to pull fuel up from the pickup, through fuel filter and through the lines. You can do this from the connection that goes into the “inlet” of the fuel pump. The idea is to get the fuel all the way to the pump and then connect this “primed” fuel line to the pump’s inlet. Wiring Fuel PumpMany people are confused how to wire up their fuel pump. There are two short lengths of wire that come out from the combustion air intake hose connection on the heater. When you receive your heater, there is a small bag that contains the connector housing for those wires located inside the bag that contains the fuel pump. That housing can be plugged directly to the fuel pump if it is close enough for the wire to reach, or the 2 meter extension harness (included in the kit) can be used. Polarity does not matter for the fuel pump, so either wire can go in either hole on the connector housing, you can’t get it wrong. When routing the pump wire that comes out of the combustion air intake you can drill a 1/4″ hole just above the “slot” so that when you tighten the clamp it doesn’t pinch the wire. This must be done prior to installing the heater, otherwise it will be almost impossible to get a drill into position to make the hole. Fault Code 07 – Fuel Pump Not Working If you don’t hear the fuel pump working (making a sort of “ticking” sound) during the startup cycle and are getting a 07 fault code below are a few common issues to look for The main plug that connects to the heater is not completely seated. Push down and wiggle at the same time. The wires are not fully inserted and locked into the connector housing that must be installed on the fuel pump wires that exits the intake tube. Sometimes installers don’t get the wires locked into the housing and when they connect to the fuel pump, the pins on the fuel pump connector actually push the unlocked wires back out of the connector housing causing an open circuit or intermittent connection problem. Carefully tug on the two wires, they should not come out. Faulty fuel pump (rare) Clearing Faults/Resetting Heater in Lock-Out ModeIf you do get any type of “flash code” you can turn the heater off and then on again to clear it. However, if you experience 7x faults/flash codes, the heater will go into lock-out mode and you’ll have to reset it with the following procedure: Turn heater on with the controller Remove power to heater by either pulling the fuse that is built into the wiring harness or, if you have another fuse/switch that is easier to access, that will work too Wait 10 seconds Turn the heater off with the controller Restore power to the heater Turn the heater on Routing Exhaust HoseThe exhaust hose should be routed so that it ends up past the outside perimeter of the vehicle. If not, exhaust gas can actually pool under the vehicle and possibly find its way back inside. It doesn’t take much, just getting it an inch away from the vehicle can make a big difference. This is one of those details that is not covered in the installation manual but is addressed in Webasto’s training for professional installers. Deal With DipsA general rule of thumb for all of the combustion tubing is to keep it as short and straight as possible. There is a maximum allowable length and maximum amount of bends detailed in the instruction manual. If you have any “dips” in either the combustion air intake or combustion exhaust outlet hoses you should drill a 6mm (1/4″) hole in the middle of that dip/valley so that condensation water does not collect in those dips causing a partial blockage which could cause a variety of issues including carbon build up in your burner assembly. A common mistake people make is not “pushing down” hard enough when connecting the main wiring harness connector to the heater itself. If you are experiencing issues after your installation, double check that this connection is fully seated into the connector and locked into place. Regular MaintenanceThese heaters need to be run for at least 20 minutes at “full load” (turned all the way up) at every month. This is super important even through the warmer weather months! You should replace the fuel filter at least once a year. If you’re read this far you know that, if you bought a Russian/European heater, it doesn’t even come with a fuel filter. We recommend keeping one or more of these with you in your van (they’re super small). Voltage MattersTypically these Air Top 2000 STC heaters draw less than 2 amps at 12 volts DC which makes them super energy efficient and perfect for off-grid applications. However, during startup, when the “glow plug” is turned on to start the ignition process with the fuel, the power draw can go up to around 10 amps. If your wiring providing power to the heater is long or using a small gauge of wiring, this higher current draw can cause the voltage to drop during this startup phase of operation resulting in a F03 (three long flashes) fault. Webasto Air Top 2000 STC Fault Codes
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Installing A Propane Tank Underneath a Promaster Van with Remote Fill Kit
Note: this post references the propane system in my second build. There is a list to all the parts and materials at the bottom of this post. You can read more about my latest build, Miles Van Camper v3 or check out all the parts I used here. Important disclaimer: propane is explosive and therefore very dangerous! This blog post describes how I went about installing a propane system in my van only. For your safety, you should do your own research when installing a propane system and be sure to have the results inspected for safety by a qualified professional before using it. You can read codes for propane systems in RVs here. There are many ways to add a propane tank to your van build. The simplest approach is to use the the disposable, 1-gallon cylinders which are inexpensive and can be purchased in many places. Others use a small tank that can be refilled such as this 5-gallon capacity tank. These are most often installed in a box inside the van. These storage boxes must be fully sealed and have a vent on the bottom that flows through the floor of the van so that if there are leaks, the propane gas – which sinks because it’s heavier than air – can escape. In my first few builds, I chose to use an RV-style “Horizontal” tank that is ASME-certified and permanently mounted underneath the van. I purchased this replacement tank for Volkwagen Eurovan Winnebago campers that were built between 1995 and 2001 from GoWesty. It’s a 5.9 gallon capacity tank manufactured by Manchester Tank but really only holds about 4.6 gallons. Propane tanks are normally only filled to 80% of their capacity. These horizontal tanks use a special “fill valve” and a “bleeder valve” that is designed to let liquid propane come out when the tank gets to 80% full and signal to the person filling the tank that they should stop filling. There are many of these types of tanks available for RVs but I chose this particular replacement tank because the round tank area is only 8″ in diameter compared to all the other tanks I could find that are 10″ or larger in diameter. This size is important because, even at the smaller size, the tank barely fits where I placed it which is just in front of the rear axle underneath the van. There is an nice opening there that isn’t close to any of the exhaust lines and didn’t interfere with my grey water tank and plumbing which is also located underneath the van on the passenger side. Advantages Since the tank is designed to be mounted underneath the vehicle, any high-pressure leaks are outside the van. All three of the Volkswagen camper vans I owned had these external, horizontal tanks and they always worked great and have been proven safe from years of use in these VW campers and tons of standard RVs. By being outside, it didn’t take up any interior space in my floor plan. This tank includes a fairly accurate gauge that you can “see” (if you crawl up to it under the van) but also connects up to my SeeLevel II tank monitoring system. The other tanks I considered did not have any gauge and the available gauges didn’t have any interface to a centralized tank monitoring system. Despite its location tucked under the van, with the remote fill kit that I added, this tank can be easily filled at any propane filling station without needing to be removed or moved. Start By Wrestling It Into Place The first step was to wrestle this thing into place. Not only is it a tight fit in that cavity under the van but the emergency brake cables are also in the way. I used a jack, blocks of wood and plenty of colorful language getting up there. Then, I marked the the locations for the bolts. There are mounting brackets on both sides of the tank itself. I bolted it into place with heavy-duty galvanized bolts (through the van floor), locking washers and nuts. Below you can see the tank mounted in this location from the front and the rear. Next, I moved onto installing the Nashfuel Remote Fill Kit. This kit replicates the “fill valve” and “bleeder valve” built into the tank itself to a remote location. Often these types of tanks are located on the side of a vehicle van (such as on Volkswagen campers) or inside a compartment on the side of a RV which means that the propane filling station can access the tank, and these valves directly. In my case the remote fill was necessary since nobody is going to crawl under my van to fill the propane tank! The kit comes with all the fittings you need as well as 6 foot long lengths of high-quality hose for the fill and bleeder valve extensions. Essentially you’re using these two hoses (and the various fittings) to extend the valves on the tank to where you want to mount the remote fill. The first step of the installation was to attach the provided fittings to the remote mounting bracket. This kit comes unassembled. In the illustration below you’ll see that on the “back” side of the mounting bracket you need two fittings/adapters to screw into the threads on the bracket itself. This gets you two 1/2″ male flare connections on that “back” side for the hoses. On the “front” side of the bracket you attach the remote fill valve and remote bleeder valve into the threads of the bracket. I used Permatex 80631 Thread Sealant with PTFE to seal all the threads. Honestly, getting all these fittings onto the bracket tightly was the most difficult part of the remote fill kit installation process. Next I had to remove the bleeder valve from the propane tank itself and replace that with an adapter that also has a 1/2″ male flare fitting for the hose that will connect this to the remote bleeder valve. Then I took the plastic cap off the tank’s fill valve and attached up a few fittings from the kit that allow the tank’s fill valve to be connected to the remote fill valve using the second supplied hose. At this point it was time to mount the remote fill bracket. I installed it directly below the fresh water fill and shore power electrical connection on the passenger side of the van at the very bottom of the van wall using rivnuts and two bolts through the provided mounting holes. The paint quality on the metal bracket was poor so I just spray painted it with Black Rust-Oleum. With all the fittings in place, I needed to cut the provided hoses to the correct length and add the flare connectors to hook up the remote valves to the tank itself. This particular kit came with 6′ lengths of hose for both the fill valve and bleeder valve but you can order longer lengths of hose if necessary. The process for installing the flare connections to the hose is pretty well detailed in the kit’s documentation. It was a new experience for me since I have never used that type of connector system. Basically you place part of the fitting into the hose itself and then there is another piece that sort of threads onto this to compress the hose to the fitting. It took me a while to wrap my head around the process but, after completing the first one, the remaining 3x went very fast. Next I connected these hoses from from the tank’s fill and bleeder valve to the same valves on the remote bracket. This was refreshingly simple! To wrap things up I installed this pressure regulator on the outlet of the tank itself. Like most propane appliances, my two devices (Propex heater and cooktop) require pressure-regulated gas. The regulator screws into the tank outlet and I used a 90 degree elbow 3/8″ male NPT to 3/8″ male flare fitting on the regulator’s outlet. From there I used a variety of Marshall 3/8″ flare supply hoses to connect the propane up to the actual appliances. There is only a few feet of this supply line outside the van before it goes up into the van (through a protected PVC sleeve). That exposed section, below the van is protected with a heat shield that protects it from the heat of the exhaust pipes of the van and also protects the hose from rocks and debris. Filling Up The Tank The last step was to fill up the tank! It’s pretty easy to find propane filling stations with Google. I’m always a little bit nervous when I first fill up a brand-new tank/propane system but everything went well. The bleeder valve indicated the tank was full at exactly 4.6 gallons as expected and I drove over to a remote section of the parking lot to check for leaks with a spray bottle of water and dish soap and, of course, my nose. Overall the installation was sound but I did find a very small leak at one of the fittings on the “rear” side of the remote fill bracket that was resolved with a bit of wrenching. Parts & Materials Manchester Tank 5.9 Gallon Capacity This is a replacement tank used on VW Eurovan Campers from 1995-2001. It has a smaller diameter than the other RV style Manchester tanks (8″ versus 10″) which is essential for where I located it underneath the van – just in front of the rear axle. It was quite difficult to wrestle it into that spot and I had to sort of bend the emergency brake cables out of the way but it did fit and is nice and tucked away without affecting the van ground clearance at all. By putting the tank in this location you need a remote fill kit like the one listed below. Since you can’t fill propane tanks up completely, it really only holds 4.6 gallons. Nashfuel Remote Propane Fill Kit with Mounting Bracket Because my propane tank is installed deep underneath the van I needed this “remote fill kit” to be able to fill the tank from the side of the van. The panel is mounted at the bottom of the van body on the drivers side (that side has the water fill and shore power inlets as well). I found it difficult to install this and test for leaks but it does work well and the kit comes with all the parts you need. Manchester Tank G12846 LP Gas Tank Remote 90° OHM Sender This thing is installed onto the tank (above) and sends the tank level to my SeeLevel tank monitoring system. Super handy! Mr. Heater Two Stage Regulator Does the job… I like that this one comes with a plastic cover. Dual Carbon Monoxide and LP Gas Detector/Alarm Great to have this two-in-one unit. It’s installed just front of the galley above the “step/heater cover”. Propane gas “sinks” so you want to install any LP gas detector low to the ground.
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