Hello Everybody,
First post.
I camp a lot in tents but after spending three days straight in a tent in the rain at Dolly Sods I swore I'd make a change.
Here it is.
Bought it Wednesday.
Drove it home today.
1999 Ford E-250, 6 cylinder, 125K miles.
Was a home builders work van. Some slight surface rust.
Cargo doors a bit dinged up.
I'm planning on doing a full conversion. Most of the work I'll do myself but some will be beyond my abilities. I'm giving myself a deadline of no later than spring. Van won't fit into my small garage so that will affect how/when I can work on it.
I've been reading this and other conversion forums for a few weeks. It's been a huge help so far. Learned quite a lot already but there's still a lot I don't know. Counting on the pros who frequent this forum for some advice.
Advice like: The previous owner drilled some 3/4 inch holes in the floor for bolted down shelving. Whats the best way to cover these holes from underneath? Should I treat the metal edges of the holes before I start?
Thanks for your time, now and in the future.
WVvan
P.S. I'm thinking of call it "HAL the Van".
Why HAL? Well since my name is Dave....
Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
First post.
I camp a lot in tents but after spending three days straight in a tent in the rain at Dolly Sods I swore I'd make a change.
Here it is.
Bought it Wednesday.
Drove it home today.
1999 Ford E-250, 6 cylinder, 125K miles.
Was a home builders work van. Some slight surface rust.
Cargo doors a bit dinged up.
I'm planning on doing a full conversion. Most of the work I'll do myself but some will be beyond my abilities. I'm giving myself a deadline of no later than spring. Van won't fit into my small garage so that will affect how/when I can work on it.
I've been reading this and other conversion forums for a few weeks. It's been a huge help so far. Learned quite a lot already but there's still a lot I don't know. Counting on the pros who frequent this forum for some advice.
Advice like: The previous owner drilled some 3/4 inch holes in the floor for bolted down shelving. Whats the best way to cover these holes from underneath? Should I treat the metal edges of the holes before I start?
Thanks for your time, now and in the future.
WVvan
P.S. I'm thinking of call it "HAL the Van".
Why HAL? Well since my name is Dave....
Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
Webasto heater install continued:
With the heater running and my hand on the van I could feel the clicks from the fuel pump. I need to do a better job of isolating it. I used the backup fuel pump for this.
Here's some pictures of the info on the pump.
I'm going to redo both the pump mounting and the way it's bolted to the van. Use a piece of heater hose as my rubber supplier.
Cut a piece off the hose the same length as the fat part of the pump.
Split the hose down it's length then wrap around the fuel pump. You can see that one piece warps around the pump a little more than half.
Cut and split a second piece of heater hose and wrap around the pump.
Trim off the piece of hose that overlaps. Add a second layer of rubber hose using the same method. Stagger the cuts from the two different layers so they don't line up.
Screw clamp the pump with it's new mounting to the metal bracket.
Be sure you're using good quality screw clamps. A lot of foreign/inferior ones floating around.
Cut and drill a couple of pieces of hose to isolate the metal bracket from the van body.
Check the the two rubber squares are larger that the washers I'm using and that the bolt fits.
One piece of rubber goes on each side of the van body.
Bolt the new pump mount into place and attach the fuels lines.
This new mounting worked much better in isolating the pump clicking from the van body. I won't claim it's 100% effective but close enough.
continued -
With the heater running and my hand on the van I could feel the clicks from the fuel pump. I need to do a better job of isolating it. I used the backup fuel pump for this.
Here's some pictures of the info on the pump.
I'm going to redo both the pump mounting and the way it's bolted to the van. Use a piece of heater hose as my rubber supplier.
Cut a piece off the hose the same length as the fat part of the pump.
Split the hose down it's length then wrap around the fuel pump. You can see that one piece warps around the pump a little more than half.
Cut and split a second piece of heater hose and wrap around the pump.
Trim off the piece of hose that overlaps. Add a second layer of rubber hose using the same method. Stagger the cuts from the two different layers so they don't line up.
Screw clamp the pump with it's new mounting to the metal bracket.
Be sure you're using good quality screw clamps. A lot of foreign/inferior ones floating around.
Cut and drill a couple of pieces of hose to isolate the metal bracket from the van body.
Check the the two rubber squares are larger that the washers I'm using and that the bolt fits.
One piece of rubber goes on each side of the van body.
Bolt the new pump mount into place and attach the fuels lines.
This new mounting worked much better in isolating the pump clicking from the van body. I won't claim it's 100% effective but close enough.
continued -
Webasto heater install continued:
With the heater and fuel pump installed and approved it's time to fire it up. The Kwik-E-Mart up the road has a kerosene pump. The plan was to use kerosene to keep down coking inside the heater that can happen with diesel fuel. One slight problem with this plan. The kerosene pump is set up with a very short hose.
They obviously don't want it used to fuel vehicles. I had to get the van as close as possible to the pump before the nozzle would reach the fuel inlet. And while I was using the pump one of the cashiers came outside to see what I was doing.
This was the first time since it was installed in the van that the gas tank had been filled. I hadn't added a separate vent line hoping that if I just filled it slowly enough there wouldn't be fuel blow-back. I'm happy to report that it fills just fine if I keep fuel nozzle on the first notch. As a test I opened up the nozzle all the way. I won't be doing that again.
Get the van back home and wire up the heater to two 6 volt batteries (in series - 12v).
Start it up.
I'd like to say it started right away but not so lucky. The fan starts then you can hear the clicking from the fuel pump. After awhile when it doesn't start properly the heater will shut down and the light on the controller will start flashing. The number of flashes indicate an error code. To clear the code you remove power to the unit. By removing the fuel line on the outlet side of the pump and starting the heater it was obvious no fuel was getting through.
I had some help figuring that out.
I double and triple checked all the fuel line connections and they were tight. I'd bought a used second fuel pump on ebay, just in case. So I hooked up the second pump and got the same results. Next up I taped a clear plastic tube to the fuel line and started a siphon.
If you have to ask why I've attached a clear tube then it means you've never siphoned gas by mouth before.
Once I got kerosene to this side of the van and hooked everything up I found the problem. It's where the plastic fuel line slides into the rubber hose fitting on the inlet side of the fuel filter. I had the screw clamp so tight the fuel line couldn't be pulled from the hose but kerosene would still seep out. When the pump was running air must have been getting in through the fitting preventing the pump from drawing. To get a good seal I had to tighten on the screw clamps right up to the point where it felt that they would fail.
Since I had both fuel pumps out I decided to check them against each other by measuring their output. Both pumps are the same. 45 "clicks" gives you approximately 3cc's of fuel.
1 click =~ 1/15 cc
1 gal =~ 3 785 cc
1 click =~ 1.76e -5 gal
1 gal kerosene = $3.50 (locally)
1 click =~ $0.00006
Use a jackstand to temporarily hold the flexible exhaust hose in place. Start up the heater.
With the fuel problems worked out it ran just fine. Here's the
Youtube video of the heater running.
continued -
With the heater and fuel pump installed and approved it's time to fire it up. The Kwik-E-Mart up the road has a kerosene pump. The plan was to use kerosene to keep down coking inside the heater that can happen with diesel fuel. One slight problem with this plan. The kerosene pump is set up with a very short hose.
They obviously don't want it used to fuel vehicles. I had to get the van as close as possible to the pump before the nozzle would reach the fuel inlet. And while I was using the pump one of the cashiers came outside to see what I was doing.
This was the first time since it was installed in the van that the gas tank had been filled. I hadn't added a separate vent line hoping that if I just filled it slowly enough there wouldn't be fuel blow-back. I'm happy to report that it fills just fine if I keep fuel nozzle on the first notch. As a test I opened up the nozzle all the way. I won't be doing that again.
Get the van back home and wire up the heater to two 6 volt batteries (in series - 12v).
Start it up.
I'd like to say it started right away but not so lucky. The fan starts then you can hear the clicking from the fuel pump. After awhile when it doesn't start properly the heater will shut down and the light on the controller will start flashing. The number of flashes indicate an error code. To clear the code you remove power to the unit. By removing the fuel line on the outlet side of the pump and starting the heater it was obvious no fuel was getting through.
I had some help figuring that out.
I double and triple checked all the fuel line connections and they were tight. I'd bought a used second fuel pump on ebay, just in case. So I hooked up the second pump and got the same results. Next up I taped a clear plastic tube to the fuel line and started a siphon.
If you have to ask why I've attached a clear tube then it means you've never siphoned gas by mouth before.
Once I got kerosene to this side of the van and hooked everything up I found the problem. It's where the plastic fuel line slides into the rubber hose fitting on the inlet side of the fuel filter. I had the screw clamp so tight the fuel line couldn't be pulled from the hose but kerosene would still seep out. When the pump was running air must have been getting in through the fitting preventing the pump from drawing. To get a good seal I had to tighten on the screw clamps right up to the point where it felt that they would fail.
Since I had both fuel pumps out I decided to check them against each other by measuring their output. Both pumps are the same. 45 "clicks" gives you approximately 3cc's of fuel.
1 click =~ 1/15 cc
1 gal =~ 3 785 cc
1 click =~ 1.76e -5 gal
1 gal kerosene = $3.50 (locally)
1 click =~ $0.00006
Use a jackstand to temporarily hold the flexible exhaust hose in place. Start up the heater.
With the fuel problems worked out it ran just fine. Here's the
Youtube video of the heater running.
continued -
Webasto heater install continued:
Route the fuel line to the pump and trim off excess.
After having seen how small the fuel inlet was on the Webasto I decided to add a fuel filter.
Add the filter to the pump inlet side. The short pieces of hose and clamps came with the fuel line kit.
Insert the fuel hose into the the other end of the fuel filter.
Take some of the leftover fuel line and use it to connect the outlet side of the pump to the heater inlet.
Here's how the pump looked with all lines attached.
Had to get the supervisor's approval before proceeding. By aligning his sight with the bottom edge of the van he used that as a guide to decide if the pump was installed level or not.
It passed.
continued -
Route the fuel line to the pump and trim off excess.
After having seen how small the fuel inlet was on the Webasto I decided to add a fuel filter.
Add the filter to the pump inlet side. The short pieces of hose and clamps came with the fuel line kit.
Insert the fuel hose into the the other end of the fuel filter.
Take some of the leftover fuel line and use it to connect the outlet side of the pump to the heater inlet.
Here's how the pump looked with all lines attached.
Had to get the supervisor's approval before proceeding. By aligning his sight with the bottom edge of the van he used that as a guide to decide if the pump was installed level or not.
It passed.
continued -
Webasto heater install continued:
When I ran the flexible electrical conduit under the van I left it's final positioning until after I had a better idea of where the heater would go since they would be sharing the space under the van around the side step.
Now with the heater in place I can finalize the conduit install. First take some measurements. Notice these holes in the frame beam. I'll be using them.
One the other side of this frame beam is the exhaust system. Covering the exhaust system is the exhaust shield. As you can see in this picture the conduit is close to the shield while the fuel line is resting on it. I want to keep both the conduit and fuel line farther away from the shield so I'll need to raise both of them up. Use the measurements to construct a metal support.
Here are some of my practice welds. I've been cutting the long steel stock into short pieces and welding them together. Secure the welded pieces to the vise and use a wrench to stress the joints until they fail. Then check weld penetration on the separated pieces. Getting better but not there yet.
But good enough to make something like this T-brace.
Line up the T-brace with two holes in the frame beam and mark with soapstone where the conduit will cross the top of the brace.
Drill out holes on each side of the conduit path.
Need to transfer the location of the two holes in the frame beam onto the T-brace. I had trouble using the soapstone so cut out a poster board template.
Reach around inside the frame beam and mark through the holes onto the template with a sharp pencil.
Using the template as a guide drill bolt holes onto the T-brace. Bolt the T-brace to the frame beam.
View from the other side of the beam.
Route cable ties through the two holes on the top of the T-brace and around the conduit then secure.
Use more cable ties to secure the conduit farther along to the side of the frame beam.
This will keep it from hanging down. I'm counting on the cable ties being tough enough to hold the conduit in place. I'll check it after some use to see how it's standing up.
I next secured the heater fuel hose to the conduit at the top of the T-brace with cable ties.
Here's the "after" picture looking across the exhaust shield. Both the conduit and fuel line are now suspended above the top of the shield.
continued -
When I ran the flexible electrical conduit under the van I left it's final positioning until after I had a better idea of where the heater would go since they would be sharing the space under the van around the side step.
Now with the heater in place I can finalize the conduit install. First take some measurements. Notice these holes in the frame beam. I'll be using them.
One the other side of this frame beam is the exhaust system. Covering the exhaust system is the exhaust shield. As you can see in this picture the conduit is close to the shield while the fuel line is resting on it. I want to keep both the conduit and fuel line farther away from the shield so I'll need to raise both of them up. Use the measurements to construct a metal support.
Here are some of my practice welds. I've been cutting the long steel stock into short pieces and welding them together. Secure the welded pieces to the vise and use a wrench to stress the joints until they fail. Then check weld penetration on the separated pieces. Getting better but not there yet.
But good enough to make something like this T-brace.
Line up the T-brace with two holes in the frame beam and mark with soapstone where the conduit will cross the top of the brace.
Drill out holes on each side of the conduit path.
Need to transfer the location of the two holes in the frame beam onto the T-brace. I had trouble using the soapstone so cut out a poster board template.
Reach around inside the frame beam and mark through the holes onto the template with a sharp pencil.
Using the template as a guide drill bolt holes onto the T-brace. Bolt the T-brace to the frame beam.
View from the other side of the beam.
Route cable ties through the two holes on the top of the T-brace and around the conduit then secure.
Use more cable ties to secure the conduit farther along to the side of the frame beam.
This will keep it from hanging down. I'm counting on the cable ties being tough enough to hold the conduit in place. I'll check it after some use to see how it's standing up.
I next secured the heater fuel hose to the conduit at the top of the T-brace with cable ties.
Here's the "after" picture looking across the exhaust shield. Both the conduit and fuel line are now suspended above the top of the shield.
continued -
Webasto heater install continued:
With the rustproofing dry check how the heater's rubber gasket will lay.
Slide the gasket onto the heater. There is a lip on the side of the gasket that goes against the heater. The bottom side is flat.
Install the heater onto the van step and secure with lock washers and nuts.
The wire is for the fuel pump.
Next up is the fuel pump installation.
This was a used heater and came with no manuals but you can get download them from the techwebasto.com web site.
I have my fuel pump laying on a manual page that shows the direction of fuel flow. The outlet side of the pump is the same side that has the electrical connection (right side in this picture).
The manual page identifies that plastic piece on the right end as a "damper".
While laying under the van try to find the best place to position the pump.
There is a plastic clip that extends through the van floor. Instead of drilling a new hole for the pump mount I'll remove the clip and use it's hole.
I'll need to fabricate a mount for the fuel pump. I'm using this piece of 3/16" x 1" Flat Bar Steel Alloy (ASTM A36).
It comes from a load of steel stock I bought to practice welding on.
Put a couple of bends in the bar. Clamp it into my vise and use a large wrench to bend it.
This gives me a place to mount the pump.
Add another bend to complete.
Using the plastic clip as a guide to where the bolt hole for the mount should be drilled.
The fuel pump is a "pulse" type. It "clicks" as it pumps. I want to isolate the pump so that the clicking isn't transmitted to the van body. I'm going to do this two different ways.
Use rubber washers between the van body and the pump mount.
Use an old inner tube between the pump and the pump mount.
Here is the first version. Warning: It will be changed.
I wanted to keep the pump close to the heater while using the already-in-place clip hole. This dictated the length of the mount. After a test fit I didn't like the "leverage" of the mount at the pump end so shorted it.
Next version. Use screw clamp to secure the rubber wrapped fuel pump to the mount.
Add some silicone to seal the hole in the van step and bolt the pump mount into place.
The rubber washers are between the large washer and the van body on both sides of the hole
The electrical wire to the pump is longer than needed so I've used a cable tie to to curl up the excesses and keep it from dangling down.
continued :
With the rustproofing dry check how the heater's rubber gasket will lay.
Slide the gasket onto the heater. There is a lip on the side of the gasket that goes against the heater. The bottom side is flat.
Install the heater onto the van step and secure with lock washers and nuts.
The wire is for the fuel pump.
Next up is the fuel pump installation.
This was a used heater and came with no manuals but you can get download them from the techwebasto.com web site.
I have my fuel pump laying on a manual page that shows the direction of fuel flow. The outlet side of the pump is the same side that has the electrical connection (right side in this picture).
The manual page identifies that plastic piece on the right end as a "damper".
While laying under the van try to find the best place to position the pump.
There is a plastic clip that extends through the van floor. Instead of drilling a new hole for the pump mount I'll remove the clip and use it's hole.
I'll need to fabricate a mount for the fuel pump. I'm using this piece of 3/16" x 1" Flat Bar Steel Alloy (ASTM A36).
It comes from a load of steel stock I bought to practice welding on.
Put a couple of bends in the bar. Clamp it into my vise and use a large wrench to bend it.
This gives me a place to mount the pump.
Add another bend to complete.
Using the plastic clip as a guide to where the bolt hole for the mount should be drilled.
The fuel pump is a "pulse" type. It "clicks" as it pumps. I want to isolate the pump so that the clicking isn't transmitted to the van body. I'm going to do this two different ways.
Use rubber washers between the van body and the pump mount.
Use an old inner tube between the pump and the pump mount.
Here is the first version. Warning: It will be changed.
I wanted to keep the pump close to the heater while using the already-in-place clip hole. This dictated the length of the mount. After a test fit I didn't like the "leverage" of the mount at the pump end so shorted it.
Next version. Use screw clamp to secure the rubber wrapped fuel pump to the mount.
Add some silicone to seal the hole in the van step and bolt the pump mount into place.
The rubber washers are between the large washer and the van body on both sides of the hole
The electrical wire to the pump is longer than needed so I've used a cable tie to to curl up the excesses and keep it from dangling down.
continued :
I hadn't seen those 90 degrees end caps before.
I "bricked" my main home computer while flashing the BIOS so haven't been able to do one of my usual project updates. While I wait for a new motherboard here's a picture from a couple days ago.
A tore down Webasto Airtop 2000.
I "bricked" my main home computer while flashing the BIOS so haven't been able to do one of my usual project updates. While I wait for a new motherboard here's a picture from a couple days ago.
A tore down Webasto Airtop 2000.
Phil Hendrix wrote:
I like your choice of placement for the heater. That is where I am installing the Espar heater in my sprinter...and for the same reasons. Very easy to see/service in the future. I have a kitchen cabinet over mine and plan to run the ductwork thru the toekick in a couple locations.
Thanks,
Phil
If you need any parts for your install, Espar of Michigan is a good source.
FWIW in the picture below of my Espar, are optional 90 degree end caps.
With the recent short warm spell I started on getting the Webasto heater installed. Unfortunately the warm weather didn't last.
I bought the heater used off of ebay. It came with a with the fuel pump, mounting plate, hose clamps, 3 short sections of flexible hoses, one each for the combustion air intake, combustion exhaust and hot air exhaust.
The heater was mounted to this metal plate with the rusted studs and nuts. The studs are metric.
I couldn't find exact replacements for the studs but I did find metric bolts sized M6 - 1.00 x 40 at Lowe's. These are the same thread size so just cut the heads off the bolts. Also bought metric nuts to match.
I'll mount the heater on the side step. I've already removed the plastic step.
I think this is the best place for the heater for two reasons. One is it's easy to reach if it needs servicing. In my interior design there will be a cabinet mounted over the heater so it will be protected. A better reason is that this places the heater's air intake in what would be the coldest point in the van. Since cold air sinks this makes the best sense. Credit for this idea goes to Diyvanner.
Cut away the insulation from the mount point.
To mount the heater I'll need to drill holes through the step. This is the bottom view of the heater. Need 4 holes for the mounting studs, two for the inlet and outlet ports and one for the fuel connection.
Start with the stud holes. I know the studs are 6mm in diameter. Use the Pocket Ref to find the next size larger in a drill bit I'll have on hand. Go down the page to 1/4".
Here's what that part of the step looks like from underneath before I begin.
Wanted to use the mounting plate as a hole guide but it won't fit on the step.
Transfer the hole locations to a board then use the board as a drilling guide.
When drilling the holes, don't do them all at once but drill one and insert the threaded stud before moving on to the next. This will help keep everything in line.
Next are the two holes for the exhaust and inlet ports. Use the caliper to get the OD size. It's 22mm.
Use the small chart that came with my hole saw set. The hole saw for 22mm is 7/8".
Each port is dead center between the two closest stud holes.
Use a punch to make a indent at the center point so the drill bit won't wander when I start the hole.
A little coal mining trivia for you. The punch in the above picture is actually a mining bit. Underground mining machines have moving heads covered with a series of these types of bits. It's these bits which do the actual cutting of the coal off the face of the seam. To withstand the extreme abuse these bits are made of specially hardened metal.
It also makes a great punch that will keep a sharp point forever.
Use the hole saw for the two ports.
Use a couple round files to clean up the edges of the holes.
Set the heater in place and mark the location of the fuel inlet.
Measure the fuel inlet and select a drill bit. Notice how small the opening is at the end of the fuel inlet.
This is the connector for the fuel pump which is to be mounted under the van. It has to fit through the hole for the combustion inlet air port. Not going to happen.
Use the jig saw to enlarge the inlet port hole by joining the it with the fuel inlet hole.
This allows the connector to fit through the enlarged hole.
Fit heater into place.
Screw the studs into place to see if they fit. I could lie and say I got it perfect the first time but in actuality the stud holes needed enlarged slightly with the small round file before everything lined up.
If I'd used a larger drill bit on the stud holes then adjustments might not have been needed. There isn't a lot of distance between the stud holes and the port holes so didn't want to take away any more metal than I had to.
Get the supervisor's approval on heater placement.
Remove the heater and rustproof the holes. Wait for the rustproofing to dry.
continued -
I bought the heater used off of ebay. It came with a with the fuel pump, mounting plate, hose clamps, 3 short sections of flexible hoses, one each for the combustion air intake, combustion exhaust and hot air exhaust.
The heater was mounted to this metal plate with the rusted studs and nuts. The studs are metric.
I couldn't find exact replacements for the studs but I did find metric bolts sized M6 - 1.00 x 40 at Lowe's. These are the same thread size so just cut the heads off the bolts. Also bought metric nuts to match.
I'll mount the heater on the side step. I've already removed the plastic step.
I think this is the best place for the heater for two reasons. One is it's easy to reach if it needs servicing. In my interior design there will be a cabinet mounted over the heater so it will be protected. A better reason is that this places the heater's air intake in what would be the coldest point in the van. Since cold air sinks this makes the best sense. Credit for this idea goes to Diyvanner.
Cut away the insulation from the mount point.
To mount the heater I'll need to drill holes through the step. This is the bottom view of the heater. Need 4 holes for the mounting studs, two for the inlet and outlet ports and one for the fuel connection.
Start with the stud holes. I know the studs are 6mm in diameter. Use the Pocket Ref to find the next size larger in a drill bit I'll have on hand. Go down the page to 1/4".
Here's what that part of the step looks like from underneath before I begin.
Wanted to use the mounting plate as a hole guide but it won't fit on the step.
Transfer the hole locations to a board then use the board as a drilling guide.
When drilling the holes, don't do them all at once but drill one and insert the threaded stud before moving on to the next. This will help keep everything in line.
Next are the two holes for the exhaust and inlet ports. Use the caliper to get the OD size. It's 22mm.
Use the small chart that came with my hole saw set. The hole saw for 22mm is 7/8".
Each port is dead center between the two closest stud holes.
Use a punch to make a indent at the center point so the drill bit won't wander when I start the hole.
A little coal mining trivia for you. The punch in the above picture is actually a mining bit. Underground mining machines have moving heads covered with a series of these types of bits. It's these bits which do the actual cutting of the coal off the face of the seam. To withstand the extreme abuse these bits are made of specially hardened metal.
It also makes a great punch that will keep a sharp point forever.
Use the hole saw for the two ports.
Use a couple round files to clean up the edges of the holes.
Set the heater in place and mark the location of the fuel inlet.
Measure the fuel inlet and select a drill bit. Notice how small the opening is at the end of the fuel inlet.
This is the connector for the fuel pump which is to be mounted under the van. It has to fit through the hole for the combustion inlet air port. Not going to happen.
Use the jig saw to enlarge the inlet port hole by joining the it with the fuel inlet hole.
This allows the connector to fit through the enlarged hole.
Fit heater into place.
Screw the studs into place to see if they fit. I could lie and say I got it perfect the first time but in actuality the stud holes needed enlarged slightly with the small round file before everything lined up.
If I'd used a larger drill bit on the stud holes then adjustments might not have been needed. There isn't a lot of distance between the stud holes and the port holes so didn't want to take away any more metal than I had to.
Get the supervisor's approval on heater placement.
Remove the heater and rustproof the holes. Wait for the rustproofing to dry.
continued -
If ever get bored, count clicks, 1000 clicks add up to 6 cents.Kind of like counting sheep.
Light fixture upgrade continued :
Now that I've figured out what leds I'll be placing in the fixture, time to remove the old florescent light's wiring.
It's held in place by pop rivets.
Drill out the center of the rivet.
After a few of these, this is what your drill bit looks like.
With the florescent wiring gone I noticed the extra space within the light fixture. It got me to thinking and I decide to use that extra space to add some more leds.
Since I already had white light I thought I'd add some "Das Boot" lights. These will be like the red lights you see in just about every submarine movie that's not in black and white. They are so the crew can go from inside the sub to the outside without having their night vision ruined. Should work the same way for me when camping.
I'll be using a different type of led than the white ones I used before. Here is what they look like. It's a high powered "star type" led.
Since these leds are high power I'll only be using two of the red ones while I used 114 of the white leds.
One of these red leds will use 350 milliamps while a single white led only needs 20 milliamps. 1 amp = 1000 milliamps Along with extra light the led produces extra heat. So much extra heat that a separate heat sink is required. The data sheet reads that they are not to be run longer than 5 seconds without one.
The star board under the led, beside providing pads for soldering on wires, gives an attachment point for a heat sink.
I'll use silicone to mount the star boards onto the metal of the light fixture. It's more than large enough to act as a heat sink and safely dissipate the excess heat.
There's another consideration with high power leds. The voltage supplied by the van can vary by several volts. On the lower powered white leds it's not a problem. You can run them with just a resistor wired in series to limit the current so they don't burn out. For the high powered leds it's another matter. The led you see in the above picture and another one just like it I managed to burn out while doing this upgrade.
To safely power the red leds I'm using a small circuit board called a "constant current regulated led driver". This will keep a constant current flowing to the leds even if the input voltage changes.
Here's what a couple of the led regulator circuit boards look like.
The regulator board arrives with these metal pins used for plugging them into a light fixture.
Use a soldering iron to remove the pins and replace them with wires.
This regulator board will work with both AC and DC. Since it's being used for DC I could increase it's energy efficiency a small amount by bypassing these four diodes.
For size comparison that's a toothpick below them. I 'm not that good with a soldering iron so it will remain unchanged.
I need a way to secure the regulator board to the light fixture. Use a scrap piece of left over acrylic and cut out three small blocks then glue the two small ones onto the larger one.
The regulator board has small tabs on each side.
Use a hacksaw to cut grooves on each side of the acrylic holder to match those tabs.
Add some silicone then slide the board into place.
Clean off the metal surface of the light fixture along with the back of the led stars with alcohol.
Silicone everything into place then let it set up.
Wire the red leds to a small switch and mount through the side of the fixture opposite from the original power switch.
Test it out.
The red leds draw 0.16 amps. The photoresistor gives a read of 4.8 without the diffuser and 6.8 with it. So the red lights aren't as bright as the white leds or the original florescent light but they are still plenty bright and use a little more than a 1/10 as much power.
Next attach the white leds by putting dabs of silicone onto the back of the plastic trays that hold the led boards.
Put the led boards into the trays and secure them to the fixture.
The led boards would slide back in forth in the trays so secure in place with some more silicone. Let it all set overnight.
Wire it all together. The white leds are wired to the original switch for the florescent light. The two sets of leds light independent of each other.
Install back into the van.
My visibly bored supervisor for this project.
List of parts.
DealExtreme
12V 75-LED White Light Strip - $10.28 Used 1 and 1/2 of these.
300~350mA Constant Current Regulated LED Driver (12~16V Input) - $2.25
Mouser
Z Power LED, P4 Series, Red - 2 x $3.88
The small switch I had on hand. The 2 leds I burned out were from DealExtreme so they were cheaper than the Mouser ones.
I have a question. To hold the light fixture on edge I used a couple of these.
It's a rectangular steel "brick" that has "SUP-R-DIE" written on the side. I found them among my Dad's tools. Dad was a Tool and Die Maker. They're kind of handy. Any one know what they were specifically used for?
WVvan wrote:
I did measure the fuel outputted by the pump.
45 "clicks" on the Webasto dosing pump gives you approximately 3cc's of fuel.
1 click =~ 1/15 cc
1 gal =~ 3 785 cc
1 click =~ 0.0000176 gal
1 gal kerosene = $3.50 (locally)
1 click =~ $0.00006
If ever get bored, count clicks, 1000 clicks add up to 6 cents.
The mini jet engine exhaust noise is a very 'local' sound.
A muffler may not be required.
Really like our diesel heater. They are so cheap to operate, that when we're out and about around town (shopping, visiting etc) in the winter, with our Rig, I just leave it running all day.
