Webasto?

[gcyeaw]

I have one bad Suburban heter and a second one with a noisy fan motor. I am thinking about installing a Webasto to use the chassis heaters as well as make hot water while boondocking (and keep the 3208 warm). Since I have a 1983 coach, the Suburban heaters are 26 years old, so how much longer can I keep them working before replacing them, at $425 to $500 each.

I know NH-Bill did this, and he is very happy with the results. Has anyone else done it, and what is your experience.

I am thinking that I will need to do some work with thermostat's to run the individual chassis heater fans, and perhaps do some re-plumbing to generate hot water in warm weather, but over all it might be a good upgrade.

Any input would be appreciated.

[Randy Dupree]

Gardner,I do believe i may have something for you!
randy@randydupree.com

[birds_first]

Gardner, What would you have to change out. The Webasto is a heat source, I think all you would have to do is plumb the system into the existing plumbing make sure you have the correct direction on the water flow. Currently the 3208 is the heat source; isn't a matter of plumbing and a pump? Just thinking here I'm not sure. The current thermostats are wired to the existing exchangers and control the fan, I don't think you would have to change out anything there. I would like to do this myself, I know of a guy who installed a Primus system on a 87FC31 and it works great, and I heard that Stephen Birtles & Mike H had installed the Webasto.

[gcyeaw]

John,
I guess it depends on how fancy I want to get, but you are corect, it would go in series with the current system wiht no modifications. I There is only one thermostat for all of the chassis heaters in my coach, and I would like a separate one controlling the sleeping area. It's not a big deal to do. I just need to have a relay system that activates the heat unit no matter which thermostat is calling for heat.

[bubblerboy64]

I also think it would be a real nice thing to do. It's on my list but way down since I have no problems with the heaters (at this point but have had in the past) I can see a couple real nice reasons to do it. First it would be a nice way to warm the coach and engine before take off in the winter and a very nice back up in extremely cold situations. All it takes is money boys. The heaters are pretty pricy I believe.

[Randy Dupree]

I always wanted to connect the generator cooling system to the bus heat,start the genny and heat the bus,and the big engine all at the same time,no money spent on a webasto,and its easy to do.
More fuel money!
I wonder if the genny burns more fuel than a webasto?

[giderich]

Here's the diesel boiler that Mike H uses on his FC...maybe he'll jump in later.

Saw his nice setup at RATS 2009. Maybe better than factory!

http://www.proheat.com/

[Randy Dupree]

All of mikes stuff is better than factory!

[bubblerboy64]

If the generator was "wired" into the engine coolant would it get all of that water sufficiently warm to do any good? Would it hurt the generator to run long enough below ideal temperatures to warm up all that water if it could?

Another consideration is how many BTU's of heat you need. Some of those heaters for truck cabs wouldn't be enough to do the job in a wanderlodge and especially if it's really cold (which would be when I would really want it to work)

[Paul]

The Webasto burns 3gals a day (24 hr day) at 100% duty cycle, which it will never reach.

The genny will consume more fuel.