Hi peeps. Im going to invest in some propex heating and have a question. Cant find the answer in a search so here goes. Im thinking of a twin outlet setup located under the rnr bed with one outlet to warm the back of the van. The other outlet channeled down through the floor and connected up to send heat up front using the std ducting and vents. Has anyone done this? Or would it be a waste of time? Cheers.
I'm having the same set up. My back of van outlet goes in to the original westy vent. The cab will be fitted later (from underneath the van).
There have been a few people on here discussing doing this. I think rickyrooo1 is planning to go down that route, but I don't remember seeing a completed installation.
Dicky, the vent in the bottom middle under RnR. Saves drilling into the wood. I'll try and get an a phot from the inside later if you want.
Sounds do able then guys. I just wanted to get it sorted before I fix the new RnR bed in. Don't wanna have to squeeze that in and out too many times. It's dead heavy.
Yeh I did think about this. Not keen on cutting big holes but seemed to be the best way to route the air up front.
Tis a good question Dicky. Tbh I don't know. Space is limited in the van so if it works underneath then ill do that. Do they work underneath? Not bought it yet. Will get it after my Cornwall trip next week. I've seen a twin outlet for sale for £469 seemed a good price. Not looked at JK yet to see how it compares after some discount!
Propex do an external propex now. Bit pricier but it means you can mount it externally and still be warranty covered etc. If I wanted to replace my air cooled heating I would get rid of the main tube and just use 60 mm ducting all the way through.
Does your bus have a metal duct or the corrucated stuff. I was looking at cutting my metal duct and fitting a corrugated one from the rear cross member to the distrubution valve to the floor vent (behind the front seats and fitting a branch connector like this then either ducting through from inside to out or fitting the, heater outside using my existing heater and just putting it in a box. Would still need a 60mm bole in the floor as the feed air to the heater really needs to come from inside and be re-circulated.
It's a nice idea but look at getting your heating fixed first and then add this. As for the installation, if you have the pipe work under the RnR bed then you are half way there. What you will need to do is modify or adapt the flap box that directs heat to the rear seat area. What Dicky posted up will be perfect. It's destined to allow air flow through from the engine. It won't work if you don't alter it as air from the engine will push the air from the propex back to the propex. This will overheat the unit, cause it to shutdown and could over time cause it to fail. Like for like the engines fan is far greater than the little propex one. An also consider a directional flap for the propex itself if you are doing this. When camped up you'll be wasting luscious heat to the windscreen or can area. Bit pointless if I'm honest. I'd rather have the rear compartment take most of the heat. The system will take forever to heat up the bus this way. And more so if you have the Poptop up. Pmacs has a directional flap in his. But whatever you do, anything is doable. Jut keep us posted. I'm intrigued to see how you get on.
Tbh birds I was gonna forget about the std heating. Even if it was working I wouldn't want to run the engine to keep us warm overnight. I would rather put the money to a unit I can use driving and or stationary. Fixing the existing heating will prob cost as much as the propex and won't necessarily be any better. That's my train of thought. I get the bit about the directional switchable flow. The other alternative is to just setup two vents under the RnR bed but I'm not sure how quickly it will warm up the cab from there. Not that they are big inside to start with lol
It has the pipes all the way to the exchangers but only to the cab as mine was a van. I was looking to remove the standard stuff and use the ducting to run propex heat up front. The std heating doesn't work at all.
You only really need the standard heating when driving along if you have a Propex. Ours is fitted under the R&R and my daughters stay toasty warm whilst Linda and me freeze up front driving around in winter. I have all the bits to reinstall the OG heating just haven't yet as I think its going to be when I next take the engine out. Once you are parked up the Propex gets the whole bus warm pretty quick even from the back.
I've not got a splitter up to the cab, but i would be surprised if the propex has enough umph to demist the screen, it heats the back of a bus nicely, but the in built fan isn't that strong, if you do decide to duct up to the screen i'll be interested in the results, as it to me it just seems a little 'limp' As birdy said get your vans heating sorted for driving and use the propex for camping.
Mines a single vent and is a very popular accessory with Mrs Bot and the mini-bots when winter camping. Chuffing freezing up front when driving though as I think I need to seal the fresh air vents a bit better. I too would be amazed if a plumbed in Propex did much to warm the cab as the heat of the air it blows is nicely warm rather than hot and a long duct under the bus with cold air flying past would probably defeat it I would have thought
