I have heard good things about the oxygenics RV specific ones. My brother recommended it, I haven't upgraded on my rig yet though
Cummins Canoe (A Stepvan Story)
- Thread starter PlethoraOfGuns
- Start date
PlethoraOfGuns
Adventurer
Yes, we'll look into one of those air-infused or whatever shower heads. Seems like a great way to get good pressure while saving water.
PlethoraOfGuns
Adventurer
Solar work continues. Can't wait to finally get all the wiring done!
Drilled yet another hole through the roof. Luckily, this hole is in the cab area and we don't care if that leaks because it's not finished and fancy in there. Simple pvc junction box, pvc pipe, and some waterproof connectors for the wires.
Don't forget the Dicor. In, on, under, and over everything. Can't have too much of the stuff.
All done. I know, they make those fancy aerodynamic cable entry boxes for solar installs. But c'mon, have you seen this van? This box is the least of our worries. It's also what we had laying around.
Pipe extends down past all the sharp metal and connects to the interior wiring. We already have circuit breakers mounted in the back for the solar equipment, but with these wires traveling to those circuit breakers through the interior walls makes me nervous. So we added an additional fuse on the positive leg. What I tell all the girls, wouldn't hurt to have extra protection. Because you know, football is dangerous. This area is up above the driver seat. At some point we'll build a cabinet or something up there where those wires will be up in.
And look at that. We're finally charging the batteries!
Drilled yet another hole through the roof. Luckily, this hole is in the cab area and we don't care if that leaks because it's not finished and fancy in there. Simple pvc junction box, pvc pipe, and some waterproof connectors for the wires.
Don't forget the Dicor. In, on, under, and over everything. Can't have too much of the stuff.
All done. I know, they make those fancy aerodynamic cable entry boxes for solar installs. But c'mon, have you seen this van? This box is the least of our worries. It's also what we had laying around.
Pipe extends down past all the sharp metal and connects to the interior wiring. We already have circuit breakers mounted in the back for the solar equipment, but with these wires traveling to those circuit breakers through the interior walls makes me nervous. So we added an additional fuse on the positive leg. What I tell all the girls, wouldn't hurt to have extra protection. Because you know, football is dangerous. This area is up above the driver seat. At some point we'll build a cabinet or something up there where those wires will be up in.
And look at that. We're finally charging the batteries!
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PlethoraOfGuns
Adventurer
Plumbing, check. Electricity, check. HVAC?
Oh boy, here we go. What we have here is most of the components to do a fully integrated hydronic heating system. We got an Eberspacher 17700 btu 12v diesel boiler. The boiler will heat a coolant loop through either the engine, or the water heater, forced air heater blower, hot tub heat exchanger(details on that future project later), and cab heater core, all in that order, plumbed in series. Over our heads? Maybe a bit, but we're going with it. Took it very slow and drew lots of napkin diagrams.
First things first, easy inside stuff. Snaked some wires and such. Glad to see our insulation is still doing good.
Got the air heater thermostat controller installed. With the boiler running in idle, turning the thermostat up will kick fan on. Fan will blow air through heater taking heat away from coolant loop. When low temperature coolant returns to boiler, boiler will kick on automatically until coolant reaches high enough temperature so boiler can kick off and go back into idle. In idle mode, the boiler is off but a circulation pump is always running on low, keeping coolant moving.
Forced air heater installed. Basically a heater core, but to heat the rear living area. Had to run and solder all our own wires. Cut out the original wiring harness that came with this stuff as we're repurposing it for this mess of an idea. The circuit box in the upper lefthand corner is the speed control box for the fan.
Mounted the controller for the boiler on the wall next to the sink, where it is easy to get to from either the rear, or the cab. Primary function of the boiler will be for hot water and air heat, but we're going to somehow plumb it into the engine to preheat that up on those super cold days. Basically a block heater without having to plug in to an outlet. Although technically we could also run the block heater off the inverter. But these boiler units from Germany were originally designed for commercial trucks to preheat the engine in the morning before starting the work day. The controller has a timer function, but we're going to use it on infinite automatic mode.
The boiler system needs diesel from somewhere. Options were to install a separate fuel tank, tee off the fuel line going to the engine, or install our own pickup tube in the existing fuel tank. Since the new sending unit read 1/4 tank too low, it was a no-brainer to drop the tank since we had to bend the float wire anyway. A huge unfortunate thing we had to do was remove the fuel tank, again! The gauge in the dash said it was empty, but when we unbolted it, we had to catch the tank onto our chests with 15 gallons in it! Nice little surprise. We emptied the tank before reinstalling it. It has been very annoying with the gauge reading empty, but you still have 15 gallons in the tank...
Drilled a new hole in the new sending unit we installed months ago and installed new pickup tube. Ran the boiler fuel line and encased it in wire loom for extra protection.
As soon as we left the fuel tank we installed the fuel pump for the boiler. Up next we'll be running a complex system of coolant lines all over the place.
Oh boy, here we go. What we have here is most of the components to do a fully integrated hydronic heating system. We got an Eberspacher 17700 btu 12v diesel boiler. The boiler will heat a coolant loop through either the engine, or the water heater, forced air heater blower, hot tub heat exchanger(details on that future project later), and cab heater core, all in that order, plumbed in series. Over our heads? Maybe a bit, but we're going with it. Took it very slow and drew lots of napkin diagrams.
First things first, easy inside stuff. Snaked some wires and such. Glad to see our insulation is still doing good.
Got the air heater thermostat controller installed. With the boiler running in idle, turning the thermostat up will kick fan on. Fan will blow air through heater taking heat away from coolant loop. When low temperature coolant returns to boiler, boiler will kick on automatically until coolant reaches high enough temperature so boiler can kick off and go back into idle. In idle mode, the boiler is off but a circulation pump is always running on low, keeping coolant moving.
Forced air heater installed. Basically a heater core, but to heat the rear living area. Had to run and solder all our own wires. Cut out the original wiring harness that came with this stuff as we're repurposing it for this mess of an idea. The circuit box in the upper lefthand corner is the speed control box for the fan.
Mounted the controller for the boiler on the wall next to the sink, where it is easy to get to from either the rear, or the cab. Primary function of the boiler will be for hot water and air heat, but we're going to somehow plumb it into the engine to preheat that up on those super cold days. Basically a block heater without having to plug in to an outlet. Although technically we could also run the block heater off the inverter. But these boiler units from Germany were originally designed for commercial trucks to preheat the engine in the morning before starting the work day. The controller has a timer function, but we're going to use it on infinite automatic mode.
The boiler system needs diesel from somewhere. Options were to install a separate fuel tank, tee off the fuel line going to the engine, or install our own pickup tube in the existing fuel tank. Since the new sending unit read 1/4 tank too low, it was a no-brainer to drop the tank since we had to bend the float wire anyway. A huge unfortunate thing we had to do was remove the fuel tank, again! The gauge in the dash said it was empty, but when we unbolted it, we had to catch the tank onto our chests with 15 gallons in it! Nice little surprise. We emptied the tank before reinstalling it. It has been very annoying with the gauge reading empty, but you still have 15 gallons in the tank...
Drilled a new hole in the new sending unit we installed months ago and installed new pickup tube. Ran the boiler fuel line and encased it in wire loom for extra protection.
As soon as we left the fuel tank we installed the fuel pump for the boiler. Up next we'll be running a complex system of coolant lines all over the place.
Just found this thread - awesome!
I've wanted a step van for forever; just seem the like the ultimate in handy. A couple of us at work were going to go in on one, but got outbid at the last second. Shame, because I can't keep one at the house. Well, at least not at the same time as a wife
I've wanted a step van for forever; just seem the like the ultimate in handy. A couple of us at work were going to go in on one, but got outbid at the last second. Shame, because I can't keep one at the house. Well, at least not at the same time as a wife
PlethoraOfGuns
Adventurer
Just do it! They are super slow, loud, and uncomfortable. Wouldn't trade it for anything! Except for that engine fiasco, I actually look forward to repairs because it's the easiest vehicle ever to work on. Get your wife one too. They make small ones like car sized! I'm obviously not married so I can do this stupid stuff.
PlethoraOfGuns
Adventurer
Hydronic heating system continues. Figuring out this Eberspacher boiler heater. After dozens of hours of research and tinkering, I now consider myself an expert. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions and I'll surely try to help you out as best I can.
One problem with all these components from Europe, is that none of it is in English! We've had this stuff sitting around for awhile and have really been dreading this project due to the complexity and language barrier. But going slowly and using a Polish friend who speaks some German and labeling things once we figured out what it does, we got this.
Welded up a mount for the boiler using some scrap aluminum we had laying around. Mounted it up under body, next to the shower box, behind the passenger seat. None of this stuff is plug and play. It's all very custom stuff. You've been warned.
All that being said, the Eberspacher stuff is extremely well built high quality. The coolant hoses go to the top. The air intake and exhaust go to the bottom.
Valve assembly #1. Didn't get the right setup until assembly #3. Lots of trial and error. But basically I wanted a way to switched the hydronic heater from heating the rear auxiliary stuff to heating the engine block just by switching one valve. Oh, and when the engine is running, have the engine heat up the rear auxiliary stuff too. Oh boy, this created many headaches. But it is possible. Need the proper plumbing routes, some tee fittings, a 3 way valve, and a correctly placed check valve. Several schematics and many nights of lost sleep, but we got it!
The engine will always heat up everything when running. This valve is just to control the coolant flow when the Eberspacher boiler is running. It's right on dash, above the engine cover so it can easily be reached from in the cab.
The 12v circulation pump. When the boiler system is on, this will always cycle coolant. It throttles up and down depending on the temperature of coolant. When the system is on, but the temperature is high enough and boiler kicks off, this circulation pump cycles very slow. If heat is taken out of the coolant loop from either the water heater or air heater or heat exchanger, cool coolant will reach the boiler, which senses the low coolant temperature and kicks the boiler back on automatically, throttling up the pump.
Got the old hydraulic hole out. This makes nice, smooth holes in the thick aluminum body. We'll be installing grommets to run in some coolant lines.
These lines are for the heat exchanger under the passenger seat. This will be part of the hot tub/water pump station we're going to do at a later date.
Oh gee willy, there are a lot of coolant lines in this vehicle now. All those lines equal heat loss! So we insulated a bunch of them. Got this awesome pipe insulation, with sticky stuff to close up the joint, and a sticky flap to go over the whole joint. Don't think this will ever cause us a problem.
All the lines ran and insulated. We have so many hoses going every which way, we had to label all the ends to match the schematic so we didn't get something confused and plumbed wrong. In total, we used about 70' of coolant hose to do all of this. Yea, I don't where all that hose went either.
One problem with all these components from Europe, is that none of it is in English! We've had this stuff sitting around for awhile and have really been dreading this project due to the complexity and language barrier. But going slowly and using a Polish friend who speaks some German and labeling things once we figured out what it does, we got this.
Welded up a mount for the boiler using some scrap aluminum we had laying around. Mounted it up under body, next to the shower box, behind the passenger seat. None of this stuff is plug and play. It's all very custom stuff. You've been warned.
All that being said, the Eberspacher stuff is extremely well built high quality. The coolant hoses go to the top. The air intake and exhaust go to the bottom.
Valve assembly #1. Didn't get the right setup until assembly #3. Lots of trial and error. But basically I wanted a way to switched the hydronic heater from heating the rear auxiliary stuff to heating the engine block just by switching one valve. Oh, and when the engine is running, have the engine heat up the rear auxiliary stuff too. Oh boy, this created many headaches. But it is possible. Need the proper plumbing routes, some tee fittings, a 3 way valve, and a correctly placed check valve. Several schematics and many nights of lost sleep, but we got it!
The engine will always heat up everything when running. This valve is just to control the coolant flow when the Eberspacher boiler is running. It's right on dash, above the engine cover so it can easily be reached from in the cab.
The 12v circulation pump. When the boiler system is on, this will always cycle coolant. It throttles up and down depending on the temperature of coolant. When the system is on, but the temperature is high enough and boiler kicks off, this circulation pump cycles very slow. If heat is taken out of the coolant loop from either the water heater or air heater or heat exchanger, cool coolant will reach the boiler, which senses the low coolant temperature and kicks the boiler back on automatically, throttling up the pump.
Got the old hydraulic hole out. This makes nice, smooth holes in the thick aluminum body. We'll be installing grommets to run in some coolant lines.
These lines are for the heat exchanger under the passenger seat. This will be part of the hot tub/water pump station we're going to do at a later date.
Oh gee willy, there are a lot of coolant lines in this vehicle now. All those lines equal heat loss! So we insulated a bunch of them. Got this awesome pipe insulation, with sticky stuff to close up the joint, and a sticky flap to go over the whole joint. Don't think this will ever cause us a problem.
All the lines ran and insulated. We have so many hoses going every which way, we had to label all the ends to match the schematic so we didn't get something confused and plumbed wrong. In total, we used about 70' of coolant hose to do all of this. Yea, I don't where all that hose went either.
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TheRealPapaK
Active member
Nice work. I have the GM branded Espar heater on mine. No one on the internet has figured out how to make a buy pass to turn it on manually as it runs through the GM computer. I'm thinking of swapping my out for a used Mercedes one so I can control it myself.
PlethoraOfGuns
Adventurer
Thanks! Sorry to hear about your GM Espar. How does it work differently than regular Espar with a timer controller or whatever?
PlethoraOfGuns
Adventurer
Finished the diesel boiler heating system and It all works great! After lots of tinkering and design changes of course.
Boiler all wired and plumbed. Air intake is black tube on the left. Exhaust is silver tube on the right. It all looks very messy right now, but we'll get to that.
Used up all the exhaust pipe that came with the heater to get it back and away from the side door and shower as possible. It comes out close to the engine exhaust. I read that some people aim their exhaust at their oil pans. Seems like a great idea if I were to mount the unit in front by engine. But I found this spot was much better location, and the exhaust pipe wouldn't reach the engine, so oh well.
Our current version of boiler valve control assembly. The problem we kept having is that the control valve in the dashboard is above the highest resting coolant point in the system. So when everything is off, air rises up into the valve assembly. When the pump would kick on, air would end up down into the pump and all the other boiler components. None of that was good. So we installed an automatic air vent to bleed air out of the system when coolant starts flowing.
We also had to move the check valve onto the engine block where the old coolant line to the stock heater core was originally located on the water pump housing.
And moved engine coolant feed from the boiler to the back of the engine block. Now, the hot coolant from the boiler will need to travel through the cylinder head, down into the water jacket around the cylinders, and then back out the bottom front of the engine where the pickup hose is located that the circulation pump takes coolant from. All that hurt my brain thinking about it. But it works well, so I can stop thinking about it.
Anywho, back to the boiler itself. The Eberspacher units are very well made. The control board and all the electrical connections are waterproofed so they can be mounted outside. But this thing was about the most expensive component to the build, and we mounted it down in the gutter! Where it is is mounted it is kind of protected by the front passenger step well, but no way were we taking chances letting it sit down there unprotected all the way. Had some scrap aluminum sheet laying around from when we did the initial demo of the van interior. Cut that up and bent some stuff.
Welded the seams and bam, got a nice little protection box for the boiler. We put rubber protectors on for around all the stuff going in and out of box to protect from edges. Need something for around the exhaust pipe so it doesn't vibrate, that won't melt. Any suggestions?
Boiler all wired and plumbed. Air intake is black tube on the left. Exhaust is silver tube on the right. It all looks very messy right now, but we'll get to that.
Used up all the exhaust pipe that came with the heater to get it back and away from the side door and shower as possible. It comes out close to the engine exhaust. I read that some people aim their exhaust at their oil pans. Seems like a great idea if I were to mount the unit in front by engine. But I found this spot was much better location, and the exhaust pipe wouldn't reach the engine, so oh well.
Our current version of boiler valve control assembly. The problem we kept having is that the control valve in the dashboard is above the highest resting coolant point in the system. So when everything is off, air rises up into the valve assembly. When the pump would kick on, air would end up down into the pump and all the other boiler components. None of that was good. So we installed an automatic air vent to bleed air out of the system when coolant starts flowing.
We also had to move the check valve onto the engine block where the old coolant line to the stock heater core was originally located on the water pump housing.
And moved engine coolant feed from the boiler to the back of the engine block. Now, the hot coolant from the boiler will need to travel through the cylinder head, down into the water jacket around the cylinders, and then back out the bottom front of the engine where the pickup hose is located that the circulation pump takes coolant from. All that hurt my brain thinking about it. But it works well, so I can stop thinking about it.
Anywho, back to the boiler itself. The Eberspacher units are very well made. The control board and all the electrical connections are waterproofed so they can be mounted outside. But this thing was about the most expensive component to the build, and we mounted it down in the gutter! Where it is is mounted it is kind of protected by the front passenger step well, but no way were we taking chances letting it sit down there unprotected all the way. Had some scrap aluminum sheet laying around from when we did the initial demo of the van interior. Cut that up and bent some stuff.
Welded the seams and bam, got a nice little protection box for the boiler. We put rubber protectors on for around all the stuff going in and out of box to protect from edges. Need something for around the exhaust pipe so it doesn't vibrate, that won't melt. Any suggestions?
Bikersmurf
Expedition Leader
Header pipe wrap? Wouldn’t melt... 
PlethoraOfGuns
Adventurer
Oh, like they use on motorcycles sometimes. Good idea!
PlethoraOfGuns
Adventurer
Some odds and ends. Really anything to get us away from that boiler system. I'm still getting headaches from that monstrosity.
Had these very old aluminum sliding door tracks laying around. We have lots of extra wood paneling from when we did the ceiling and stuff. So we figure we can save a lot of weight by not building heavy cabinet doors and framing and using lightweight sliding doors instead.
Installed a divider in the middle of upper cabinet, so both sections are about 6'. One side will be perfect size for sleeping bags, pads, and other bedding stuff. The other side, who knows. We'll get to figuring out organization for that later.
Installed the old ceiling light that was in the rear area of van when we bought it. It's a very bright LED light, but the outside mounting frame was all cracked and such. So we had to cut all that off, take it all apart to rewire it and make mounting holes in it.
Building some cabinet spaces above the dinette area.
And built a table! Future project is to make this table come off and down to seats, so we can have a one person bed there. It's a very simple attaching and detaching method.
Onwards with the cabinet train. Built hold down brackets for the house batteries. We'll get some panel board and utilize the space above the batteries for storage.
Nice and secure brackets, which double as support for shelf.
Needed a break and went canoeing. Can just fit a canoe in there. Who else can fit a whole canoe completely inside their van?
Only problem is that one can't shift into 4th, 5th, or reverse with canoe in there. ?♂️
Had these very old aluminum sliding door tracks laying around. We have lots of extra wood paneling from when we did the ceiling and stuff. So we figure we can save a lot of weight by not building heavy cabinet doors and framing and using lightweight sliding doors instead.
Installed a divider in the middle of upper cabinet, so both sections are about 6'. One side will be perfect size for sleeping bags, pads, and other bedding stuff. The other side, who knows. We'll get to figuring out organization for that later.
Installed the old ceiling light that was in the rear area of van when we bought it. It's a very bright LED light, but the outside mounting frame was all cracked and such. So we had to cut all that off, take it all apart to rewire it and make mounting holes in it.
Building some cabinet spaces above the dinette area.
And built a table! Future project is to make this table come off and down to seats, so we can have a one person bed there. It's a very simple attaching and detaching method.
Onwards with the cabinet train. Built hold down brackets for the house batteries. We'll get some panel board and utilize the space above the batteries for storage.
Nice and secure brackets, which double as support for shelf.
Needed a break and went canoeing. Can just fit a canoe in there. Who else can fit a whole canoe completely inside their van?
Only problem is that one can't shift into 4th, 5th, or reverse with canoe in there. ?♂️
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charlieaarons
Explorer
Warm up the shift stick a bit with O2/acetylene and bend it a little bit?