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My wife and I are planning on removing our 712W's heater tomorrow. I did a short search and didn' find any existing threads, so if anyone has any tips, let me know. My big questions are:

• Where should I cap the fuel lines?
  Can I cap the brass fitting somehow? Pictures below.
  Does anyone want a heater? The blower works great but I haven't fired up the heating unit.
  Any tips on taking the wiring out?

This is going to be a box-stays-on job. I've heard that the proper way to remove the heater is to remove the box and cap the lines at or near the fuel tank. For those wondering, we are removing the heater because we want the space for clean water storage, as well as storage in general. Also, we have a tiny wood stove (Cubic Mini Woodstoves' Cub model, it's pretty good) as our nightly heater.

Hears a few photos in an imgur album: http://m.imgur.com/a/fu2ju

Throwing the baby out with the bath water Well, given the space in a W
inside and out e.g. the roof, you have to have the opportunity for 10+ gallons of
fresh water inside, and another 10+ gallons roof top -- warmed. Why give up
the heater for what would be a pretty small volume? I presume you aren't running
your wood stove goin'n down the HWY sooo -- ain't the heater of value?

Removal should be pretty straightforward. Does your truck have two of the gas heaters like the ambulances?

The two lines should be able to be capped off - although finding the correct thread for the cap may be a challenge. There is a webaite for a company called "Belmetric" which stocks all kinds of crazy metric thread plumbing parts BTW.

That is a nice looking heater - very clean and most likely a newer version. Should be worth something to someone...

Label all of the connections and take a bunch of photos as you disconnect things - will be valuable later.

That is a really tiny woodstove - but you really need to have some thermal barrier behind it and to the sides - it calls for 20 inches of clearance to any combustable surfaces - but only 2.5 inches with a barrier. Best is a metal plate with some ceramic type insulation - hardi-backer like used under tiles works well - but its still best to have a small 1/2 air space between that and the wall for air to circulate.



Don't want to hear you melted you Pinzgauer!

rmel wrote:Throwing the baby out with the bath water ...Why give up
the heater for what would be a pretty small volume?

Well, I don't really like babies and I usually take showers, so the heater has to go! The heater is of value, but we don't use it to heat the box, it doesn't heat the cab, and while the gain in storage volume is small, we want it. I'm planning on mounting two plastic jerry cans in he space, and after that there will be loads of space for other stuff. It's a wanted amount of space for me, but it totally agree that for most applications removing the heater probably doesn't make sense.

Haf-e wrote:Removal should be pretty straightforward. Does your truck have two of the gas heaters like the ambulances?

The two lines should be able to be capped off - although finding the correct thread for the cap may be a challenge. There is a webaite for a company called "Belmetric" which stocks all kinds of crazy metric thread plumbing parts BTW. .

...Label all of the connections and take a bunch of photos as you disconnect things - will be valuable later.

Only one heater in my rig, Haf-e. Do you have an ambulance? I think he boxes are nearly identical, with the doors added later on the W models. Where was the second heater hidden? Also, any idea about what the nearly cylindrical indentation high in he box behind the driver? O2 tank storage? Also, I think I responded to you on our website.

Haf-e wrote:That is a really tiny woodstove - but you really need to have some thermal barrier behind it and to the sides - it calls for 20 inches of clearance to any combustable surfaces - but only 2.5 inches with a barrier.

...Don't want to hear you melted you Pinzgauer!

I love our tiny wood stove. We have temporary thermal barriers behind and beside the stove. No joke, the barrier is a 0.30$ disposable cookie tray from a dollar store. I just lean it against the stove. I will eventually build a barrier that incorporates an air barrier. In addition to a barrier on the wall, I'm also planning on purchasing a hinged grease shield, sometimes used in stovetop cooking applications to reduce grease splatter. The will add another layer of heat reflection, AND we will be able to use the shield outside to reduce wind when cooking on our propane cook top. The entire kitchen is outside the driver's side. Multiple uses for everything!

Also, yeah, Cubic Mini Woodstoves sells a wal mount kit for installing my woodstove on a vertical surface, because mounting items in small spaces can be tough, and boat cabins (the intended application) have real limits floor space. The wall mount is just a folded piece of steel, but cuts the distance to combustibles down like crazy. You can essentially bolt the stove to a wooden wall. So yeah, it needs just a little shielding, but it definitely needs a shield.

Lastly, we have since wrapped the stove pipe in fiberglass header/exhaust insulation, and then wrapped that in heat tape. It has drastically reduced the surface temp of the stove pipe, and I think it's helping reduce creosote buildup as well.

Is the heater functional? What would it take to retro fit into a M?

audiocontr wrote:Is the heater functional? What would it take to retro fit into a M?

The blower worked fine, but I assume that there was a fuel delivery issue, or (much more
likely) a user error, as I couldn't get the heater to light. I have no idea what it would take to fit it into an M body. I did almost no investigating as I knew I didn't want it from the start.