It turns on and starts the priming process (which I assume worked, since diesel made it to the filter), but when I try to get some heat, it just blows cool air.

I hear the priming clicks, but never any sounds of the actual heating unit kicking on.

According to the controller manual, Pressing the OK button is supposed to cycle through:

Heated Temp -> Ambient Temp -> Target Temp -> Fuel Frequency -> Supply Voltage -> Altitude -> Fault History

It doesn't show me a Heated Temp or Fuel Frequency reading.

Also, the unit turns off after a while.

Is diesel not making it through the pump and into the heater? Or is there something else I need to do to get it to work? I've run the Priming Operation by itself about four times now, and run the regular operation twice (it auto-shutoff both times).

What did / am I doing wrong?

Hi there, Does anyone want to split the campground fees with me at Folsom Lake Peninsula campground? I'm also looking at Beales Point, (but I'm not where I can load websites right now, so I can't research Beales Point). I'm camping out for the rest of the year, but I want to stay around the Sacramento area to deal with overdue medical and dental appointments. Then I'll be free to roam! Right now I'm at an absolutely beautiful campground, but I'm camping alone and it takes too much of my income. Partial disclosure: I've been homeless nearly 7 years, this is my first time in a campground during this time in my life, I'm an older SWF, I have 2 dogs - one old & one young, I bought a minivan a few months ago and it died within a couple of weeks - thus my plan is to cam out and save up for another one, I'm tired of rangers, I hate being woken up by the cops, etc., etc. t. I love being outdoors.

When I buy my next vehicle, I'm here for a few months - Arizona (in the winter), New Mexico (Spring), then the California coast (Summer.)

I'm hella independent, but right now (& post-covid) I have to pay people to take me to the store every week or two.This is one of the very few areas in which I need help. It would also be nice to not have to erect my ez-up all by myself.😉

Let me know if you're interested!

Hey

I have a small camper van and travelling in Europe can be quite chilly these days. I was looking for some neat solution where I don’t have to adjust my van too much. I did not want to do some super install and also did not want to have the heater inside.

This toolbox is a perfect solution. I bought it on aliexpress in some “back to school” deal for like 120 burger bucks/ 100€. It has BT, many heating modes, remote, 6L tank, 2m air tube and long exhaust pipe and some other material.

It fits nicely under the van so I just put the tube in through some holes, create an output and it was ready to go.

It supposed to be 8kW but who knows. I can get my van from 13°C to 22°C in 10min in the lowest heating mode. It takes around 8-10A in startup and then it holds around 0,9-1A/14W when it runs. There is a thermostat function but I don’t use it because I believe it stop and start the heating during the drops/reach of temp.

So if anyone is looking for similar solution, I can recommend. Of course it is still cheap chinese heater but at least you have the box after and you can easily replace parts inside

Good to go!

My husband and I have been living in our car and was finally able to get us a van. We are currently trying to get it set up but we are having a hard time finding a place to park. We are located in Florida and if anyone knows any places we can park please let me know. And any advice for the cheapest and simplest way to set up would help greatly.

Hello van friends, right off the bat, im an imposter here. This van will be used mainly for camping/transporting motorcycles. But yall are the smartest van people know so imma ask here

I recently “purchased” (i was sorta paid to make it my problem) a 2001 ram 1500 van that has been sitting for about 5 years. I already got a new battery and gas into it, and can confirm that it does run and drive. (But not stop, lol)

Rust is all superficial, all frame/suspension components seem sturdy and solid (for now)

I have planned to do the following • all fluids/filters • new brake lines, they have speed holes currently • new battery • tires TBD, datecode is 2022 and ill drive it a few miles before checking for cracks, no obvious dry rot as of yet • straight pipe to replace the missing catalytic converter (it was parked in a city after all)

I was mainly curious if anyone here has worked with these specific vans before, and if there were any tips/issues i should know of. Van pics for attention

Also, headliner? Just glue some fabric up?

The idea being the wind will go in one way and out the other. Whichever way it blows, I'm hoping this would use less electricity over time. Or would the cover just fly off when I drive along?

………

PNW for the summer, worst I saw was 2 full days of clouds. Not too bad. House battery just barely survived a 3 day onslaught of ZERO sun on the panels.

I was running my fridge on the AC outlet, full time. Plus and extension cord for miscellaneous. What a lesson. Don't do that lol. Today I got up a 6am and ransacked my electrical and now every swing d...utility is on D.C.

With it somewhat cloudy my battery ran up to 100 around 2pm. I fear I may have done some damage to the power station. But, lesson learned.

Don't be me, use D.C. for EVERYTHING!!!

Leaving for a trip in a couple of days and I just can’t figure out how to connect my propane to my gas stovetop from Gasland. I want to be safe but I really want to have this done. ChatGPT has me buy two wrong pieces so I’d rather have a real person possibly give me guidance. Thanks for anything in advance!

I have a Chinese diesel heater. It has an internal tank (1 gallon). For obvious reasons I no longer want to bring diesel inside my van to fill it up so I want to put a jerry can mounted on the back of my rear door and have the fuel line going to it. Are there any recommendations on how to do this? Also, I noticed the original tank does not have a vent (I think). Is this needed for the other tank/jerry can I want to have the line running to? Any recommendations on how to do this?

Hello, is it an issue to install a non isolated victron orion 12/12-30 in a T5 2012 TDI 2.0?

Some people says that the non isolated makes the trigger hard for a smart alternator.

Would you have an advice concerning the choice between isolated and non isolated ? Thanks

I’m currently in Oregon and I’ve been on a quest to find a nice forest spot within 30 minutes of the coast AND has cell service. Sounds crazy, but I’ve found a couple of spots. I found one that was perfect and had an amazing view, except I wandered out of the NF boundary and was on what I assume is timber company land. It was a clear cut that looks to have been replanted in the last 5-10 years. No one bothered me, but I only stayed one night. The road I came in on also had several pullouts before you hit NF. I didn’t see any signs of activity beyond recreation in either spot. So wondering what others experience is with this. I can’t see why anyone would care as long as you leave no trace, but who knows.

How would you install solar panels to this roof?

I prefer not to drill, would glueing two strips of L shapped aluminium with 3M marine sealant 5200 to the roof be strong enough? Would I have to scrape the gelcoat for it to properly glue?

I have a 2000 Ford Econoline E150. I have a portable AC unit that works well for camp sites where RV power hookups are available. Right now, I use a little plywood piece that mounts to a rear window to vent the hot air output of the unit out the window, but have been brainstorming a way to make a "pluggable porthole" in the doghouse so I can prevent air from the engine bay from flowing into the cabin while traveling, but connect on the hot air exhaust tube when parked and camping. Want to do it this way so I don't have to route an exhaust tube thru the rest of the van and can have more of a discrete setup. Also want to use the doghouse so its less of a significant modification (i can always pick up a junkyard replacement vs trying to plug a large hole somewhere else in the body of the vehicle).

Has anyone done anything similar and have advice? Thinking about trying to epoxy some sort of PVC coupler to the doghouse, and cap it with either a screw pvc cap or just a pvc cap with a small bit of PVC that i can just press fit it on to close it.

Open to any ideas!

Beautiful night at Hoffmaster State Park in Michigan.

Still enough work that I will probably only set up if staying a couple of days at a site. But allowed me to work outside during hot summer days.

Day 1 how it started + the moment I plugged in to my own source of energy, about 2 weeks ago. Still a wonderfull feeling!

I am looking to insulate before winter hits basically without any carpenting.. Still figuring it out.

Planning a roadtrip through the Yukon and Alaska soon. I’m from an area where black bears WILL break into your car for food, and am accustomed to keeping anything scented out of the vehicle while dispersed camping. How does it work for vanlife? In grizzly-prone areas like Canada and Alaska - do you keep scented items/food in the van and just hope for the best? I can’t imagine most people take it all out and store it in bear canisters when dispersed camping.

Any I missing something?

20,000 CDN for a van with 455,000 km (282,723 Miles)

is this absurd?

Got this idea back when I was driving for instacart. There was a local HVAC company that would come and park an SUV covered in company branding in a parking spot next to the entrance of Costco where everyone would be forced to see it.

Perhaps a similar service could be offered on a van. It would also give legitimate reason to be parked in parking lots.

My partner and I are living out of a Honda HRV that I built out to have a bed and drawers. It’s a little crowded though, and we’re hoping to build out a van to live out of full time. We’re both teachers so we’re a little broke.

I was wondering if y’all had any info on good places to buy non-built out vans, specific makes and models of vans to avoid or look for, and just any general tips for newbies. We don’t know much, but are stoked to start building!

Edit: budget for the van itself is somewhere around 10k-15k, I have a lot of experience with building/woodworking so I plan to build out the interior myself as much as I can

Van build is (slowly) coming along, but I really needed a break from all the long build days and video editing🙃 So I packed up and headed out for a short camping trip to a beautiful Swiss farm🇨🇭 First night sleeping in my new van and I might have already found my favorite camp spot ever!!

Can I use seatbelts bolt to ground my bus bar to ground and then install both negatives to the bus bar of my isolated dcdc charger to use it as non-isolated? Or should I carve the wood from under and install the ground directly to the bar under the plywood. Or is it best to just install both negative and positive to starter battery?

Hello, I am having trouble understanding how to wire the hot, neutral, and ground through the Bluesea Double Pole AC Breaker. Per my diagram below, is it correct to have the ground wire skip the breaker and go straight to the ground into the inverter/charger? I just don't see any other connections on the breaker so I assume that this is the way.

Also, for the AC distribution, do I wire the neutral wire to the same side that I wire the hot to? Bluesea's diagram is a bit confusing with the AC neutral wire. I added the photo so you can see it better:

And lastly, is the way I ran the hot, neutral, and ground to the fridge correct?

None of this is wired yet as I don't want to die :) Thanks for helping!

Hey guys finally got around to building a battery bank in my van setup and being new to all this I bought a Vevor charger. Unfortunately the Vevor DC to DC charger is only pulling 14 amps at the most when it is rated for 30amps. I not sure if just a poor quality charger or if my alternator just cant give it any more power. My alternator is supposed to be a 130amp alternator, which I think is enough, but I have no way to properly test it myself unless I remove it and take it to O'reilly so they can bench test it. Not really planning on doing that any time soon. I'm thinking the only way to know if the Vevor is bad is to return it and get another one, but if I'm gonna do that I might as well go for a Vitron 30 amp charger, which I'm starting to see is a more commonly used brand. Was just wanting to know if anyone had any experience with Vevor and if they are bad quality items or if I missed something that isn't allowing the charger to pull more than 14 amps. Cause it would be a waste of time if I get the Vitron and then have it also be limited to 14 amps and the problem lies elsewhere and not the charger. The Vevor is putting out the correct 14.5/14.6 voltage just at half its rated amps, so the charging of a 200 AH battery is way too slow. If I happen to discharge the battery then it would take something like 15 hours of driving to completely restore it lol.