Diesel heater location

They Webasto Thermo Top diesel heater/HWS does expend a bit of heat so should not be in an enclosed space, they are designed to be fitted underbonnet or under vehicle.
The ones I think you mean are the Airtop type air blowers which can be fitted pretty much anywhere, I've seen them in 4wd buses under the seats etc as they draw combustion air from externally and exhaust externally, only the heated air is sucked from the passenger compartment, heated and blown back into the passenger compartment.
They do need to be mounted to either floor or wall so that intake and exhaust piping can pass externally.
If you go to the Webasto site you can download the installation instructions.

Hi Richard,

My Quantum has the diesel heater, gas HWS and electric a/c all installed under the same seat, a relatively small area. Even the water filter cartridges (2 x 10") are there too. Seems to work fine and there have been no issues.

Cheers

Captain

Gooday,
We have had one, (Webasto), for several years, my advice would be under the seat, I imagine seating is along the side of the caravan, it would not pay to put it in a Box, I do no think, they do not get hot on the outside, well ours doesn't anyway, however they need to be able to breathe where you install them, would pay you to put an Air Filter on the internal air intake to catch fluff that may accumulate on the fan blades. Also be sure you have muffler fitted on the exhaust outside.
If you have an outlet under the seat you will find that will be sufficient for a caravan.
Hope this helps,
Cheers
Boroma604

Richard.

I have installed one of these doovers in our caravan under the seat which contains the HWS and Electronic Black Box that controls all 12/240V switching.

They do not radiate heat externally, however they do need an unimpeded airflow over the heat exchanger.

These units require a hole approx 6" 150mm (from memory) to be cut in the floor of the van. This is for exhaust and fuel lines which enter/exit the unit from the bottom of same via a heat shield ring. It's the 'ring' that requires the hole so that the unit fits flush through the floor of the van.


The biggest problem you will come up against when trying to identify a suitable location is finding a spot that (a) is out of the wayin the van & (b) has a space under the Van clear of wiring, gas pipes, water lines etc etc.

Our Jayco Base Station is an absolute nightmare of stuff under the floor which required a slight re-arrangement to fit our heater into.

The second issue you will face is where to put the fuel tank. I have a inherent fear of the fuel being tampered with so have currently located the fuel tank in the front storage tunnel which works quite well.

The third issue you will encounter is the wiring requirements. Mainly being able to locate all the required wiring without it being seen, including the controller. Not hard, just time consuming and fiddly.

Other than that the final result is just exceptional. I have split the output of ours so that we have two zones which works really well.

Regards

DD

Thanks all for the comments.

It does seem like the area with the HW is the way to go. It is by far the easier access area.

Richard

A bit 'off question' but have you considered the Truma gas version of van heating ? Think I'll go that way when I get heating - mainly because gas is already on the van - much the same super-efficient technology via the same very compact furnace and control panel.