Alaska Daily Drivers: Hydro Blue 80A and Bright White JTR

[Turnswrench]

For the dickenson I would not worry about having a short exhaust. I think it would work fine with as low as 12”


sorry @Turnswrench dont mean to hijack

Don't be sorry, this is great information. Feel free to discuss. ?

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[Turnswrench]

Looking awesome so far. As it is -25 out this morning I am super jealous of your shop!

For the exhaust, what about routing it toward the rear of the gladiator. I see you have a fuel rotopax but if you angle it toward the front all the road spray and water will just shoot right inside that thing and probably cause some issues. Or an Idea I have been thinking of is get a stainless plate or see if there is a RV style plate that it can connect to and use that as a mount to the side of your cage there.

Curious what the spec requirement is for the 2 stage regulator. Can you run your stove off that same regulator as well and reduce the need for an additional piece?

EDIT: I just saw you already ran the exhaust out the back so it looks.. For the inlet I bet that pipe is long enough maybe to reach the passenger side of your bed rack and secure it to that?




I did the math on the propane consumption with help from the community here, somewhere there is a thread. I think he can get by for a night on the 5 lb tank, and for maybe 2 on a 10 lb tank. But I second the opinion of getting 2 10 lb tanks for a nice long 5 day or so trip.

My current plan is to not permanently mount the combustion pipes. Those and the ducts will be stored and then installed at camp. I'll use thumb screw clamps for the combustion pipes and the ducts are push fit, easily removed and stowed.

We spend so much time at the tailgate that I want to try to keep the exhaust from going to the rear.

The regulator is 11.5 WC, so it'll run anything I may have around if needed. But I'll run everything else off the 20lb tank.

The 5lb will hopefully be good for two nights as the Propex will shut off once the tent reaches temp. I'm going to test it and then decide what tanks and such to go with. Of it all depends on how cold the outside is. We do have an insulation tent that goes inside that holds heat very well.

Keep the suggestions coming, this is what I enjoy the forum for. Thank you!

 

[chorky]

So does that mean you are not going to keep the copper line. Is that just a temporary deal? I wondered how copper would fair - it's in all RV's but RV's and trailers don't go to places Jeeps will lol.

I was hoping to get a standard 2 stage regulator and have it spec'ed out to the right pressures for the on demand water heater, jetboil stove, and propex - but no clue what their pressure requirements are. I wonder if they are all the same, since most RV stuff is 11.5 WC

 

[Turnswrench]

So does that mean you are not going to keep the copper line. Is that just a temporary deal? I wondered how copper would fair - it's in all RV's but RV's and trailers don't go to places Jeeps will lol.

I was hoping to get a standard 2 stage regulator and have it spec'ed out to the right pressures for the on demand water heater, jetboil stove, and propex - but no clue what their pressure requirements are. I wonder if they are all the same, since most RV stuff is 11.5 WC

I think it would work with about anything, but hopefully there's an expert reading in on water column measurements ?

I will run the copper until I get a better solution. It'll work and I tested it for leaks, so I'll run it.

 

[Turnswrench]

The first test is in the books! The proof of concept is complete. Next step is to tidy everything up and field test ? (just need to convince the wife - yes, you. I know you're reading this ?)

I mounted the intake combustion pipe in a permanent fashion:

I made a quick back panel for the thermostat. It's made to mount into a wall, the back is an open circuit board. This won't work for our configuration. The back is made from some spare plywood that was used for the rear seat delete. I'm going to silicone it up and add foam to the back so it's safe in the tent from scratching anything.

Alright, it's game time! Turn on the propane. Activate the house battery and push the proper switch. Boom! Figuratively, of course ? I heard it activate and the thermostat lit up. I turned on the heat and cranked it to 76.

Success! Even though the garage is a mess, the system worked perfectly. The heat is fast! It's quieter than the diesel heater but you can hear the fan blowing the air through the duct and the exhaust exiting the combustion pipe. The exhaust pipe is equally hot. It will not be able to touch anything that can't handle high temps.

I'm pumped with how well it worked. It has me pretty excited to get out there!

The shut down procedure is easy to do, just turn it off on the thermostat. It continued to run for about 5 minutes to cool down so I left the propane and power activated to allow it to do that. The exhaust pipe was able to be touched after the 5 mins, but the heater only ran for a short test period. That may not be the case after a full night and it would take more time.

 

[Benbean66]

I just looked that heater up. Solid looking unit. I like the intake/exhaust setup to eliminate condensation and that it runs on propane. Salty, but I'm sure you'll put it to good use.

 

[Turnswrench]

I just looked that heater up. Solid looking unit. I like the intake/exhaust setup to eliminate condensation and that it runs on propane. Salty, but I'm sure you'll put it to good use.

I do expect to. Thank you!

 

[chorky]

Oh man this is awesome!!! So jealous!

Now when you do the field test you should get an independent temp and humidity gauge to prove that it doesnt put air into the tent. Super stoked to hear how it works.

 

[Turnswrench]

Oh man this is awesome!!! So jealous!

Now when you do the field test you should get an independent temp and humidity gauge to prove that it doesnt put air into the tent. Super stoked to hear how it works.

And a quality carbon monoxide detector. Anyone have one they recommend?

 

[chorky]

And a quality carbon monoxide detector. Anyone have one they recommend?

Anything from the hardware store will do. I doubt that will ever be a problem since the gasses exit down below. Does anyone use them with the diesel heaters? I never hear of it.

You could go fancy and do a RV style which would (or could) hard wire into your battery system and basically always be up there and always have battery power rather than having to take something else in and out all the time. Weren't you going to punch a hole in the RTT and get a little electrical setup up there anyway? Or was that someone else that did that....

 

[Turnswrench]

Anything from the hardware store will do. I doubt that will ever be a problem since the gasses exit down below. Does anyone use them with the diesel heaters? I never hear of it.

You could go fancy and do a RV style which would (or could) hard wire into your battery system and basically always be up there and always have battery power rather than having to take something else in and out all the time. Weren't you going to punch a hole in the RTT and get a little electrical setup up there anyway? Or was that someone else that did that....

The roof top tent has a couple existing passthrus in the floor by design. We run USB up there today for phones. I'll probably keep the thermostat through the window for now.

The wife and I discussed a portable carbon monoxide detector that people use in bush planes. Just feels like a safety thing to have with you. Just need to decide on one.

 

[chorky]

tent has a couple existing passthrus in the floor by design. We run USB up there today for phones. I'll probably keep the thermostat through the window for now.

The wife and I discussed a portable carbon monoxide detector that people use in bush plans. Just feels like a safety thing to have with you. Just

Interesting, I never knew bush planes had them. Are they any different than what you would find at a hardware store?

 

[Turnswrench]

Interesting, I never knew bush planes had them. Are they any different than what you would find at a hardware store?

Yessir. They alert at a much lower PPM. In a home you can have a much higher parts per million based on volume of space. In a confined space like a tent, it needs to alert much faster as the progression of fresh air could expire quickly.

 

[Turnswrench]

Decided to purchase the Tocsin 4 personal carbon monoxide detector from Sportys. I'll share more once we get it here.

 

[Turnswrench]

Productive final tasks day:

• Cleaned up the garage
• Finalized and permanently mounted the heater exhaust pipe
• Test fit the intake duct
• Buttoned up the connections
• Zip tied the remaining wiring up out of the way
• Siliconed the back of the thermostat
• Added furniture felt to the back of the thermostat
• Came up with the game plan to store the ducts that run up to the tent (more to come on this)
• Measured for heater block out plates for the duct ports to cover them while in motion (more to come on this)

Things are coming along! Thanks for following along.

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