Smoked Out In December

 

 Middle of December Carrie and I decided to take a trip in the van down to Oregon for my brothers birthday, get my tattoo and to visit some friends, Danny & Beth, who also happen to have their own van, named Arbor. (The craftsmanship in their van is amazing)

We figured that this would be a good trip to take the van on and do some more real world testing. So in the safety of the driveway at my brothers place, we figured what a great time to really test out our insulation and the diesel heater, since cold temps were in the forecast for the duration of our stay.

 Well... It's definitely true, that you get what you pay for. Now don't get me wrong, our Chinese diesel heater works amazingly on the high setting. At 27 degrees outside, it was 93 degrees inside the van with the heater running the first night. The second night I decided to set  the heater to medium/low, so it just runs all night at a comfortable temperature. Well, it turns out, medium/low, isn't hot enough to keep the carbon and soot from mucking up the combustion chamber and exhaust, which lowers the burn temp even more and perpetuates the problem until the heater flames out and smoke rolls from the exhaust smelling up the van of un-burnt diesel. All this at 3am... The third night we tested how well we insulated the van with the help of a very nice comforter on the bed. Overall, we weren't uncomfortable as far as temperature, just more condensation without the heater running.

Now I get to take apart the heater to clean and see what, if any improvements can be made.

~Tim