Year-round Bongo Adventures? Hopefully!

Having owned the Bongo now for well over a year, and been away as often as possible allowing for life’s other commitments, there were a few modifications I wanted to carry out to make life off-grid just a bit more comfortable. Along with substantial sound-proofing and insulation installed inside the van body, doors and floor in the cab, if I wanted to use the van in any kind of comfort during the very coldest weather, then some form of heating for the rear was required. Easy enough when on a hookup supply in a campsite, when a nice little 600W convector heater did a fantastic job of keeping it cosy. The real challenge is when off grid, whether this is overnight camping, or just out for the day hillwalking or rambling. Ideally, you want to heat the van without the engine running, nothing worse than an idling diesel to disturb the quiet outdoors! Having experience of German built after-market diesel heaters as an apprentice ( a lifetime ago!), I did some research into the cheap Chinese copies available nowadays. Where an Eberspacher or Webasto 2kw heater will cost you around £1500 to buy, their Chinese copies are available from as little as £100 for the bare heater, and £120 or so for the whole installation kit! Changed days indeed!

So, where was it going to live?

Well, ideally, our own Bongo has had the rear standard heater and plumbing removed in the past. This was probably due to a fault in it, or might be because it was behind a kitchen unit, and therefore not being used. Whatever the reason for it, this left a fantastic and ideal space for the installation – under the level of the main floor, opposite the sliding door, is a similar sized void, presumably to allow the door to be swapped over for left hand drive markets. In this void sits the standard rear heater and air conditioning unit, a big bulky affair, with a heat exchanger/matrix for heat and a cooling coil for air conditioning, plus a big fan motor and dampers to control air flow. All this was gone, leaving a great useful space.

I had ordered the heater and installation kit, which came while the van was at the paint shop, and included was a slim 10 litre tank, which I had planned to instal under the passenger seat, a thermostat/controller, and the various pipes and wiring required.

With the van back, I now set to working out the installation.

I soon realised my brilliant plan for fitting the tank under the seat wasn’t going to work, as the space wouldn’t accomodate the slim but tall tank supplied. I did order a smaller 5 litre tank, but in the end after doing a bit more research ended up breaking into the engine fuel lines near the fuel pump, fitting a t-piece here, mounting the fuel metering pump up nice and dry near the air filter under the driver’s seat, ideally only about 1.5 metres from the heater position. I decided to keep everything else as simple as possible too, with the small exception of fitting a relay in the power supply to break the heater supply when not in use – I had discovered that the fancy little thermostat was backlit, which would eventually flatten batteries when not being used. I was able to utilise a supply no longer used which terminated nearby, allowing a dedicated fused supply straight from the leisure circuits.

It didn’t take much drilling to fit the heater intake and exhaust through the floor of the void, the metal is pretty thin, so I used the supplied mounting plate to reinforce things a bit. I mounted the relay in here too, and positioned the thermostat handily on the C-pillar, central to the rear of the van and easy to reach from bed or seated.

The fuel pump mounted and connected with minimal fuss, all going well! Now the exhaust and combustion air intake, underneath…

I decided to make a lid for over the heater, to cut down noise a bit, and the whole area was covered in sound proofing insulation. I had purchased an exhaust elbow, just to clean up the bend of the exhaust under the van, keeps it neat and out of site, plus less prone to catching on anything if not hanging down too badly. Combustion air pipe and filter was fitted and routed facing forward and inwards above the vehicle fuel tank, a nice clean dry area for it.

Finally to the interior arrangement. The original plan had been to have the installation invisible with the exception of the controller, using the original vent to supply the warm air. This had to be modified however on first use, as within a few minutes the outlet air gets so hot the plastic grill was distorting and would have ended up a real mess. Plan ‘B’ was to carefully cut a hole, pack the area behind to provide a fixing as well as a seal, and fit the eyeball vent supplied through the side panel. Not idea, but works well, and I suppose I will get used to the vent being there. The thermostat sits nicely covering the slot where the middle seat belt would slide through, so no cabling is showing for it.

So, does it work?

I should say so, yes!!

After only a few minutes running, during which time the heater goes through a purge and ignition stage, warm then piping hot air begins to blow from the outlet, and in five minutes or so the van starts to get cosy. This will hopefully make a massive difference to how we can use the van – parking up, going for a winter walk, then jumping in the back for a heat and a cuppa before heading home. Parking up completely off-grid, and sitting in a t-shirt toasty watching a movie before turning in for the night, sheer luxury!

All in, with the added expenditure for exhaust elbow, fuel tank ( not used), various pipe fittings to break in to the vehicle fuel lines, relay and bits and bobs, total cost is around £150. It should run for 6 to 10 hours for a litre of fuel, too, a worthwhile sacrifice for the luxury of heat. As far as electrical drain, time will tell how the suspect leisure battery performs, but it shouldn’t be an issue for an overnight, as it is unlikely that you would run the heater all night anyway, just a few hours in the eveing and an hour in the morning. Money well spent, here’s hoping for lots of toasty winter adventures!