@Whiteroom This is the Diesel heater I bought from Amazon:
It’s the 5Kw version, and so far it hasn’t let me down…with the exception of a field repair due to the exhaust burning a hole in the fuel line.
As for the box, I work in the Telecom industry so we call these cases ‘Transit’ cases. We have stacks of them sitting in various piles around our central offices. They’re usually used for transporting radio test equipment and the like. But nowadays there are far better options to safely carry test gear. So, I re-purposed it. If I were to build it out again, I would try to make sure the exhaust connections are outside the box. The way it is now I’m not sure if I’m pulling in diesel exhaust, from the outside or if there’s an exhaust leak inside, or if that’s just want diesel heaters smell like; but there is a faint diesel exhaust smell in the topper when you come in from the outside. If you have sheet metal skills, it would be fairly easy to build a box that allows those exhaust connections to be in a different air space than the intake air for the fan. Or…build the box out of 8020 extrusion.
Otherwise, it’s a super slick set up. With the GFC I plan on building a ‘plywood’ tailgate of sorts with a man door on one side. The way my bed is built out in the back it just so happens the tailgate height is just right to stash that wood tailgate under the bed. I haven’t gotten around to building that yet. That is how I plan on piping the heater into the truck. As it stands, I pipe the heater in through the side window of the topper and it works great.
I really like the idea of not having the heater permanently installed inside. As I’m sure many of you know, diesel stains and smells for months. So unless you have a way to store the tank outside it’s a real risk having it inside.
Above is a picture of it set up (and my 5 year old checking it out). I’ve since swapped out the dryer vent hose because it gets WAY too hot for that thing. I have also put some carpet on the lid for traction in the winter.
This is a picture of it all put away. Everything fits perfectly in the case.
I used the heater with my two boys in in -10C, their gear was soaked from playing in the snow. Set it just below 4 marks and it stayed about 15C in the topper and dried out all their gear.
Let me know if you have any more questions. When it comes to diesel heaters, John McK is the YouTube legend of this stuff.