I have had a case style (not the cheap amazon version) for two years now and love it however the rig is going through a rebuild so the plan is to hardwire one in under the bed using the JD Fabrication box frame kit tacoma rear gas tank kit – JD Fabrication
The case style I set up on a Tailgater Table and slid the heat vent tube in the tent / no issues heating the space as low as the teens on some nights. Tried to find some photos of the set up no such luck but could be looking in the wrong place
Ya I agree. Friends got that one for me as a present but I haven’t set it up yet. For a tacoma, at least, I like how he did the exhaust and port thru the cubby which is replaceable vs drilling a hole in actual bed.
I might just use it with a power box. Looking at the Bluetti ev70s.
That is smart! So you run the system on the outside mounted on the actual tailgate with the hot air pipe through a false tailgate which you use to cover the bottom? Did you find this set up works well rather than say, channeling the pipe through the tent?
I’m sure that’s way more efficient but I do wonder how much of a PITA it is to travel with the false tailgate, set it up and deal with it every time someone gets in or out? Maybe it’s not that bad but seems like it could be a little annoying?
Yeah, because in the winter the family doesn’t really come winter camping. So I rock the GFC in bunk mode. It works great! Yeah I pipe it in from there. I do have a long enough hose to make it from the ground. I found in the winter the case gets too hot and it sinks in the snow.
I have piped it into both spots using a ‘T’ and that works great too. I do find you lose some heat through the long pipe compared to just piping it in on the lower. In the winter I don’t usually run the heater all night because it can be a hog on the battery. The low sun in our short days doesn’t restore the battery to full charge, so to capitalize on power I generally turn it off. I rock a -40 bag so even at —37 (which I did around last Christmas) was cozy.
For winter use in the north, I found it essential to add a DC to DC charger to help top up the house battery.
That’s true, that’s a thing that happens. I think the most amount of snow I’ve woken up to so far was about 8” on the tailgate. I was not complaining as it translated to about 18” in the alpine
There is a picture on one of the diesel heater threads that show what I did to cut mine and install a port… can’t find it currently but it is somewhere
Anyone mount theirs to the side of the gfc using the mounting company mounting plate? I’ve seen the expensive one that is permanently mounted but if you use one of these mounting plates you can easily remove it and not have to drive down the road with it sticking out. VIDEOS – The Mounting Company
My heater is usually on my rigid ultraswing camp table - with a strap, or it’s on the ground by the passenger rear wheel well. We pipe the heat in via this custom bracket through the trailer vents on the side panel. This allows heat from below & I did not cut holes in my tundra. I think tacos have more options for customizing without big holes in the bed, but we did almost route an intake through our truck bed. It seems like a fair option. I just love that my panels are $300 to replace if I made a mistake vs permanent truck mod.
Did you experience any issues with your battery at those temps? Did you have the battery inside the truck?
I’m new to diesel heaters and I have no idea where I should keep my battery when I’m running it (inside the truck vs. outside the truck) or even how long I can expect a 12v marine (lead acid) battery to even power a diesel heater before it dies.
