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
I wonder if I couldn’t cut another cubby somewhere to do the same… mostly because my cubbies have already been taken over by other things…
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
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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.
I will chime in on how I use mine:
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it is powered either with my EcoFlow Delta 2 OR secondary battery under the hood (with alligator clips). The under the hood AGM battery is 68ah and the Ecoflow is equivalent to ~85ah.
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On start up, the diesel heater will pull 125-150w so having the outlet/plug rated for 10-15a is a good idea or it will turn off on start up. You want to avoid either losing power or pulling power supply on start up AND cool down. It’s very hard on the heaters. Once it starts up, it will pull on average (from what my ecoflow shows) 10-18w all night, which is very little.
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On the ecoflow, it will drain it from 100% to ~75% after a solid 10-12hrs of usage, which means it’s using ~21-25ah of power as an estimate.
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I can run it off that AGM/under the hood battery with the alligator clamps but it does bring my voltage down close to 12.2-12.4v, which I don’t like doing from a longevity standpoint.
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Woahhh! I wonder if this also fits for the sr5 smaller cubby.
Where is the tank?
Looks like it’s only for the bigger/longer cubbies. Fuel would be mounted somewhere outside.
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Actually looks like there is 2 models!
I have my all in 1 unit mounted in that corner but this is way more concealed.
The other issue is dirt/mud. With yours, it looked fully enclosed and away from the elements.
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My battery is in the bed of the truck. I’m running lithium which is fine to discharge in cold temps but not ok to charge below freezing. The size of the battery will determine how long you can power the heater for. In my experience my 2kw heater draws around 6 - 8 amps firs the first 5 - 10 minutes when starting up then it drops down to 1-2 amps so not much power draw at all.
I went with a permanent install as well, but mine is a Planar/Autoterm 4kw gasoline heater. Zero setup was my main reason to not go with a portable unit. I also wanted to avoid the problems of ducting into the camper from outside.
While it was a PITA to drop my tank to add the standpipe for the pump, I would for sure do it again. There’s no separate tank to deal with, or risk of having diesel smell inside. And I just open a side canopy door and tap a button to start it.
I think a big consideration for permanent vs portable that often gets overlooked is whether you want to set it up once, or every time you use it. But, this is also assuming you even have a suitable location for permanent install.
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Thank you for that! I have a Jackery and was told by the heater manufacturer (Planar) to not use anything other than a 12v marine deep cycle battery as a power bank like a Jackery won’t have enough power to start the heater… And I didn’t want to void any warranties.
I guess my best bet really is to just run it for a couple days and test my battery’s voltage to see how much power has been taken over the course of those two days. Perhaps I could charge my deep cycle battery using power from the Jackery, actually…
I feel like some people are using jackerys. I think the biggest issue is that those power bank style batteries like goal zero and jackery have a low limit on amp draw and when the glow plugs for the heater kick on for the first 5 minutes or so that you are running the heater it might be drawing more than they allow. I don’t think it can hurt to try it and see what happens.
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For what it is worth…I have a Bluetti and a Chinese heater and the bluetti has ports that are rated for 10A so it works fine. When I was research not all of the battery banks do.
This. Some jackerys will trip/turn off when using the cigarette port/DC port.
I have an EcoFlow river pro and it handles the vevor 8k heater without issues. I am noticing it’s down about 20% of battery after 8-9 hours but I’ve also used the EcoFlow to keep my fridge running for a year so it’s likely at about 90% capacity at this point
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Yea I ran mine with 12-14 gauge vs the 16 gauge wire. Shortened the travel and upgraded the DC plug with higher amp. My older Massimo 500W power bank though would still cut off power to the DC port due to the draw. Had to buy a AC plug to DC outlet and plug it in there. The EcoFlow doesn’t need that anymore.