Re: Wiring, definitely go with 12 awg if you’re going to make your own harness. Might as well build in some margin. But also, if you absolutely need a long run of wire from your battery to heater for some reason, many of these heaters also run on 24v (check your manual to be sure), which gives you the option to put a 12-24v converter in there (as close to your battery as possible). This cuts the current in half for the same load, thus cutting the voltage drop on your wire in half.
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I haven’t had luck getting mine to run with the Anker SOLIX F1200 (PowerHouse 757) 1229Wh | 1500W. Always would cut out on startup of the heater. I ended up going with a Dakota Lithium12v 23Ah Battery. I don’t plan to use it for any long trips and will not be hooking anything up except the heater.
The few times I have had to use my goal zero to run one of my diesel heaters the goal zero would cut off (sometimes even using their high draw kit). If I know I am going to be running it off the goal zero I actually put a small 10ah AGM battery inline so that the high draw gets pulled from the little AGM battery and doesn’t hit the goal zero… #redneckelectrical
I have this exact same heater. I’ve been having trouble with mine. I’m hoping I found an air source in the fuel line today. But It seems to drain back partially causing the heater to flame out when the air bubble hits the chamber. I’m hoping the fact that I was easily able to pull the nylon hose out from the pump. That I did not have it tight enough and I was pulling in air. Mine rarely starts first try.
Are you able to run it on regular gas 89oct at low temperature?
I’ve always run my truck and the heater on 87 octane gas, so your fuel shouldn’t be an issue. I wouldn’t expect octane rating to matter, since there’s no compression. But who knows, maybe lower knock resistance helps it ignite easier somehow?
I have had issues with it firing up before, but it always eventually fires up. If you could easily pull the fuel line out, and saw large air bubbles going into the heater, that’s definitely where I would start. Also, make sure the fuel line is pushed all the way into the rubber connectors so it’s flush with the connections on the pump, heater, and standpipe. Basically, just shove it in until you can’t anymore. Otherwise, I just made sure to stay within all the install parameters in the manual. The only exception there is my pump is attached to the truck frame, below where the standpipe exits the tank, but the pump is at at 30ish deg angle upward, and the line from the pump to the heater is at a constant upward angle. I’ve checked for air bubbles when it had trouble starting up, but could never see any.
Another thing I recently did was just run it on high for a couple hours in the driveway. It wasn’t firing up first try (at sea level even), but has every time I’ve tested it since doing that. I know it hasn’t really sooted up inside at all, because I’ve completely disassembled it, brushed it out, and it was pretty ok in there, but the high burn seemed to help, so 
.
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That’s been exactly my thought. I think I’ll try that again today. So far when I’ve tried to run the heater in power mode (not panel mode) and crank it! It flames out, but I think you’re right. Run a solid burn on it at high temps.
I’m in the same boat with my pump and which is why I was under there looking yesterday. It’s about the same height as the standpipe, but I’m hopeful it was just pulling air. It’s really hard to get that upward tilt since my heater is in the back right corner of the truck and I have to cross the truck exhaust. So trying to be conscious of how close I am to those.
Yup, all factory hardware and this isn’t a knockoff. My portable chinese diesel heater that I built has NEVER been required to prime aside from original fire. Which is why I’m taking this opportunity to discuss the specific features of the Autoterm 4B heater that @mrbroll has installed, as mine is identical. It is also permanently installed in an almost identical fashion. I have not seen too many other users using this specific model.
Are you using a Autoterm 4B petrol heater? Is it permanently installed?
The rubber hoses absorb too much of the pulse which is the reason they are not recommended. I’m very aware of that. As previously mentioned, my issue is it pulling air or draining back. I think I’ve solved the issue by re-installing the fuel line connection from the standpipe to the pump. The heater is currently running in the driveway at 100% to clean the combustion chamber…hopefully.
Tired of the extra steps of setting the heater up. I want to be able to roll into a place, and if I’ve timed it right, have the heater already running warming the back up. No need to fiddle with hooking anything up and dealing with hoses, etc…
And it looks less ghetto.