Could you retrofit a FBH?
 

This is just another one of my probably wacko ideas.... But could it be possible to retrofit the FBH to be used as a hot water heater or used by itself with the blower on in cold weather (attached like normal) to heat the rig without the engine... I think I see a flaw in my second idea in that you need to motor running or something else to circulate the coolant through the engine. What all goes into controlling these units? Im sure its all tied into one of the million computers onboard. I know they only came with the diesels so you would need a whole separate fuel pump and tank...

Again this is just me thinking for fun but however it would be cool to have diesel hot water... (glamping) cheaper than propane.

You can look up the way the wabasto units are plumbed in the manuals, and many writings on this subject at Disco3.co.uk. IIRC it is an absolute non starter on the non diesel models, expensive, requires many extra parts and plugs into the canbus system. It would be interesting to see someone fit one to a petrol vehicle but yes you would need to make everything custom to adapt it in.

Or do dual batteries and wire in an electric water heater.

IMO the glamping aspect is too much... IE do you really need it.

If I want my wife to be happy! Im graduating to boiling water, adding to bug sprayer, and showering.

Going back to your circulation thought. Most vehicles I have owned had small circulation pumps inline form the factory. It was mainly to give consistent heat into the cores at all engine speeds. So a circulation pump would be easy to integrate but would take 12v power from some place. I actually have a spare pump for an E32 BMW that I never installed. Pretty basic setup really.

For hot water. I just tossed a gallon jug into the engine bay in front of the extra battery area. And the water was perfect for showing if needed, but I never used it. I have thought of making some sorta basic water heating setup for when I do long trips into no-mans land.

I did a little more digging... webasto even makes some units that run off diesel to heat the air, the target market is some of the more basic electric cars who lack good heat apparently. Again this was just my tinkering around in my head, I didn't even know that the diesels had FBH until I found the forum on disco3. There are some models that circulate water that are stand alone but they are very big and very expensive.

Anyone ever thought about plumbing in a heat exchanger? I have seen a few of these on rigs and is how most boats get their hot water for showering.

Depends on vehicle

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