AT Habitat, Atlas, & Summit Pictures, ideas, aaand BS

Yellowdogpaddler, slightly off of your original question but have you ever looked at a coolant heater instead of the propex? It's a little more permanent than a Propex but if I had a Habitat, I'd install a gasoline fired Webasto under the hood of the truck and use it to heat the engine coolant. Then run an aux coolant line into the bed of the truck and have a small, JC Whitney auxiliary heater core and a 12v fan mounted to the bed wall near the front of the cab. That setup would be very compact, quiet and wouldn't have any fume issues with the heater away from the sleep compartment. The added benefit is being able to pre-heat your engine and defrost the truck auto-start style when the weather turns really, really cold.

https://www.webasto.com/us/markets-...hicles/heating-systems/products/thermo-top-c/

http://www.jcwhitney.com/flexalite-mojave-heaters/p2002903.jcwx?filterid=c2307u0j1


Otherwise, I've mostly seen people use the Propex heaters as a portable kit set up outside and run hot-air snorkels into their sleeping area

http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/88772-Zodi-Hot-Vent-HP-Tent-Heater

 

I like this idea of the Webasto, but forgive my very non-mechanical mind when asking this, wouldn't this require the engine to be running to provide heat through the night?

 

how the hell much do these things cost?

 

At the request of @yellowdogpaddler and @crazysccrmd here are some more pictures and details of the swingout I made around the factory rear bumper.

There were quite a few important goals when building this;
1. To keep things as light as possible.
2. To be able to mount a 42'' plano waterproof lockbox on the inside of the swingout so I could utilize it's lid as a fold down table.
3. To retain factory bumper with license plate mounting / lights and a clear view of plate.
4. Retain usability of factory hitch.
5. Get as much as I could onto it and out of the bed for more room.
6. All without having an affect on my departure angle.

It is bolted to the frame using factory hitch mounting points with 3 bolts on both sides (for a total of 6) and I also tied it into just above the rear hitch where those two large vertical bolts are.

I also utilized a trail gear bolt together tube clamp for the middle, so that it easily brakes into three very light (and there for very easy to install with one person) pieces; the passenger side, the driver side, and the swingout portion.

I used a standard 2'' female receiver on top of the swingout as I figured this gave me some good modularity. I am currently using it with a custom bracket I made to hold the trasharoo, that way I can easily remove the trasharoo when not needed.

Rear view shown with rotopax off



Side profile showing clearance for plano box:




Picture showing how bumper was trimmed for clearance:




Inside "chuckbox" Not seen is a cast iron pan and a roll of paper towells. We are still setting up the aluminum propane setup so using 1lb tank now. You can also see in this the ABS sheet we used for the "tabletop" on the fold down portion. When you order these boxes they come with a glued in foam panel, and under that is a rough surface with corrugations. The ABS panel provided a flat spot for setting important stuff like beer.




Showing clearance, middle bumper tie-ins, and also the bolt together tube clamp can kind of be seen in the center.

 

Base model was ~9.5k$ after tax and installation

 

The Webasto is a "parking heater". It's basically a furnace that burns your truck's gasoline (or diesel depending on the model) and heats the engine coolant while the engine is off. So, it keeps your engine warm and can also keep the cab warm if you turn on your truck's heater fan. That particular one uses about 1 gallon every 10 hours. It also takes a bit of electricity to run the fuel pump, coolant pump and the cab fan. It's way more efficient than idling your truck all night. These are mostly used by truckers to keep their engines and cabs warm while they're sleeping overnight.

They're are usually a few on ebay and even new pricing seems similar to the propex. That said, if you got it professionally installed it would likely push past the cost of the propex.

 

Thank you. I am definitely going to look into this more. I will let you know what I decide and if I go that route, I will document and share.

 

Thank you for the photos and details. I like everything you have done so far!

 

holy shit I wish I had a real job right now

 

I'm trying to find examples of a habitat with L-Track installed on the exterior sides, especially the older version with the cutout aluminum panels instead of the solid. Has anyone done/seen this?

 

Haven't seen one with L track on the sides yet. Im going to be doing the exterior of mine next week, but I have the solid sides. Still not exactly sure what Im going to use to seal nut-serts.

 

The lip running along the top of the habitat is the perfect place to hide an led light strip. Most of these strips are dimmable and have lots of color modes.

 

One more thing added to the list of stuff I need to get done.

 

Every AT habitat should have a Goose Gear setup! I'm installing a propex gas heater, national luna dual battery, toilet and water pump with tank for Brian @GooseGear. They will be installing a counter top and drawers to house a fridge. Here's some pictures of the progress:

 

Looks great... do you have first hand experience with one of these heaters in a habitat? I have wondered how tell they retain heat as I would imagine it would be pretty drafty with tent deployed.

 

Not personally but Brian uses one of these and says when your zipped up and closed up it's noticeable difference!

 

If any body has not yet checked out Brian's ( www.goose-gear.com ) setup you should. Brian's is a model of what is possible. He has been using his for probably close to two years as far as I know. Brian and his crew are very talented and can help anybody take there project and ideas to the next level.

 

Pretty sweet setup, but them main reason I got a Habitat was so I could still use my tacoma like a truck. By the time you shell out for a Tacoma, Habitat, and a goose gear build out, probably could have purchaced a 4x4 sprinter built out.

 

Exact same boat.