Truck Camping Photo Thread

I've got a cheap/Amazon Valor diesel heater--finishing up my build over the next few weekends but everything I've read here & in FB groups indicate that you'd be happier having it external and ducting the air in.

 

Yeah this is at the top of my list after building my first one. I agree, we need interior pics too. Amazing rig and thanks for sharing.
Zim

 

That's beautiful. I'm not going to pay for the carpet option tho. I'll do that myself. Thanks for sharing.
Zim

 

They are storage organizers that hang on the back of the rear bench seat in an SUV. They hang from the head rests. I modified them, getting rid of the adjustable straps and made rods to slide through the loops that easily mount and dismount from "hooks" I fabricated on he topper rails. Handy and out of the way to store all the essentials you would need by your bed side. Toilet paper, mace, bear spray, knife, books, water, phone, tablet, etc. etc....

 

that z looks mint!!!
we have a thread dedicated to vintage hondas here:https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/vintage-honda-riders.494931/page-6

 

Thanks! 89 z50 with tall 79 bars. *88cc kit install next

 

The diesel heater is being powered by a Jackery 1000. It uses about 20-40% of the battery over 10-12 hours depending on the fuel rate I select on the heater. I ran the heater at about 2/3 fuel rate and had a Dometic CFX3 55IM also plugged into the Jackery 1000 and after about 10 hours the diesel heater had about 1/3 left in the fuel tank and the Jackery 1000 was around 65%.

Overall I'm very happy with the heater. For the first couple of trips out it has done well. The first night it was below freezing, but the heater ran without issue at high fuel rate. The second night (also below freezing) I ran it starting around 8pm at about half fuel rate and I woke up with it turned off around 12am. It came with a wireless remote so I turned it on via remote and after it warmed up for 5 minutes I cranked the power up to about 3/4 fuel rate and it ran the rest of the night without issue and I turned it off around 8am. If I had to guess it threw some kind of error over night, possibly due to not running hot enough, but again I was running it sitting outside my truck and the temperature was 27deg f.

Temperature in the tent was comfortable enough that I didn't need the 4 season sleeping bag, but wasn't so hot that we were sweating. Also, the airflow kept the tent dry inside.

As far as the sound, it starts loud and then settles down to what I would consider reasonable. It passed the wife test, she just told me it was perfectly fine and didn't wake her up, and she's a light sleeper. The fuel pump is more of a concern, but that mostly makes more noise on startup and then quiets down as well, so overnight you're really only hearing the exhaust.

Long story short - Wouldn't trust it for a survival situation, but it's easily worth the $150 from Amazon and I think if you run the thing at 2/3 or higher fuel rate then it will do fine keeping a tent nice and toasty while outside temps are below freezing. It's cheap, and time will tell if it throws any errors or requires maintenance that I can't do myself.

p.s. It's a cheap Chinese knockoff of a Webasto. I can link from Amazon if you want to try this one out, also can link the longer ducting that's needed.

@DAS Taco @gsubioguy

 

The annex is a game changer

You’ll have more room than you know what to do with and it’s pretty quick to set up!

 

Thank you very much, excellent write up and review. Much appreciated

 

Love your tent!, can you please provide more info on it. The truck too, looks awesome

 

Ive had mine into the single-digits below zero before. No issues. Mine is a standalone unit that I built into a toolbox though, so once it gets going it kind of heats itself inside the toolbox. But in theory as long as youre above the gel point of the diesel it should be fine. Ive actually heard a lot of people have overheating errors due to poor airflow.

I usually run it about half power which is more than enough to keep it above freezing in the tent and keep the condensation out.

 

yeah I was considering putting one of the lower profile ones in the tongue box of my trailer but I have seen mixed reviews from them. mostly leaking fuel issues but for the price I have considered picking one up for when I dont have electric hookup to keep even a small amount of heat in the tent to keep my face from freezing at night.

Thanks for the input I appreciate it!

 

Question. If its diesel powered, why are you using a Jackery? I'm guessing the diesel makes the heat, the battery powers the fan?

 

Yup. Fan and fuel pump

 

@SR-71A I've snooped your pictures before but do you have any of your heater/box set up? Having that extra buffer/insulation of the box around the all-in-one, does that cut down on the carbon build up resulting from running it lower? Hell, is the carbon build up really all that big of an issue on these things or is it an over the top warning from folks?

 

I will look back through my posts. I know I have a few of the heater build somewhere, probably from about a year ago..

As far as carbon build up I do not know. I took the entire heater apart when I first got it to see how it works (yes, Im that kind of person lol). Have not had a reason to service it since then though. I can tell you running it on a higher setting is supposed to reduce the possibility of carbon (burning hotter therefore more efficiently). That being said, this is not a high performance injector like a diesel engine or even a furnace. I'm guessing it would take some serious buildup to cause an issue

 

I suspect I'll get into the innards of mine as well come Spring. At this point I'm hustling to finish the bed build before the snow flies.

 

That’s pretty much it. Also, it needs some power for the ECU/LCD. You could tap into the 12v battery in your truck, but I worry about running the battery dead and getting stuck somewhere. This way if my battery pack dies then oh well the diesel heater wont work, but I can hop in the truck and get back to civilization.