Default Heater mounting question

[reindeertomatoes]

Hi everyone,
I'm keeping the original heaters in my Thomas bus to assist with engine cooling on long trips. Is it feasible to mount these heaters on the lower wall of the bus vertically? Additionally, I need to clean them as they're caked with twenty years of dirt. Does anyone have a guide or tips for cleaning these heaters? Thank you for any trips and assistance.

[s2mikon]

I cleaned mine with simple green soap a brush and water. Remove the fans first and get a fin rake and comb all the fins. If your radiator and cooling system is in good shape you shouldn't need to run them except when it is cold. I removed my rear one but kept the middle one and the drivers seat and front door well heater. Last winter we had to make an unplanned trip and it was 20 degrees when we left and it was nice to have a warm bus to ride in.

[Kentucky Dreaming]

Originally Posted by s2mikon

I cleaned mine with simple green soap a brush and water. Remove the fans first and get a fin rake and comb all the fins.

Simple Green is good sheet. A gentle pray from a garden hose will rinse out the dirt after Simple Green. Don't go at it with a firehose spray pressure. Treat the fins gently and they will be your friends.

[cadillackid]

I love simple green.. use it on all kinds of stuff..


I surely wouldnt be keeping bus heaters inside the bus for engine COOLING??? thats just gonna make for a roasting hot interior..



the coils themselves could be paired with SPAL or other fans capable of moving a whole lot more air than the crappy blade fans underseat heaters have... then you could mount them under the bus on a switch or thermostat along with the heater boost pump...



I surely dont want hot water runningthrough my bus in summer.. I have 100K + btu of A/C for a reason... now in the winter?? bring on the heat!! ive got 6 inside a 7 window bus to keep my short-sleeve warm even in minneapolis in january

[nikitis]

To answer your question of can you run them vertically.

I believe you can, but I would say not recommended.

It's heated by radiant heating, and is closed coiled so it should handle a vertical mount. The problem is going to be with the fans. Those fans may run for a good while in a vertical position but as with most smaller fans like this some are designed to run horizontally and some vertical by design. These were not designed to run vertically, and will wear out the motors faster by doing so, so while it will work it will likely fail must faster. You could then potentially find hardware replacement fans that were designed to run vertically to fit the size and custom wire them up to the existing fan wiring yourself when that happens, and then it should be no problem to run it vertically.

My 2 cents.

[s2mikon]

My under seat heater was a horizontal mounted affair. I remounted it in a vertical fashion but at 90 degrees to your picture and it works fantastic. It has 2 motors and most of the time I only use 1 motor on high until warm and then cut back to low speed. The front heater by the door is the main heat source in transit using both defrost and heater modes at the same time. It has separate fans for defrost and heat. That large front windshield can radiate a lot of cold at night when it is cold out side.

[cadillackid]

those heater motors are universal.. the fans in the underseat heaters are the same blade fans that are typically in some of the older bus stepwell heaters which are vertical.. My superior bus has heater motors at all different angles in it.. I changed a couple last year that were weak... they still had the "Superior" branding on them.. original from 1978.. i saved them as they do work just not as strong as they used to be... one was horizontal and one was vertical.. same motor

[Dbacks2k4]

I'm keeping one in my bus. Nice to have engine heat in the winter and speaking from experience they can provide some emergency engine cooling if your water pump fails, at least long enough to allow you to limp back home or to a shop!

A couple suggestions - make sure all those hoses are accessible for maintenance later on, especially connection points/splices and areas where rubbing against new cabinets or existing chases are in the bus. Also replace the older rubber hoses with newer flexfab/silicone hoses and use good high quality worm-drive constant tension clamps instead of cheap garden hose clamps. Lastly, make sure you've got good high quality shut-off valves in the engine compartment. You don't want 200 degree water circulating through your drivers area on a hot summer day

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

only concern i would have is new placement with both tubes in and out on the bottom that coil would be an air trap and take extra bleeding to get the air out. heat rises so a coil with entering fluid on bottom and leaving and leaving water on top with an air vent would be best but its a closed loop system so bleeding air out of the coils is adamant for fluid flow.
you could put a tee with valve on either side of the heater with valve and fill them with antifreeze to bleed the air with a pump sprayer to keep from wasting antifreeze.
might be a little overboard but i dont have them but i do work on water coils for a living.
the experienced will chime in.