Defrost Heater Gone!!

NfiniteMile

Advanced Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2019
Posts
67
Location
St. Louis
When I Was Newer To The Skoolie Community, One Of The First Things I Heard Of Doing Was To Remove Your Heaters. So That’s What I Did. I Also ACCIDENTALLY Removed The Defrost Heater Not Knowing What It Was. We’ve Recently Purchased A Diesel Heater And Put It In It’s Place. My Question Is, Can You Use A Diesel Hester As A Defrost And Still Pass Safety Inspection?? If Not, What Can I Do To Resolve This Issue?
 
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I'm not sure whether the diesel heater poses a problem with passing safety inspection. I do know it probably isn't the best idea to have such an item unsecured in the cabin.

I honestly think you would be better off putting it back like it was. Hopefully you kept the parts involved. I would replace the heater core itself since you already have it apart.

If you have tossed the original parts, you might check with a salvage yard to see if they have one with the same setup. Sometimes bus bodies are utilized for storage for engines and transmissions that have been removed from vehicles, and chances are good they do little other than pull the body off the frame and remove the engine and running gear for resale.
 
I have no idea what body you have.. wayne? Ward? Bluebird?

To restore the right side defrost/ door heater with aftermarket will require some fab to make it look nice and fit..

My dev bus had a yucky driver heater box so I gutted it and retrofitted in a kegs heater for defrost assist only and a proair frigiking heat/cool box for driver heat and dash air. I fitted it into the original heater box so it doesn’t look bad .

You’ll either want to have 2 aftermarket coolant based heaters for the left side. One defrost and one driver heat, that way you can run heat or defrost or both.

The right side unit is important as unless you do a really good job of sealing the step well and door area, it’s a source of lots of cold air..

Depending on the bus body manufacture (not chassis).. junkyards May be able to help with finding OEM units, but be ready to restore them if you want factory units.

If it were mine and I’d tossed the factory heaters I’d inunkyard for the dash ducting and right side unit and build my own driver box.
Or more likely I’d fab up a nice dashboard heat / cool system.. to do that would be the best however the most expensive
I’d keep the diesel heater for heating the living space rather than burn fuel while driving. Not to mention that little heater won’t do much in a cold bus on a cold day.
 

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