Installed New Bus Heater in Dreamscape

[Dreamscape]

Well the day finally arrived.
I have spent most every day the past two weeks replacing the old bus heater for the driver. I replaced every rubber hose joint from the engine to the front. Now that was a challange!
I removed the old heater and replaced the plywood fllor that the heater sits on. In doing so I maintained the old valve to regulate the temperature, it was froze solid, soaked it with penetrating oil and got it to function properly.
I purchased a new heater a few months back on eBay, similar to ones in school buses. It has two fans to blow the air and two squirrel cage fans for the defrosters. I am leaving the old defroster manifolds in and reusing them, just have to change the hose location on the driver side.
After firing the ole Detroit up to get it up to operating temp, I could feel the hot coolant moving from the rear of the coach to the front heater. Had a couple of small leaks, no big deal, retightened a couple of clamps and everything was circulating normally.
Now all I have to do is wire the fans to move the air around.
During the installation I installed a couple of gate valves in the third bay. There was already two y's there for the old A/C Heat system. This will be for the future installation of a Pro-Heat or Webasto to plumb into the system.
It really was fun getting to learn about our coach more and more each day. I only said a few choice words when I hit my knuckle,  ::)other than that it was great.
At least we will now have heat for the front half including the driver and co-pilot area now.

Thaks Phil for working on the MAK Board upgrade so I could do this. 

Many Happy Trails for us ALL,

Paul

Dreamscape

[DrivingMissLazy]

Paul, when I was involved in a task like you just completed I found that I had to bleed the air out of the system to get good heat. Basically it was just loosening the top hose of the heater and letting enough liquid escape along with the trapped air. You may not have this problem, but it would be good to check.
Richard

Well the day finally arrived.
I have spent most every day the past two weeks replacing the old bus heater for the driver. I replaced every rubber hose joint from the engine to the front. Now that was a challange!
I removed the old heater and replaced the plywood fllor that the heater sits on. In doing so I maintained the old valve to regulate the temperature, it was froze solid, soaked it with penetrating oil and got it to function properly.
I purchased a new heater a few months back on eBay, similar to ones in school buses. It has two fans to blow the air and two squirrel cage fans for the defrosters. I am leaving the old defroster manifolds in and reusing them, just have to change the hose location on the driver side.
After firing the ole Detroit up to get it up to operating temp, I could feel the hot coolant moving from the rear of the coach to the front heater. Had a couple of small leaks, no big deal, retightened a couple of clamps and everything was circulating normally.
Now all I have to do is wire the fans to move the air around.
During the installation I installed a couple of gate valves in the third bay. There was already two y's there for the old A/C Heat system. This will be for the future installation of a Pro-Heat or Webasto to plumb into the system.
It really was fun getting to learn about our coach more and more each day. I only said a few choice words when I hit my knuckle,  ::)other than that it was great.
At least we will now have heat for the front half including the driver and co-pilot area now.

Thaks Phil for working on the MAK Board upgrade so I could do this. 

Many Happy Trails for us ALL,

Paul

Dreamscape

[tekebird]

You may want to consider using ball valves next time you put valves in....less likely to fail

[Dreamscape]

Tekebird,
I thought of ball valves. It has been my experience that these gate valves will work fine for the following reasons. The original ones on the front of the Detroit have been there since day one, almost forty years, and don't leak. Second reason, gate valves will hold their position better. I have used both in the past in my job and found the ball valves to have a higher failure rate.

You may want to consider using ball valves next time you put valves in....less likely to fail

I had thought about trapped air, that is the reason for cycling the coolant. It should work its way out. If not I have a couple of drain cocks that might help relieve the trapped air. Thanks for the tip Richard.

Thanks for the comments guys,

Happy Trails,

Paul

Dreamscape

[pete81eaglefanasty]

 Paul.  When we did our eagle last fall we had a hard time getting the air out. I got a hold of Mark at Eagle nest in Nashville and he suggest to loosen the return hose at heater and run engine at 2300 RPM to force the air out. it took about a min and it was runing pretty good after that, I know you have a model 1 and I got a model 10 I don't know if it matters at all.

        Pete & Jean
          Fantasy

[Dreamscape]

Remove trapped air.

Good advice Richard and Pete.

Pete, I will do as you have suggested and see what happens. And here I thought I had fixed all the leaks, now I have to create one.

All kidding aside, it needs to be done the more I think it through. Just one more thing to add to the list before I start on the next task.

Advice I am grateful for, problems are just another way of learning.

I sure hope whoever gets this coach after I am pushing up daises appreciates all the hard work, let alone the money it takes.

Happy Trails,

Paul

Dreamscape

[NewbeeMC9]

I sure hope whoever gets this coach after I am pushing up daises appreciates all the hard work, let alone the money it takes.

Happy Trails,

Paul

Dreamscape

I'm getting burried in mine,  50 amp head stone and can rent the space above it, proceeds go to the estate   (will have water but you'll have to take the sewer somewhere else )