[qcj]

Tom, I did not source the valves. I had a coolant leak and to repair it I lost coolant and decided to go all the way and completely replace the coolant and large hoses. So I bit the bullet and ordered the valves from Newell. They are 160 each and they are odd ball and only fit the manifold they were made for. They have a really long shaft. Since you are not going to use your dash heater you will only need two. I believe the top two are for the AH.

[encantotom]

i dont plan on spending 160 each for valves. i will figure something else out.

tom

[qcj]

You might try to use ball valves. I do remember my 07 had ball valves. As I said earlier I talked to someone at the Nibco valve company here in Nac. and they sorta didn't know about the coolant. They make all sizes of valves from water to large oil field valves. I don't know why they would not work. I just had very little time to make up my mind. If you do use ball valves I would certainly use made in USA.

[qcj]

Tom, I was mistaken about the price. Found the invoice and they are 60.39 each. Still expensive but a lot less than I remembered. Hope this helps.

[Ozarkguy]

Tom I used ball valves. They worked just fine. Got them from Home Depot

[Land Yacht]

My first cold night on the road. Parked in Walmart at Jasper AL. Supposed to get to near freezing tonight. Running generator with AH heat. Just curious, in the morning should I turn on the engine preheat? How does this work?

Will these heater run off the inverter with the AH on diesel? If so, how long on 6 new gel cell batteries?
Thanks
Mike

[folivier]

It wouldn't hurt to run the engine preheater for an hour before you start it. The preheater is just a circulation loop + 12VDC pump that runs through the engine coolant to warm up the engine.
While you're driving the coach does the tap water get hot? If so then the aqua hot is circulating through the engine coolant loop and the heaters should work while driving the coach. The AH heaters should run on 12VDC.

[rheavn]

Mike,
The AquaHot diesel burner and engine preheater are 12V systems.  Anything in the 40s or below I run the preheater from the time I go to bed until I start the engine in the morning.  Your batteries will run your AquaHot heater, on diesel burner, and the preheater all night no problem.

You have to have 110V power, either genset or power post with at least 30 amp, to run the electrical heating element. 50 Amp runs the 220V heating element, 30 amp only the 110V heating element.

[Richard]

Did you stay warm?

One thing to keep an eye on when using the Aquahot overnight on 12V is the how low you draw the batteries.

When you are using the inverter, you can set the inverter to cut off at a certain 12V to keep from discharging your house batteries too deep, beyond 50%.

However, the 12v only system that runs the AH and your house lights has no such protection. You can pancake your batteries if you are not aware of this. Batteries don't die, they are murdered. Every cycle below 50% capacity cuts heavily into the life of the battery.

Also if you are dry camping and running the AH overnight, make sure your battery banks aren't merged. You could inadvertantly put yourself in a no crank situation the next morning.

Also, if you run the AH overnight, I would crank the gennie in the morning to recharge the house batteries instead of using the engine alternator. Why? The size of the house battery bank and low battery voltages put a heck of strain on the alternator shortening it's life. If you are one of the lucky guys with a 50DN alternator this doesn't apply to you.

Some would say, then why did Newell build that capability into the coach. It will also run close to a 100 mph but that doesn't mean its a good practice. :-)

[Land Yacht]

Thanks for the replies. I accidentally turned on diesel heater last night with the generator thinking that I had turned on electric. That is when I began to suspect with diesel everything was 12v or on the inverter. A phone call to Bill confirmed. We had a nice warm night with plenty of power this morning in the battery bank. However, I have brand new gel cell batteries.

Learning from the posts:
1. Run the preheat an hour or all night. I only ran 15 minutes
2. Recharge batteries with gen set instead of alternator. I used to think that only merge would charge house batteries from alternator. However, I learned that the isolator charged the bank the needs it the most. So not good on my alternator today... it is new in last year.
3. I know from boating not to drain batteries too much

What a well designed system, heat without Shore or gen power!