Heating caravan whilst towing...
Newbie so please be gentle!
We've just arrived at a CL site and it has taken 3 hours to get the van to the point where I can take my coat off!
This may be the dumbest or most obvious question, but can I heat the van whilst towing from my battery?
Comments
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No, sadly not.
In winter we put the heating on a few days before any trip, that way the van is warm when we leave home. Since we don't travel far in winter this heat is retained in the 'van so diesn't take long to get up to temp when we arrive on site.
This is off course of little use if you have your van in storage or are travelling a fair distance!
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One thing you can do is take a good vacuum flask or two of hot water to prime your kettle on arrival for the hot drink of your choice !!
If you have a microwave then the moment you have Electricity heat up a couple of those M/wave hot water bottle type things for personal heating of course !! Wish we'd had such things in my tenting days Brrrr !
Brian
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for those with vans in storage, heating the van prior to the trip might not be an option...
gowever, if your van is equipped with a Truma MonoControl or DuoControl regulator (as in our MH) then, according to the Truma website, you can use the heating on gas while travelling,
we dont actually make use of this function as the cab heater warms the whole MH while travelling...
dont know if caravanning members make use of this in their vans....?
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We are away on a CL at mo , when we arrived yesterday turned the heater on gas to high , by the time I had sorted the outside bits and the other half had done the inside it was toasty !
If you want immediate heat and are on hook maybe use a blow heater .
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We always have a small fan heater on board for emergencies when it's very cold. Nothing worse than sitting shivering.
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KD, your battery will not run the heating. It is dangerous to use gas on the move and it should not be attempted unless you have a purpose designed system as fitted in some MHs and referred to by BB above.
Gas always heats the van quicker than electric alone so, depending on your system, I would start the process on either gas or both gas and electric together. The small fan heater suggestion is the best for instant warmth and provides a back up if your heating system should fail.
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I have a Truma Combi in my caravan and also a MonoControl on the front locker bulkhead. Truma says it can be run on gas whilst towing and because of this I tried it out on a journey once, and all was OK. Satisfied it works I have not used it since, it was cosy when we arrived though.
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Argos are currently selling a 2kW fan heater for £10.99 - we always throw our on to get the heating going and the van up to temperature. - as posted before, keep a check on how many amps you are using. A CL we stopped on recently only had 10 amps available
- errrr..... yes I did trip it once!0 -
We store our van away fro home so pre heating is not an option. When we had blown air heating it was not a problem heating but now we have Alde we use a fan heater on arrival and put the Alde on Gas as waiting for the Alde only takes too long. As said this
does depend on an adequate power supply.0 -
Away last week on a CL no EHU and very cold, on arriving Alde heating control panel display had it at 9c put the gas on and 45mins later it was at 19c.
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Switch the gas oven on it will heat the van in no time at all and saves on carrying extra equipment that my solution to this problem
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When we arrived at this CL on Friday it was very cold so set the heating at 27C and used a mix of Elec and Gas. 20 minutes later van toastie so reduced temp and put back onto elec only. I would never put the heating on whilst towing, gas bottles always
turned off0 -
When we arrived it was 4 degrees. It got to 19 degrees three hours later. We did use a portable heater as well which we had.
I didn't know about heating it from the gas being more effective, so I'll definetly try this next time.
Usually I wouldn't even bat an eye lid - if night, we'd slope off to the pub, if the day, we'd go for a nice long walk but the rugby was on so we were sat in the van.
Thank you to all who replied, as usual, VERY helpful
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... I didn't know about heating it from the gas being more effective, so I'll definetly try this next time. ...
We have a large TA and haven’t had any real problem with regard to slow heat-up at these kind of temps when using Alde on electric only, although we have always been able to use 3kw setting so far. I believe the gas setting has an output of over 4kw (manual not to hand) so by using Gas & Electric together we have an output of over 7kw. I should think this would be enough in most circumstances. As Alde manufacture a range of heaters, the out-puts for you own van may differ but should be quoted in your caravan/Alde manual.
If you use the gas oven please make sure the ventilation is adequate or you will be depleting the oxygen content and increasing CO & CO2 content of the air inside the van.
Safe, Happy & Comfortable Caravaning & MHing to all.
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... I didn't know about heating it from the gas being more effective, so I'll definetly try this next time. ...
We have a large TA and haven’t had any real problem with regard to slow heat-up at these kind of temps when using Alde on electric only, although we have always been able to use 3kw setting so far. I believe the gas setting has an output of over 4kw (manual
not to hand) so by using Gas & Electric together we have an output of over 7kw. I should think this would be enough in most circumstances. As Alde manufacture a range of heaters, the out-puts for you own van may differ but should be quoted in your caravan/Alde
manual.If you use the gas oven please make sure the ventilation is adequate or you will be depleting the oxygen content and increasing CO & CO2 content of the air inside the van.
Safe, Happy & Comfortable Caravaning & MHing to all.
Write your comments here...I did say in my first post I only have a gas fire not a aldi heating system that is why my van heats up quickly.
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... I didn't know about heating it from the gas being more effective, so I'll definetly try this next time. ...
We have a large TA and haven’t had any real problem with regard to slow heat-up at these kind of temps when using Alde on electric only, although we have always been able to use 3kw setting so far. I believe the gas setting has an output of over 4kw (manual
not to hand) so by using Gas & Electric together we have an output of over 7kw. I should think this would be enough in most circumstances. As Alde manufacture a range of heaters, the out-puts for you own van may differ but should be quoted in your caravan/Alde
manual.If you use the gas oven please make sure the ventilation is adequate or you will be depleting the oxygen content and increasing CO & CO2 content of the air inside the van.
Safe, Happy & Comfortable Caravaning & MHing to all.
Write your comments here...I did say in my first post I only have a gas fire not a aldi heating system that is why my van heats up quickly.
What you said was (and I quote):
If like me and still have a gas fire just wack it on by the time you have made a cup of tea your van is toasting.
Not quite the same thing !
But hey! Sorry I misunderstood.
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A gas fire is what it is a gas fire not a wet system I cannot be any clearer
I think you will find that my reply was to the quote:
… “ I didn't know about heating it from the gas being more effective, so I'll definitely try this next time”. ...from kdee69. And not to any post made by you.
Stay cool
it’s just a small misunderstanding after all. 0 -
Dont put the caravan blower fan on untill the heater has got hot, if you put it on right away the van will take for ever to get warm
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