Espar Underseat Installation

GeorgeRa

2013 Sprinter DIY 144WB, Portland OR
I mounted mine under the passenger seat after reading some helpful tutorials from this site. For what's it's worth I ended up running the thermostat control wires up the seatbelt pillar and mounted the unit in the headliner. I love it there as i can turn it on a few mins from a camp spot. Only 2 down sides are you can't reach it from the bed, and if you use a curtain separating the cab the unit won't read an accurate temp (but you could disable that function if you wanted)
I like your spot, I wish I have 2, one like yours and the other one like mine near sliding door.

George.
 

Camping

Member
I remember reading that someone had cut vents into their plastic hatch access door (in seat base), but can't find reference to it. I have a swivel on top the base, so there's not much air flow. Anyone tried this and had it look nice? I can't see taking an exacto knife to this and it looking pretty?
 

GeorgeRa

2013 Sprinter DIY 144WB, Portland OR
Recently I talked to Eberspacher, MB, and VW (Crafter) about availability of this access door with vent holes, no success. Just bought a spare door from MB for $5 to experiment with cutting holes or slots. I was thinking about doing CNC which still could be a good option but mounting on the table could be a problem. I will show this door to Hein and see if CNC is possible.

George.
 

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hein

Van Guru
I would be happy to machine some slots in that door.
How many people want one?
what is the part number?
 

Tuck5000

2008 2500 170
I just pulled the foam cap thing that is under seat base, this seams to allow plenty of air flow to the unit
 

sailquik

Well-known member
I don't get it.
You want to put a diesel (hot and smelly) fired heater under the passenger seat in your Sprinter?
Where is this device going to get it's intake of combustion air, and where will it exhaust all the
fumes and CO?
Or are you simply putting a heat exchanger under the seat, and the hot smelly part goes outside
the cab and gets plumbed with hot water hoses?
The foam "cap" on the seat base is there to keep the cold air (inside the seat box as it's bottom is
the stamped sheet metal floor of the Sprinter's cab) down in the seat box...well, down in the seat box.
Might also cut a slight bit of noise coming up through the floor.
Roger
 

Diamondsea

New member
Espar heaters are designed to be mounted inside vehicles including places as under seats. Combustion air is drawn in and exhaust gasses passed out via small hoses that exit from the bottom of the heaters and go down through the floor. No fumes are present in the vehicle.
 

GeorgeRa

2013 Sprinter DIY 144WB, Portland OR
I would be happy to machine some slots in that door.
How many people want one?
what is the part number?
Thank you Hein.

Not slotted part is A 9065450003, made in Germany, must be old part because the package has printed DaimlerChrysler AG.

George.
 

GeorgeRa

2013 Sprinter DIY 144WB, Portland OR
I prefer to keep the foam sheet in place. I don't know what the exact reasons were for Eberspacher's engineers to design the slotted door but as mentioned earlier sound reduction and thermal block likely were on their list.
http://www.esparofmichigan.com/tech...inter Vans/Airtronic mod 25 2378, 06-2007.pdf

In my case the outlet is between the seats so having intake from the colder right side of the passenger seat is likely a good air circulation flow. I removed the door and would like to cover the hole.

To moderator – It seems that installations of Espar D2s are common and it would be nice to have a centralized place to post D2 installation links or threads. Searching not always brings good results if right words are not used.

George.
 

GeorgeRa

2013 Sprinter DIY 144WB, Portland OR
I don't get it.
You want to put a diesel (hot and smelly) fired heater under the passenger seat in your Sprinter?
Where is this device going to get it's intake of combustion air, and where will it exhaust all the
fumes and CO?
Or are you simply putting a heat exchanger under the seat, and the hot smelly part goes outside
the cab and gets plumbed with hot water hoses?
The foam "cap" on the seat base is there to keep the cold air (inside the seat box as it's bottom is
the stamped sheet metal floor of the Sprinter's cab) down in the seat box...well, down in the seat box.
Might also cut a slight bit of noise coming up through the floor.
Roger
This picture shows the heater operation. Combustion air and exhaust gases flow from in/out from outside.

George.
 

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PaulDavis

Member
I removed the foam sheet. I rely on the substantial air flow made possible by using swivel bases to ensure that the D2 has plenty of air flow. The foam sheet cannot do very much for insulation: wrapping a cube of "cold" air on 5 of 6 sides with sheet metal and a leaky thin layer of foam on the last one really isn't a believable strategy. Noise insulation ... slightly more believable, and I might try to improve this in some way in the future, without reinstalling the foam sheet.
 

GeorgeRa

2013 Sprinter DIY 144WB, Portland OR
I removed the foam sheet. I rely on the substantial air flow made possible by using swivel bases to ensure that the D2 has plenty of air flow. The foam sheet cannot do very much for insulation: wrapping a cube of "cold" air on 5 of 6 sides with sheet metal and a leaky thin layer of foam on the last one really isn't a believable strategy. Noise insulation ... slightly more believable, and I might try to improve this in some way in the future, without reinstalling the foam sheet.
Your D2 is mounted in the right side access opening where the plastic door is normally located. So in your case this right side opening is blocked. The only air flow opening you have is from the top so I am not surprise you had to remove the foam sheet. With the D2 mounted on the seat box floor as Espar installation shows there are 3 options for air flow:

1. Perforated plastic door as on the Espar's picture
2. Remove the plastic door
3. Remove the foam sheet

Out of these 3 options I prefer the first one by far and will pursue it with Hein. Based on the photo I will generate a CAD drawing within a couple of days.

George.
 

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astrobright

New member
For us Sprinter owners that dont have the k1 auxiliary fuel line to plug into, what are some methods to tap into the fuel source? Here is a picture of my 2005 sprinter 2500 Fuel sending unit. Notice on the far right an unused closed up fitting, looks like that might be unusable. Any advice on how to feed my D2 Airtronic?

 

Badroadcamper

Precision engineer
For us Sprinter owners that dont have the k1 auxiliary fuel line to plug into, what are some methods to tap into the fuel source? Here is a picture of my 2005 sprinter 2500 Fuel sending unit. Notice on the far right an unused closed up fitting, looks like that might be unusable. Any advice on how to feed my D2 Airtronic?

I have just installed a Webasto Air Top EVO 40, and to feed it I used a new developed special Webasto pipe, witch I drilled into the side of the diesel tank at my 2005 Sprinter.

I only had to drill a 13 mm (Half an inch +) hole.
At the end of the pipe there was a wire on which there were, some latches, a rubber seal and finally a nut with a seal.
You get a good grip on the wire and put the pipe and everything except the nut, along the wire and into the tank. Then you pulls the wire and the end of the pipe with the tread comes out again. Then you fix the nut. It worked fine, but I had made some tests on a piece of plastic, in advance. The smart thing about this new pipe, is that you don´t need to take down the tank.
The hole needs to be exactly 13 mm.
I´m sure that it will work for the Espar ( Eberspâcher in Europe) too if the fuel line hole is 2mm
The Webasto spare part number is: 10053500

Kim
 

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GeorgeRa

2013 Sprinter DIY 144WB, Portland OR
For us Sprinter owners that dont have the k1 auxiliary fuel line to plug into, what are some methods to tap into the fuel source? Here is a picture of my 2005 sprinter 2500 Fuel sending unit. Notice on the far right an unused closed up fitting, looks like that might be unusable. Any advice on how to feed my D2 Airtronic?

Perhaps this picture could help but this is a newer van.
http://wwww.ourexcellentadventures.com/wp-content/documents/KL1AuxFuelTap2010.pdf

George.
 

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meyerx

New member
Just finished installing mine. Followed the fuel and power routing suggestion of over the exhaust and drive line. Seems
pretty good. Thx for all the help and info guys!

It took 5 attempts to fire it up. Each time i crawled under the van to watch the the air bubbles slowly flow through the line...
just hoping i didnt have a leak. But she finally fired up:)
I ran the control wiring through the channel connecting the 2 seats then out the bottom rear of the driver seat and
into the wall making use of the seat belt post plastic. We can turn it on from bed.

The last thing i need to do is wire in the altitude sensor kit.... Another bundle of wires, vague descriptions and confusing wiring diagrams... Anyone here done it? Pointers?

Thx
 

dickknapp

dickknapp
I tapped into my 2006 T1N tank a few days ago by dropping the tank (good instructions on this site) and using the standpipe included with my D2 kit. Placed it on a high spot on the front of the tank. Looks like a nice flat spot behnd the fuel pump would have been a good spot but the rubber hose included with my kit was too short to get from there to a good place to mount the little dosing pump. Espar instructions include a way to mount the standpipe by drilling 2 each 1/4" holes 1 1/8" apart and a 1" hole in between (from memory - check instructions) and using the thusly widened hole to drop the standpipe with a fitting and then a washer through the hole. Then assemble the rubber gasket/washer and nut on top. Worked slick. No way to really figure out where on the tank to put the standpipe until you can drop the tank and actually look at it. For me the real challenge was working under the van looking, drilling holes and raising without unhooking the wire harness and fuel hoses. Was afraid I might have strained the harness when muscling the tank around as I was jacking into place. Oh - also the wire harness, as it turned out, was pinched between the tank and the frame rail as evidenced by a semi-circular channel worn into some cushioning material put there by Mercedes. So assuming that was not by design, I fooled around when almost entirely jacked up, reaching over tank from inside side and pulling the harness back before then hoisting tank fully up.

I'm waiting for drier weather to finish the install. I, too, have the high altitude kit and looks like figuring out wiring will be a challenge. But that will be the comfortable part (in the van rather than under, and at my leisure).

Dick
 

meyerx

New member
So for those that may need to add an altitude sensor...
It turns out that there is no simple plug and play option for adding it if you have the Digi-max controller
that is shipped with the Bunkhouse heaters.
In order to integrate it, 3 wires need to tapped somewhere of your choice into the the line between the controller and the heater.
In addition, only the controller OR the pressure sensor can be communicating with the heater ECU at a time.
Thus a 4th wire(blue/white) needs to be delt with. I just learned a new greek word "single pole double throw" toggle
switch needs to be added to the blue/white wire. So the ECU either adjusts for altitude over blue white or sends fault
codes to the digimax controller, but not both simultaneously.
About to dive in....will try to get a few pics along the way for those interested
 

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