Heat for UTV's with cabs

jejeosborne · Jan 22, 2013

ptgdigger said:
Feel free to send it, email is my TBN username @comcast.net , all lower case. I suspect they're using some kind of Quartz unobtanium infrared element and are using the close proximity in the cab to their advantage keeping the infrared aimed at the occupants so it "feels" warmer and not heating the air, but feeling warmer won't keep the windows de-fogged/frosted and if their using 600 watts of power they are making ~2050 real btu and their marketing voodoo will wear real thin at -12f.

Believe me when I say if they figured out how to make 10,000 btu hr using 600 watts they wouldn't have time to be making cab heaters between the Nobel prize acceptance and the speaking engagements.

Ray

Funny how they can change the conversion factor like that. I don't think I would trust the dimensions either. I think their yard stick is 4 inches long.

Ptgdigger, can you not cut and paste the response?

pane056 · Jan 22, 2013

hello;
Mr. jejeosborne, I am very sorry. I'm a computer idiot and don't know how to cut and paste.

Sorry nixholas

jejeosborne · Jan 22, 2013

pane056 said:
hello;
Mr. jejeosborne, I am very sorry. I'm a computer idiot and don't know how to cut and paste.

Sorry nixholas

My bad, I had you mixed up there for a second with ptgdigger. Try highlighting the text from the response by holding left mouse button down and dragging across text to be highlighted. Then right click within the highlighted area and chose copy. After that, go into your TBN post and right click again. Select paste and that text should magically appear.

GolfAddict · Jan 23, 2013

I was hoping Nicholas was on to something until I saw all the math formula posts.

I have an RTV 500 with a heater plumbed into the coolant. The hoses run up into the front, and the heater is mounted under the hood up there, and the three speed fan on the heater blows the air into the cab area. Unfortunately, when it's very cold at all, it doesn't even make much of a hand warmer. If you stick your hand down directly in the air flow it's somewhat warm, certainly not hot.

The RTV 500 cab has no insulation. Watching this thread, I was wondering if adding an electric heater would help. But now I'm wondering if it's kind of fighting a loosing battle to try to get the thing comfortably warm on cold days...

jejeosborne · Jan 23, 2013

GolfAddict said:
I was hoping Nicholas was on to something until I saw all the math formula posts.

I have an RTV 500 with a heater plumbed into the coolant. The hoses run up into the front, and the heater is mounted under the hood up there, and the three speed fan on the heater blows the air into the cab area. Unfortunately, when it's very cold at all, it doesn't even make much of a hand warmer. If you stick your hand down directly in the air flow it's somewhat warm, certainly not hot.

The RTV 500 cab has no insulation. Watching this thread, I was wondering if adding an electric heater would help. But now I'm wondering if it's kind of fighting a loosing battle to try to get the thing comfortably warm on cold days...

Are the hoses and heat exchanger box insulated? If not, try that. Also, what condition is your thermostat in? Can you put in a warmer one? After that, I would look into bypassing your radiator using valves for the cold days. Finally, I would seal any air leaks, and look into insulating the cab with spray foam or something. None of these should cost much money.

pane056 · Jan 23, 2013

Hello;

Mr golf addict; Hang in for awhile. I'm going to jump off the cliff and by an electric heater. They asssure me I can return it for full refund. When I get it I will do a temporary hook up and give her a test run. I will then report back here with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

They offer tons of various heaters and accessories so I have to think they are doing something right.
Check it out at DCThermal. I have asked them no less then 20 questions and all the answers impressed me as being totally honest.

thanks, nicholas

GolfAddict · Jan 23, 2013

pane056 said:
Hello;

Mr golf addict; Hang in for awhile. I'm going to jump off the cliff and by an electric heater. They asssure me I can return it for full refund. When I get it I will do a temporary hook up and give her a test run. I will then report back here with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

They offer tons of various heaters and accessories so I have to think they are doing something right.
Check it out at DCThermal. I have asked them no less then 20 questions and all the answers impressed me as being totally honest.

thanks, nicholas

I'll be very interested in what you find out! Please keep us posted.

In the meantime, I'm going to try some of what jejeosborne suggested. I checked, and there is no insulation on the heater hoses from back at the engine up to where the heater core is. They are just covered in that black plastic conduit-like stuff. There is no insulation at the heater either, keeping any heat contained to only going to the cab. I'm going to noodle a bit on how I might add some to the hoses and under the hood. I should also call the dealer and find out if there are different thermostats that would make the coolant warmer this time of year...

amigauser · Jan 23, 2013

I am also interested as I have a RTV500 and wondered how well an electric heater would work.

Here is a site I found via Google search that has lots of options.
12 Volt Heater, 12 Volt Heaters, 12 Volt Car Heaters, 12v Heaters, Portable Heater

ptgdigger · Jan 23, 2013

GolfAddict said:
I'll be very interested in what you find out! Please keep us posted.

In the meantime, I'm going to try some of what jejeosborne suggested. I checked, and there is no insulation on the heater hoses from back at the engine up to where the heater core is. They are just covered in that black plastic conduit-like stuff. There is no insulation at the heater either, keeping any heat contained to only going to the cab. I'm going to noodle a bit on how I might add some to the hoses and under the hood. I should also call the dealer and find out if there are different thermostats that would make the coolant warmer this time of year...

The very first thing I would try is blocking off part or all of the radiator with some cardboard , of course you have to watch for overheating , especially in 6 weeks or so when the temps start to get a bit nicer.

Ray

pane056 · Jan 23, 2013

Hello;

The site amigauser posted offers the heater I bought for $236.99. I'm paying the factory $264.00. But, I will get it quicker from the factory. I promise to keep yall posted as things move along.

thanks, nicholas