12 volt heater

[Billrog]

Read a post here some place about 12 heaters so for $36 I thought I'd give one a try. Haven't put it to the test yet but will tomorrow as it's nice and cold out. On 150w luke warm are and on 300w warm enough it's bound to make a bit of difference since the cab fairly comfortable just from the engine heat.



In stall this light a few days ago and plowed a few miles of skid trail the other night it was like working in day light I have a 45w flood out the back of the tractor as well both are connected to the light switch using existing extra plugins in the harness probably meant for factory cabs.

I'll post if the heater is a waste of time or not in a few days.

 

[CalG]

Boy, If you have 300 watts of "EXTRA" alternator output, your tractor must be fitted with something very special.
Mine only has a 35 AMP unit. 100 AMP alternators are customary for modern automotive applications.

If the alternator won't keep up, the battery is going to need to make up the difference.

 

[2458n]

Used a electric heater from Harbor Freight on a old chevy blazer. Check out person warned me that they had this item returned many times- should have listened. Little fan blew and it got red wires but no heat. Was a complete waste of time,$, and effort. Old Volkswagens were cold for a reason.

 

[joefromga]

Boy, If you have 300 watts of "EXTRA" alternator output, your tractor must be fitted with something very special.
Mine only has a 35 watt unit. 100 watt alternators are customary for modern automotive applications.

If the alternator won't keep up, the battery is going to need to make up the difference.

You're confusing watts with amps.

 

[mrmikey]

At 13.8V it's going to draw 22A, not going to leave much for anything else if you have a small alternator...............M

 

[Travelover]

Don't expect much. A better solution might be a little propane heater, if you can't get heat off the engine directly somehow. I tapped into the upper and lower radiator hose and installed a car heater core that I got for cheap.

 

[art]

The old water heaters in the cab were 12,000 btu and the new ones are 20,000 btu and you are going to mess with a 300 watt heater? We did install one once. Customer came in and bought the right system which allowed him to have more lights and no dead battery! The best part is he had heat in the cab!

 

[tman1020]

I had one of those type of heaters before I upgraded to regular heater that hooks into the radiator hoses. Only thing it really did was help keep the windshield clear and barely did that. One thing that helped more than anything before I had a real heater was I ran an extension cord to where I parked my tractor. I kept a residential electric heater inside there that I would turn on for about 15 minutes before I got in. That made quite a difference. But honestly the radiator heat with a fan is definitely the way to go You won't regret it. I think surplus center sells some options that aren't unreasonable.

 

[CalG]

You're confusing watts with amps.

My bad ;-(

 

[Billrog]

The tractor has a 50 amp alt and the heater other than the fuel gauge is the only thing it would be running during the day is the heater so time will tell.

 

[roadhunter]

Hard to get much heat at 12 volts. If you have ever used a load tester for a battery even a full pull on a battery only makes a little bit of heat.

 

[PJSprog]

Used a electric heater from Harbor Freight on a old chevy blazer. Check out person warned me that they had this item returned many times- should have listened. Little fan blew and it got red wires but no heat. Was a complete waste of time,$, and effort. Old Volkswagens were cold for a reason.

I had a '73 Super Beetle in the early '90s that had the heat channels rusted out. I bought one of those little heaters from JCWhitney, and it got me through that first winter just fine until I could seal the channels. They don't put out a lot of heat, but it was enough to keep the windshield from fogging/frosting up.

 

[arkydog]

to make it a little warmer in your super beetle, think you could have tapped into the radiater, used a cheep heater core and used a little fan?

I had a '73 Super Beetle in the early '90s that had the heat channels rusted out. I bought one of those little heaters from JCWhitney, and it got me through that first winter just fine until I could seal the channels. They don't put out a lot of heat, but it was enough to keep the windshield from fogging/frosting up.

 

[Travelover]

I had a '73 Super Beetle in the early '90s that had the heat channels rusted out. I bought one of those little heaters from JCWhitney, and it got me through that first winter just fine until I could seal the channels. They don't put out a lot of heat, but it was enough to keep the windshield from fogging/frosting up.

I had a VW, too. The heating system proved that German engineers have a sense of humor. I think the fan in the electric heater does more to clear the windshield that the heating elements.

 

[PJSprog]

to make it a little warmer in your super beetle, think you could have tapped into the radiater, used a cheep heater core and used a little fan?

Those were air-cooled engines. No radiators. They had forced air heat, which ran it past the engine block and into the cabin via channels along the sides behind the running boards. You only got heat if you were moving, and then only if the channels hadn't rusted out.

And yeah, Travelover, I had two of them in my younger days; a '73 and a '74. Between the heater design and the windshield washer "design," it definitely showed a seriously messed up sense of humor.

 

[Travelover]

Those were air-cooled engines. No radiators. They had forced air heat, which ran it past the engine block and into the cabin via channels along the sides behind the running boards. You only got heat if you were moving, and then only if the channels hadn't rusted out.

And yeah, Travelover, I had two of them in my younger days; a '73 and a '74. Between the heater design and the windshield washer "design," it definitely showed a seriously messed up sense of humor.

Actually the heat was off the exhaust pipe, which had a shield around it to make a crude heat exchanger. The fan was the same fan that blew air over the cylinders. I used to drive in 3rd gear so the fan was blowing harder to get a couple more BTUs into the cabin. :laughing: The old ones used spare tire air pressure for the windshield washer. Eventually the washer quit working when the spare tire was flat. :confused2:

 

[coolreinfarm]

My mother had a 62 or 63 Volkswagen and the exhaust pipe rusted and the gases came into the car, so you drove with the windows down in the winter to stay alive, what a joke. My uncle had a Corvair station wagon the had a gasoline heater, talk about instant heat, had a little exhaust pipe that came out of the front right fender. It's a wonder we're still alive.

 

[Travelover]

......My uncle had a Corvair station wagon the had a gasoline heater, talk about instant heat, had a little exhaust pipe that came out of the front right fender. It's a wonder we're still alive.

VWs had these, too, as an option. I had one in a Karmann Ghia. When it was really cold, often it would not light the first try so when it finally lit it went BAMMM!, then shot flames. Of course it was mounted right next to the gas tank. :laughing:

 

[PILOON]

Heck VW then installed Ebestreger (SP) gas heaters. Warm as toast (if they did not explode, LOL)

Some years had the heat exchanges with many small pins to increase heat transfer, those years were almost OK but you had to drive flat out at all times to retain high exhaust temps.

Those that drove VW vans generally installed a 20-30K propane heater thus keeping the bottle inside the van.
Man would the safety folks be upset now days!

VW's were very tight, (adds showed them floating) and one trick was to crack open a window or 2 to allow heat exchange )plus drive hard to keep exhaust manifold hot.

Heck over those years I owned probably 7-8 VW 'beetles'. (make me an expert?)

 

[arkydog]

to make it a little warmer in your super beetle, think you could have tapped into the radiater, used a cheep heater core and used a little fan?

all just poking a little fun. i had 2 vw's, 64 1200cc and 67 1500cc both were single port engines. also had a 68 that i used for a chenowth rail dune buggy. the engine fan actually blew the air from the fan shroud through the exhaust heat exchanger into the heater tubes in the car. the faster the rpm the harder the heated air blew.