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Sat May 24, 2008 6:15 am

Is there any reason why I cant remove the heater under the rear seat of my 86 vanagon camper and couple the hoses together. I live in a hot place and don't need the heater, but I wanted to make sure that the unit didnt serve any other purpose.

Sat May 24, 2008 6:51 am

You can remove it. Actually it has an on/off flow valve on it anyway, so you don't even need to couple the hoses together, although that would probably be easiest.

Sat May 24, 2008 6:56 am

The valve is on the side of the heater core, so you have to either couple the hoses together or replace the T fittings underneath the van with straight hose couplers. If I were to remove mine I would go with the straight couplers and eliminate the feed to the rear heater altogether... who needs one more place for the cooling system to leak, especially inside the van.

Read the other thread on the "POS" rear heater... a lot of people remove them and love the extra space under the rear bench. Frankly, I think that is one of the nicest options VW ever offered in a van and if I were to take it out it would be to replace it with something better rather than eliminate it.

Sat May 24, 2008 6:58 am

That "On/Off" flow valve is only in one side and they sometimes leak by just a tad anyway.

Actually, you're better off not putting a bypass in there. It's best to plug each hose or eliminate the "T"s in the heater hoses going to and coming from the forward heater.

You could even plug them with 1/2" copper pipe with a cap soldered on each short length. Then just use hose clamps.

Mike

Sat May 24, 2008 8:17 am

I pulled mine a while back, but my passengers complained this winter about being cold back there. :roll:
So while I was at the "pick and pull"...I started looking at the rear heaters in the dodge/toyota/and nissan mini vans....hmmm :?
...Lots of good options there...nice long flat heat exchangers. with small squirrel cage blowers.
Any of these would take up less room and probably cost less...and I've never seen any sign of leakage on any of these :?
I gonna, go back with measurements investigate further.

Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:43 am

I plan to remove my rear heater. It sounds like the good way to go is to removel the hoses that supply the heater core and replace the "Tee" fittings with a straight through coupler. Sounds like this is the best way to keep the coolant flowing to the front and reduce the number of fittings.

Question, what is the preferred type of coupler to use? Copper, brass, plastic, other? I am assuming I just buy some stock material and cut to fit or is there a ready made part I can snag from NAPA?

Steve

Fri Nov 07, 2008 5:20 am

if the heater is working fine and the core is good, make sure you do not throw it away. Someone would probably like to have it to repair their leaky heater.

Fri Nov 07, 2008 8:15 am

first camping trip we took after purchasing the van the rear heater started to leak.yarded it out in the campground. used straight through fittings. it does not get that cold here and very rarely have anyone but me and the Mrs. in the van anyway. lots of room under the seats now for tools,subs etc.

Fri Nov 07, 2008 8:18 am

I removed mine and replaced the Ts with straight plastic barbed conectors. If I had to do it again, though, I'd leave those Ts and cap or connect the hoses under the seat in case I want to put the system back.

Ed in CT

Fri Nov 07, 2008 8:27 am

Make sure you at least hold on to the heater if you remove it so the next owner can install it if they want. I hate to see them get tossed just because they leak. They're super easy to fix if a leak is your only problem.

Fri Nov 07, 2008 10:59 am

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=311430&highlight=

Fri Nov 07, 2008 12:00 pm

Ed, are the plastic connectors you used an automotive part or something you found at hardware store?

I am definitely will be hanging onto the heater, hoses and tees. I am putting in a Propex however I want to keep the original for resale. Bite my tongue did I say resale...yikes I don't plan on selling for a long, long time.

Steve

Fri Nov 07, 2008 12:53 pm

"straight plastic connectors"

Just some thoughts here, you can search out my previous posts if you like on this subject and the hell of it all.

I will warn you, I've tried a couple of different connectors from auto shops that were specifically for heater cores ALL OF THEM FAILED!!!! I think the temp coming out of the block is just too much. The last ones I tried I only had in for 1 month, I climbed under to check them, gave the hose a little twist and snap, did it to the other part of the connection and same.

Terry kay has the correct fitting for sale if you want to keep the "T"'d off hoses in place, if not and you are just going straight, use METAL BARBED CONNECTORS!!!

Keep in mind if you don't use the right connectors and they fail you most likely won't know until you have lost most all of you coolant. I know, I had it happen and wasn't paying attention, it was at night and I almost smoked my new 2.1. Don't mess around with this one, you will regret it.

Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:03 pm

I had a core start to leak, I guess 20 years is the end of its life. The new core cost something like $30 on eBay. The other causality was the little bleeder, it broke. So for something like $37 I had a like new rear heater. It would seem it actually puts out more heat then the front one, I would hate to lose it. It does snow here, a lot.

I was brainstorming the other day, while folks where going on about heating the van in the winter while camping. There are coolant heaters that where offered many moons back for German spec and Scandinavian spec vehicles, mostly Mercedes and Saabs. They where a small gas or diesel heater to warm and had a pump to circulate the coolant in the car. Would be interesting to adapt a Coleman propane hot water generator to heat the coolant, and circulate it through the rear heater to give you an internal camping heater. The heating of the coolant happening outside and circulating inside. You could also switch the system to circulate to the engine for a pre-heat.

Just a thought.

Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:09 pm

Dogpilot,

I was just thinking the same thing the other day, I bought one of the small propane powered shower things (made by ZODI).

That little thing pumps out some serious heat!! (it's basically on on demand hot water heater)
If you pumped coolant through that and could mount it in a safe place it would work pretty good and/or the parts included with it would be a great place to start from. Todd.

Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:27 pm

Dogpilot/tschroeder0 -

Bongo idea!

If either of you do this mod please post!

I just bought a Propex, but I like this idea better. Seems like it would be quieter.

I have replaced two rear cores (2 different vans) and love the heat back there.

wnuudiction- Does your heater leak? if so make sure you pull up the floor and clean up all the coolant, it'll turn funky.

Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:50 pm

Yep on tearing up the floor, in a previous post I described how i had to tear up and totally redo my floor after a leak, I currently have no rear heater, I miss the heat but not the worry/mess. Propex is coming for me, but now I'm going to have to take a look at this shower gadget (which, by the way, works awesome for showers) and see what else it could do

Fri Nov 07, 2008 4:20 pm

This model looks promising. It only comes on with flow and is rather compact. The challenge will be the chimney. To bad the rear vents are plastic, or it would make a nice stealth chimney.

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/eccotemp-portable-water-heater/37786

Fri Nov 07, 2008 4:44 pm

Even cheaper

http://www.amazon.com/ECCOTEMP-SYSTEMS-L5-Portable-Tankless/dp/B000UVLW4C

Fri Nov 07, 2008 7:02 pm

Two replies here. 1st, is as noted, don't connect the two hoses. I blocked mine, inside the van using stainless steel bolts that had unthreaded shoulders. I cut the threaded end off, leaving me a stainless shank with head and inserted these in the hose ends and clamped. A stainless of brass rod would have worked too.

I like the extra room, but I have saved my rear heater.

Dog pilot, the idea of an external heat source feeding this a a camping heater is a great idea! I guess one would need the fan running, wired to a second battery ideally. Wonder what the draw from the fan is? I bet a low voltage computer fan could be adapted.