Camper Build – Exhausted

I wanted to finish just one thing today, so I started the morning with our little cabin heater.

Here is the base plate with mounting holes drilled. We added the aluminum as an insulation layer for the wood structure.

This is the thermostat unit. Luckily the cable is long enough for us!

I made an adapter to hang the muffler from the wood

All the tubing cut to length and mocked up to make sure it will fit.

There’s definitely not a lot of room in there. It’s nice because there will be minimal flow restriction, but we’re at the maximum bend radius on that stainless tubing and it’s not very happy about it. I also gave up on the flathead screwdriver and got an actual wrench for the hose clamps. It’s about 1000% easier.

I also had a little panic attack about the insulation on the exhaust. I didn’t think much of it until I started googling “diesel exhaust gas temperatures” and read that it’s like 10,000 degrees. I had already bought some adhesive heat shield for the muffler and some fiberglass header wrap just because the exhaust tubing is underneath our kitchen counter… but now it’s getting double wrapped.

The muffler ended up with 3 layers of insulation.

One thing that I failed to piece together was that fiberglass header wrap is, in fact, made of fiberglass. I believe my exact thought was, “oh that’s weird. They used these rubber gloves as packing material!” … >:/ I’m an idiot… an idiot with itchy arms. (as a side note, Mom, the dish scrubber in the kitchen sink now has fiberglass in it… i’m sorry)

As much of a pain in the ass as it was, the exhaust for the heater is totally done! The kit also came with a little fuel pump. The direction stated that it needs to be installed at an angle, so I found a likely spot and mounted it. Done!

I couldn’t find the fuel line I need to finish up the fuel part of the installation, so I moved on to other random tasks.

Drilled a hole for the propane line into the locker for the stove

More then enough hose in the locker to connect the bottles!

I had to disassemble the heater to remove the handle. but it fits now.

I got some adapters for the water supply from the tank to the faucet.

Everything all hooked up and ready to go!

Final coat of white paint on the cabinet doors. They’re ready to install now

This is the diesel tank that came with the heater. It still needs to be mounted, but it’ll go on the outside of the camper on the aft bulkhead

Put the access plates back in. The sealant will be hidden when the camper is in the bed. I also got a carabiner to hold up the plug when it’s not connected to the truck.

The last thing we did today (after yet another bolt run..) was to bolt the roof latches on. Originally we weren’t going to do them, but after getting in and out of the camper so many times we thought it would be a good idea. I would hate to be running down some rough trail and have the roof pop open. I ordered these adjustable stainless ones off Amazon (where 90% of this camper is from…). They work perfectly and look really nice also!

So now we have all of the hatches, windows, and the door installed, we have a full enclosed lockable shell!

WITH A KEY!

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