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Installation of Propex HS2000 in a 1974 T2 Bay (Dougal) by Mark Henley
Introduction
We purchased our van “Dougal” just over a year ago having been VW Beetle owners on and off for a few years. My wife and I attend music festivals as part of Oxfam’s festival team and having camped in a small 2-man tent, we felt we deserved some luxury, plus getting in and out of the tent at 57 was taking its toll on my knees – hence Dougal appeared.
Dougal was everything we wanted, if we had a hook-up, we would take a small fan heater and all was toasty and cosy, especially in that last hour or so before you get into bed, and in that first hour when you wake. Without a hook-up life was not so rosy (but infinitely better than a 2-man tent) so we decided to invest in a Propex Heater HS2000. I ordered it online as a kit and it arrived within 2 days for me to fit over a year later – it was a job I left on the backburner 🙂 (Sorry).
Mainly as a result of Covid-19, I have time and the motivation (not being bored) to install it. Like most blokes I’m a great one for not following procedures, but broadly I followed the supplied instructions, which were in fact a help. Below I have added some other bits and pictures which I hope will help anyone else with time on their hands to do this. I installed it under the rock and roll bed (which is what many people do).
Step 0 – Tools, Bits and Bobs
Review the kit contents and make sure you have the right tools for the job.
The kit will have components for a gas connection from a gas bottle to the heater, however you may already have a cooker and/or a refrigerator that already runs from your bottle. If this is the case, you will need a t-piece or a small manifold to ensure the heater has a supply without affecting other appliances. If running a large number of appliances, then you may want to switch to Propane which runs at about 30% higher pressure than Butane (but a bottle doesn’t last as long) – a Propane regulator is supplied with the kit.
There are no 8mm gas pipe fixing clips supplied in the kit. You will need to have a handful of these to fix the 8mm copper pipe to the sides of cupboards or the floor of the van (to keep the pipe where you want it).
A minimum of jubilee pipe clips are supplied in the kit but it was two less than I needed – buy some!
PTFE tape is useful for a good gastight seal on threaded fittings.
You will be cutting 2 x 40mm holes in your van floor, it would be a good idea to buy 2 x 40mm grommets to put around the sharp metal edges.
High temperature sealant.
Wire strippers/crimpers would’ve been useful, but I managed with pliers.
A good electric drill is a must!
95mm and 40mm hole saws are needed for the air vent holes and the exhaust/air intake holes.
A small gauge pipe cutter is a must if you want a good compression seal.
A multi-meter or one of those light-up screwdrivers will be needed to test your electrical installation.
If you haven’t got a spare switch on your domestic panel then a switch to isolate the unit electrically is a good idea (some people have seen a bit of current drain when the unit has been connected directly to the battery).
An 8mm gas isolation valve (ball type).
In hindsight I wish I’d bought a small gauge pipe bending tool – much easier than trying to bend the pipe around the outside of a coffee mug!
A coat hanger (all will become clear).
Step 1 – Preparation
Empty your van!
Remove anything from under the seat/bed. Remove the bedding/cushions (the bedding might need an air anyway).
Remove everything from the cupboards between the bed and the side of the van. (In fact, remove absolutely everything from all your cupboards because its time you had a sort out – there won’t be as much room for storage under the bed with a heater there!).
Remove the gas bottle from its locker/cupboard to somewhere out of the way.
FIND SOMETHING TO HOLD THE BED UP WITH! (Or buy some large plasters for your head).
Step 2 – Safety
The battery was disconnected. I have a starter and a service battery so I disconnected both. I’d be drilling some big holes later on and messing about with the main control panel. Safety glasses are a must when drilling or working under the van. Thin rubber gloves aren’t essential but good to have also.
Step 3 – Where shall I put it?
I had already decided on a suitable location for the heater. The only viable location in Dougal was in the bed box so I crawled underneath and using the 4 bed frame bolts as reference points I found a suitable obstruction free area in which to drill pilot holes for the exhaust and air intake pipes. I drilled a small test hole – which is a very good idea as I’d managed to get the front/back the wrong way around when I was underneath, and the test hole came out somewhere I didn’t expect it!
Having drilled the pilot holes in the right place and filled the previous test hole (and checked underneath again) I had a crisis of confidence. Do I really want to drill 2 one and a half inch holes in the bottom of my pride and joy?
One quick pep-talk by the missus later and it was done. No going back now.
Why do the holes need to be 40mm wide?? I have looked online and there are a few reasons offered – so you can attach the pipes and jubilee clips from above seems to be a popular one (I tried that and it didn’t fit), to give you wriggle room if your measurements are a bit out is another, to give space around the hot exhaust pipe perhaps (which makes sense because of the heat), or to act as a drop vent for any future gas leak maybe (that also makes sense as the heater is installed slightly off the floor). Whatever the reasons I stuck to the instructions, but emailed Propex for a view. [Since writing this they confirmed 40mm holes give a heat safety margin. Propex also stated the holes can be filled with high temperature sealant but that in line with good safety practice, a gas drop vent is needed].
To finish the holes off I coated the insides with a little wood preserver and a touch of anti-rust on the edges of the metal floor pan.
It’s possible at this point to fix the heater to the floor using the brackets and screws provided but my preference was to leave that until I knew everything matched up (it better had – I’ve just drilled 2 bleeding big holes in the floor!).
Step 4 – Power and Control
The kit comes with 2 looms – one for power (12V dc), and the other for control via a switch/thermostat control box.
Dougal has a domestic fuse panel and switch bank to the rear which had a spare switch (marked “spare” so I knew it was spare). I would advise using a spare switch if you have one or fitting an isolating switch to the heater as some people have reported an amount of “leakage” which has slowly run the service battery down.
To access the fuse panel and the rear of the switch panel required disassembling the rear storage cupboard, the pieces of which were carefully stored with corresponding screws for ease of re-assembly.
The fuse panel has a 12V DC bus so instead of using the fuse holder supplied, it was easy to utilise an empty position on the panel which was then wired to one side of the spare switch. The other side of the switch is used by the positive lead on the power loom. The 5 Amp fuse supplied was inserted into the fuse panel.
Now for the hard bit – feeding the 2 looms through the bottom of the bed box, through the water tank store and through to the back where the fuse panel/switch terminals are. A hole already existed for other electrical wires on the floor of the bed box where it enters the cupboards, however it was not large enough to allow an additional 2 sets of wires through, and there wasn’t room for a small drill, so gently using a chisel (actually not so gently) the hole was enlarged to allow the plastic thermostat connector and power feed to pass through (Arghhh – after doing this I subsequently found out that the plastic connector can be detached and reattached to the wires – making the job a tiny bit easier!).
In order to pull the wires through to the back I used a straightened coat hanger which was pushed through the small hole for other wires going to the back, the power and control leads were taped to it and then pulled through. Of course, if you want to do it the easy way and feed the cables from the back to the front then feel free!
The power cable ends were terminated appropriately and the red one fed to the “spare” switch, the black one to earth.
At this point I decided to test the power connection. You could leave it until the end but testing it at this point would a) prevent a lot of rework later on, and b) give you a reasonable feeling that you know you are doing ok!
I reconnected the service battery briefly, turned the isolating switch on, and tested the voltage at the heater end of the power feed – 12.8V!! Marvellous!
I disconnected the battery again before going any further.
The next decision was to decide on a location for the thermostat. The instructions state anywhere between waist and shoulder height. At shoulder height I’d imagine the heater will take very little time to get up to temperature as heat rises, consequently it may be cooler lower down. At waist height it would take longer to get to temperature but be warmer lower down. As we spend a lot of time sat down in Dougal, we decided the best option would be to position the thermostat just above waist height, sited on the domestic switch panel and accessible from lying down in bed J.
Using an 8mm drill, 3 holes were drilled close together and then filed to form a slot to pass the plastic connector through. The control unit was then fixed to the surface using the screws provided.
The control connector halves snapped together quite easily and then the various wires were tidied up using the cable ties provided. Any excess wire from either loom was cable tied in the cupboard.
At this point I screwed the heater to the van floor, removed the electronics cover on the heater and connected first the thermostat connector, and then the power cable. If for any reason you have left the power on and connect the power first, then you risk blowing the mother board in the unit (it doesn’t mention this in the instructions but seemed to be a hot topic on various internet forums). After fitting the cable grommets and replacing the cover I used cable clips to tidy everything up in the bed box.
Step 5 – Exhausted Already
This was a case of making sure you take everything with you that you need as there is nothing as tiring as getting under your van three, four or even five times to get a screw, a clip, a screwdriver, cable ties, etc., that you forgot to take in the first place. It took me four goes and one of those was to get safety glasses to keep dirt out of my eyes (a good tip).
I also found I had a lot more room by jacking up one side of Dougal.
I used the jubilee clip supplied to fix the exhaust pipe to the heater. Before this I had decided on a route for the pipe that fulfils both the technical requirements, namely that;
The pipe preferably should exhaust towards the edge of the vehicle but as long as the two criteria are met, and it isn’t exhausting into an enclosed box section then you should be ok. Carbon Monoxide is heavier than air so will pool under the van and slowly dissipate. It’s also a good idea to make sure the exhaust is on the opposite side to the sliding door otherwise you could be exhausting into your awning and anyone sleeping in there may be hard to wake up!
The instructions also advised not to place the exhaust within 50cm of a fuel tank breather vent.
Due to the placement of my heater I couldn’t quite reach the sill of the van but it was close enough and fulfilled the technical requirements, so I was pretty happy. There was also a convenient unused cable tab for me to attach the pipe clip to.
The inlet air pipe followed a similar route, again pointing slightly to the rear of the vehicle and was long enough to reach the sill. Both pipes were specified lengths to make the heater run efficiently. Do not shorten them!
I decided to seal in the exhaust pipe with RTV High temperature sealant but left the air intake hole open to act as a gas drop vent for the bed box.
Step 6 – It’s a Gas Gas Gas!
According to the regulations (BS EN 1949), if you are going to hire your van out, you need to have the gas system fitted and tested by a Gas Safe Registered engineer (still a Corgi engineer in my head). If you aren’t hiring it out, you can have a go yourself (yikes) but it is still a good idea at some point to get it checked out by a registered engineer. On boats it is an insurance requirement to have the system certified every year, or after any change. Gas explosions and CO poisoning are the main causes of leisure boat fatalities in the UK. I suspect the risks in campervans are possibly higher as there is no legal or insurance requirement to get gas systems checked by competent people.
Food for thought, but by following simple guidelines you stand a very good chance of installing a good gastight system.
It was a long time ago, but I did part of my apprenticeship as a gas pipe fitter with two Glaswegians from Corby. It’s just a shame I never understood a word they said. Anyhow I don’t have a copy of the standard and at £150 I probably won’t bother but you won’t go too far wrong if you follow the above.
My run of copper pipe to the gas locker was relatively simple – heater to small ball valve, valve to gas locker through the bottom of the water cupboard. I made a hole in the locker to house the kit-supplied rubber to copper fitting which I swapped for a bulkhead fitting to enable it to be secured on the wall of the locker. I used PTFE to put the brass elbow in the heater unit – all the other fittings were compression fittings.
4 joints in total to test, which I did by connecting the rubber hose directly to the gas bottle. I filled a large syringe (don’t ask) with 50/50 fairy liquid and water. At this point my wife came out to see if I had a drug problem she should know about, and on watching me squirt the joints with the mixture remarked “Ooh, should it be blowing bubbles like that?”.
Damn! Still a 75% success rate, and the offending joint was tightened up and retested satisfactorily.
Oh, and make sure you have kitchen roll under the joints being tested.
Step 7 – A very expensive hairdryer
It made sense at this point to test the whole system so I connected the hot air pipe to the unit with the large jubilee clip, reconnected the battery, turned the gas on, turned the “spare” switch on at the panel, and switched the controller to “flame”. I’d asked my wife to come out for the grand switch on, my kids weren’t interested, and my neighbours weren’t allowed to be there because of social distancing otherwise I’d have asked them round.
Bugger! The LED that should’ve been green was flashing red L. A quick read of the installation instructions and I discovered that due to the initial absence of gas the unit had “locked out”. One quick reset later and I tried again. Success J. By this time my wife had wandered off to feed the cats or do something more interesting. I celebrated alone but was chuffed to bits.
Step 8 – Tidying up
It’s relatively simple to install the air vents in the bed box front, once you get past the idea of drilling 2 very large 95mm holes. Once done there isn’t a lot left to do other than maybe protect the unit with a cover – so you can still use the storage space – and enjoy the heat!
Actually, one very important thing, if you haven’t installed one already, is to install a CO Alarm. If you already have one, check when you bought it as they tend to need replacing after 7 years (some may last 10 years).
Unfortunately, we can’t go anywhere as yet so we are confined to sitting in Dougal on the drive, but at least it’s warm!
By Jonathan Bruton
CAVEAT: brakes are obviously safety-critical components, so only attempt this job if you are confident that you can do so safely! This is a personal account of a process and not an exhaustive set of instructions; the author cannot be held liable for any injury arising from accidents caused by a failure to carry out safety-relevant tasks properly.
Some while ago, in that pre-Covid world in which we could drive places (remember that?), I started to become aware of a tell-tale grinding noise coming from Mortimer’s nearside front wheel. There still seemed to be adequate braking power, nor was the van pulling particularly in either direction when I applied the brakes, so I wasn’t unduly concerned. But I thought I’d take advantage of the lockdown to jack him up, whip off the wheels and take a look at the callipers and brake discs.
The old caliper 
You can imagine my horror when I saw that, in the first assembly I looked at on the nearside, the calliper pistons were frozen in such a way that the brake pads must have been forced up against the disc surface. The pistons normally only protrude slightly from the inner surfaces of the calliper, allowing enough space to snugly fit the two pads with a tiny bit of clearance. But as you can see on the picture, the dirt seals – concertina boots that should move in and out with the piston and protect it from contamination – had long since perished and the pistons had accordingly seized up in extended position. On closer inspection, it also became apparent that there was zero friction material left on either pad(!) – what I was hearing was metal on metal. Whatever braking performance there may once have been was obviously a thing of the distant past! The disc surface was as scored and uneven as you would expect under those circumstances, and the disc was obviously beyond redemption. Things were a little better on the other side, with some wear left on the pads – although the fact that van wasn’t pulling to the right suggests that that brake wasn’t functional either. I toyed with the idea of trying a rebuild but, when it became evident that there was no way I was going to get the bleed valves free, I thought I might as well save myself a lot of bother by buying new callipers for both wheels along with two new discs.
The worn brake pad
The first job, of course, was to get the old callipers off so I could remove the discs. This was relatively straightforward. I first had to undo the two 17mm retaining bolts on the inside of the assembly. I then used a pin punch to knock out the two pins that hold the retaining spring in place before tugging out the old pads. It was then a question of pulling out the clip that holds the hose in place and removing the whole assembly from the disc, being careful not to place undue strain on the metal brake pipe that attaches to the calliper. I also needed to bear in mind that the topmost bolt has an unthreaded section on the shank closest to the screw head. The nuts were pretty tight, however, and I needed a torque wrench to get them off. According to the BUSARU guy, the torque is about 110 lbs.
The top bolt
The tricky part in getting the discs off was removing the two button head Allen bolts. Stopping the drum from rotating was an issue until I had the brainwave of clamping the disc to the backing plate. I managed to free up one bolt on each side by conventional means but soon found myself in danger (of course!) of irredeemably rounding off the holes in the other two in my desperate attempts to get them to budge. I even resorted to cutting a groove into one of them (and the surrounding metal) with a grinder to create a slot for a screwdriver. But nothing could persuade it to move! A quick appeal to the Samba revealed a range of opinions on the subject, from just drilling the heads off (the logic being that the thing was securely held in place by the wheel anyway and wasn’t going to go anywhere) to using an impact driver. I like to do things properly if I possibly can, so it was off to eBay to get myself an impact driver (can’t believe I’ve never owned one!). And, hey presto, a couple of whacks on each side got the troublesome little critters out. I took a quick look at the condition of the bearings, which seemed fine and well-greased, so I left them alone. I then fitted the shiny new discs to both sides.
The shiny new disc
The next job was to disconnect the old callipers from the brake lines. Now, as the brakes are safety-critical parts, I’d always shied away from doing anything that would involve having to refill and bleed the fluid. But, having watched a number of YouTube videos on the subject, I concluded that I had nothing to fear but fear itself and went ahead. It would have been a good idea to apply some WD40 to the nuts first, though: on one side, the pipe started to twist with the nut (which should normally spin freely around it), which promptly sheared off. So it was back to Just Kampers for a new 24-cm brake pipe (I swear I’m keeping that company afloat single-handed at the moment!).
Offering the caliper to the disk
With the old units out of the way, it was just a matter of fixing the new ones in place, torqueing up the bolts, and sliding in the new brake pads and backing plates, having first applied some anti-squeal gunk to both sides of the plates. Once they were both in, it was the turn of the retaining spring and the two pins (here I reused the old ones because the new pins supplied with the kits resisted my efforts to tap them into the holes). I used a pin punch and hammer to tap them home.
The new caliper in place
Then it was just a question of bleeding the brakes, replacing the wheels and venturing out for a short road test (keeping an eye out for the police – strange times!). Job done!
Kit acquired for the job:
From JK:
Front brake kit (discs, pads, fixings) £94.75
Calliper (nearside) £99.75
Calliper (offside) £99.75
Brake disc screws: £21.00
Morris brake fluid (1 litre) £11.00
Front brake pipe £15.00
From Amazon:
Impact driver £23.94
Holts brake cleaner £5.25
Ceratec anti-squeal paste £3.30
Starrett pin punch £4.39
Total for job: £378.13
The recently announced electric conversion kit looks great.
Pre-supposing that you have deep enough pockets for the £60,000 on top of the price of your bus.
Virtual Coffee Morning brings people together by Events Manager Lorna Williamson
In these strange times, it’s easy to feel lonely. Even the passion you feel for your VW Campervan is not always enough on its own, let alone the frustration of knowing that the open road is still out there, waiting…
Enter stage right the VW Type 2 Owners Club. This British Club decided to create a feeling of togetherness when people can’t actually get together, with a simple event built around the joy that only a VW Campervan can bring.
Using the Club’s Facebook and Instagram pages plus good old email, the VWT2OC encouraged its members to take their Sunday morning coffee out to their van, and get a picture.
“Nick and I had been joking for weeks about camping out on the driveway,” said Events organiser Lorna, “…we always sleep better in Poppy! Combined with input from a member who wanted to feel connected, and the fact that you can never have too many photos of vans, we came up with the virtual coffee format. We’ll be trying something similar on VE Day!”
Not everyone had access to their van – some being in storage, in the workshop, at home while people were away caring for relatives, or simply not available on the oil rig where the member was based! But people valiantly entered the spirit of the thing, with well over 100 photos shared, and these are some of the results…
The write up for the 2019 event went like this:
When several people tell you they’ve had a great weekend, including some more skeptical folks, you know you’ve got a good formula. Our club’s annual general meeting, BBQ and camp was again this year held at Great Bourton, just a few miles off the M40.
This again seemed to include a willingness to sit, chat, walk to the local pub (5 and 30 minute options), watch the footie or Eurovision, learn a new craft and drink Tea, coffee and more. Club participants on our spacious rally field this year included 21 vans, 33 adults, three dogs, one toddler and one parrot. There were also seven portions of delivered fish ‘n’ chips, 50 burgers and over 100 pieces of cake.
We had visitors from Norwich, Swansea, Sheffield and Maidstone; Four corners indeed! The essential business of the weekend (the Annual General Meeting itself) was conducted smoothly and efficiently… Thank you for supporting your club. This left plenty of time for the other important activities mentioned earlier! Many members walked away with valued, if not highly original, prizes in our Wrapped Up Raffle… I am making fine use of my Outwell bottle, kindly donated with a number of other prizes by member Ian Crawford.
Other attendees also brought along splendid and amusing options to help raise funds. Thank you all for supporting your club!
I think Kevin’s Craft workshop may have created a new sharing tradition. Who ever heard of Flower Pumelling? Not me, for sure… But along with four other ladies and one young man I became quickly addicted to perfecting the arrangement, taping, turning and subsequent bashing of foraged blooms to create something approaching art.
Mine was far from the best offering, but gives you an idea (see photo). Fab idea, Kevin, thank you so much for sharing!
The next edition of the club magazine has been finished by our Editors and looks fantastic. It should be arriving through your door soon!
If you are enjoying the club magazine and have a story about a trip, an upgrade, a restoration or just a tip, send a contribution to our Editor Phil at editor@vwt2oc.co.uk.
Is it March already? I have barely had chance to remember to write the correct year and already we are into March, the clocks “spring” forwards this month and next month was to see our first camp!
April 4-19 – Easter Club Camp, Petruth Paddocks, Cheddar, Somerset (Club camp)
Sadly due to the Coronavirus, this has had to be postponed.
Head over to http://vwt2oc.co/wp/events/ for details of other events happening this year. If you are interested in any camp, contact our lovely Events Manager on events@vwt2oc.co.uk. She doesn’t bite.
Yes, it is that time again. Hurray! Finally, after the long winter in our non-mobile houses, we can get out our beloved vehicles.
Checklist
Hopefully you all followed the article Time for bed/ to help put your vehicle to bed for the winter. Now that spring is in the air and we are starting to think about getting out and communing in nature, this is a key time to get things ready.
Doors locks – there’s nothing more annoying than a failed lock. get it fixed now before the season really gets going. Door lock issues can be very straight forward but a simple lubrication can be key. Pun intended. A non residue lubricant is best to move the dirt away as WD40 can leave enough gunk to create issues. We favour silicon spray. A little into each lock.
Windscreen wipers – did they perish in the cold winter freezing them to the windscreen. Inspect and replace now.
Water – check the radiator if you have one. Ensure that the bottles that you emptied in the Autumn / fall have no mice, carefully hidden Christmas presents or mildew. Clean with a weak Milton solution if it is drinking water or food related.
Batteries – check the charge on each battery with a good meter. A flat battery can indicate an earth leak. A failed battery needs careful investigation.
Carburettor – Or equivalent. Check for good operation, no stuck flaps or other deterioration over winter. If you are a professional, this will be straight forward. If you are an amateur, a test drive very close to home will highlight problems! But only after the other checks.
Brakes – your vehicle should roll easily, otherwise this can indicate jammed brakes. Parking in gear for long periods of time can be better for your brake health than a jammed set of brakes. Check the brakes for operation. Check the brake fluid level. If it has been more than 5 years, change the brake fluid as it is hygroscopic and slurps up water incredibly quickly. Water is not a good fluid for applying the brake pads to the disks.
Seals – inspect all door seals for any signs of damage, water ingress or other problems and sort them out now. Glue any loose bits back down with the correct glue.
Windows – ensure that they all open and close fully. Or at least as fully as they did last year if applicable!
Ignition – Once you are feeling confident, get in to your pride and joy and turn on the ignition to number 2. Look at the lights on the dashboard. Check there ARE lights! Are they what you expect / are used to seeing? Have you got fuel (for those with a working fuel gauge)?
Crank it over – don’t expect it to start immediately but things should kick into life within a few seconds.
A little test drive on your driveway will allow you to test the brakes, maybe the steering and other important parts. Softly, softly.
Stay local, take your phone with you and warm clothing. Just in case!
Once you get home, assuming that you have a big smile on your face, make a list of snags, get indoors, put the kettle on and start planning for your summer.
Check out the events page and come and see us at a meeting soon!