[Henry Roberts]

I have religiously kept an oil filled rad in my van but today I turned up at a job and fired up the machine only to find no water coming out. Custy just looked at me and said isn't there anything you can do after clearing her lounge ( Not exactly No:1 priority in my mind!) After checking, it appeared that the water pump had frozen which supplies the header tank.
The little water that was left in header tank was not frozen so can only hope that no damage has been done
I have now bought a 2kw fan heater which "should" warm the van alot better and have put a thermometer in the backwhich I shall be monitoring.

Just goes to prove you can't be too careful!!

Henry

[Jim_77]

Ouch  Hope you can get it sorted asap without too much cost.

Is your van insulated Henry?!  An 800W oil filled keeps mine nice and snug, just wondering where all that heat's going

[richie]

Hi Henry,
Hope the truckmount is ok.  Give me a call on 07984 052 669.

Richie.

[Henry Roberts]

Hi Jim
No it's not insulated but all these years the 800w oil filled rad has done the job.
Just keep an eye on yours especially with it getting very cold.
Henry

[Dave Parry]

Get an ebersparcher heater, runs on diesel and will keep the machine frost free without any electric cables.

[mark shannon]

Kills the battery though in this weather Dave Glad I bought a decent charger been on every day over the last couple of weeks.

[paul moss]

Get an ebersparcher heater, runs on diesel and will keep the machine frost free without any electric cables.

Dave you posted this on truckmounters the other day !!!

Must have been really cold last night, the ebersparcher ran both the van batteries down and the t/m which I've connected direct to the van ones.  Had to jump start the van this morning and the hose connectors were frozen. The wand also had slightly frozen and even the new h/m filter box had ice in it. Luckily the t/m was OK. Took about 1/2 hr to get it all working, but very lucky no damage. Odd thing is I had charged the batteries up Sunday.

[neil55]

My TM kit was semi frozen this morning -first time ever in 7 years!

got it all running ok in abt 30 mins without damage to anything -but it was a surprise.

I knew it would be even colder last nite - so I upped stat on the oil rad a lot - but not enough!

The TM itself was ok - but one solution pipe was clogged and the hand tool - both live towards the outside of the van - so there ur!

still customer was grt abt it - just glad to see me she said  -to clean her carpets!!

So tnite its a two heater job!And most kit in the heated garage.

[richy27]

Showing -7 at moment outside

[paul moss]

Im at minus 6 now and the heater ( oil) has been in all day on full

Lovely and warm.

I will also go out and start the van up and let i run on idol each night  for 10 mins twice before bed.( usually 8pm and 11pm)

[Tony Gill Carpet Smart]

Oil filled rad's are ok but fan heaters give a flow of heat which is better at heating the whole van and contents

CHEERS TONY

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I have 2 in my van atm, it's warmer than Tenerife in there.

Shaun

[paul moss]

You will need it tonight  Bet it goes under 11 there.

[David Ware]

I use a 15 tog duvet covering the TM and a electric fan heater. I have also insulated the inside of van 2 years ago. The duvet acts as back up in case the electricity goes. You can't rely on one thing.
David

[paul moss]

David you will have to stop sleeping in there mate.

[Neil Williams]

I use a 15 tog duvet covering the TM and a electric fan heater. I have also insulated the inside of van 2 years ago. The duvet acts as back up in case the electricity goes. You can't rely on one thing.

Ditto although mine isn't TM.
I've also put a taupauline over the transit too to create another layer of protection.

[Jim_77]

Henry, I'm guessing your ply lining stops short of the roof then   My advice would be to get yourself a couple of rolls of loft insulation and fully ply over the roof, with insulation all round.  The roof is the most important bit.  Putting it behind the existing is easy, doing the rest and joining it up takes a bit of messing about but it's worth it.

The air temp at mid height was 13 a few minutes ago, I put a thermometer by the solution outlets of the machine and it reads 2, quite a difference because the machine is in between the heater and outlets.  Since the cold weather one of the outlets has been dripping when the pump is turned on, so I guess it froze, I wasn't running the heater on full at that time.

I might put my little 8" desk fan in there tonight on low to blow the air about, see if the difference is so great in the morning...

[richie]

The use of a duvet is not going to help unles your machine is warm/hot when you put it over.  Duvets only retain heat under them & dont create warm protection without heat present at time of covering. 
I took a friends truckmount off his van for him before christmas and it has been in the garage since i removed from the van.  I have got to refit it Sunday ready for it to be used Monday so went round there yesterday to check it over & do a few things to it.  He has not heated the garage once since itss been in there so i was expecting it to be frozen.  Checked it over connected a battery and turned the key.....it fired into action with no signs of it been froze however, there is a pipe that comes off the bottom of one of the heat exchangers that diverts water to the waste tank which was broke but judging by the look of it the reason for this was age as it was definately a original hose so that means its about 15 yrs old.  Had the machine running for 20 minutes on full power and everything was ok.  He has now put a electric blow fan heater in the garage just incase.  About 10 years ago i remember going round to my gaffers house to pick up the van, got to my first customers house and the 20ltr container that feeds the TM with chemical was froze solid.  Had to cnacel the job. Went back to gaffers house and we had 3 heaters on full in the van to help defrost the machine. Was 2 days later before we were sure that the whole machine was defrosted. Luckily there was no damage whatsoever.  Very Lucky.  That was on a Prochem Cub XL. 

Richie.

[jsm]

good gas heater for vans are these  http://www.bluebird-type2.co.uk/heat.htm

[Derek_Walker]

My truckmount is safely tucked away in the garage with anti-freeze running through it's veins. It is portable time for me.