Bongo Fury

Does anyone have one of the night heaters that are copies of the Eberspacher/Webasto heaters?
It is very tempting considering you can get a full kit with all the accessories for around a 5th of the price of a proper Eberspacher or Webasto.
Just looking for feedback from anyone who has one. Reliability, noise, fuel consumption etc.

Very interested in the topic too. I was looking at this one in the specific: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07 ... PI6F&psc=1

Not sure to trust these products but the reviews are really positive (for what it counts)

Fed

I've read of them (both on here and on the facebook groups i think) being successfully fitted to Bongos. Seem to work fine. I've not read anything though about how long lasting they might be, and where to sort parts and servicing, but no doubt a good google search will reveal more stories. Keep us posted on anything you learn!

I'll do a bit more research I think, might be worth a punt at £120. Just need to make sure I get a good carbon monoxide alarm
Would be great to here from someone on here that has one, I wouldn't infect any of my devices with facebook so wont go on there.
Another question, has anyone on here either with a genuine or Chinese heater managed to fit a separate fuel tank just for the heater and have a leisure battery fitted? I have seen some fitted with a separate tank where the second battery sits but not sure if anyone has done it elsewhere.

You don't really want a fuel tank in the crumple zone, and to be honest they use so little fuel I doubt you would ever recoup the investment, even with red diesel.

Most of the Chinese kits on ebay seem to come with the separate tank anyway so there wouldn't be any extra cost. I was thinking not so much for using red diesel more so I don't need to worry about emptying the main fuel tank than anything else.

I made a pick up pipe that terminates high in the fuel tank to ensure heater can run short but still leaves a fair bit in the tank. I used brake pipe and ferrules through a drilling in the sender unit.

Just found quite an in depth test/review of one of the Chinese heaters. Even goes into checking sound levels & emissions from it.
https://youtu.be/9YthaCqkMOs

Well i've bitten the bullet & bought a 5kw Chinese special. Should be arriving in the next few days, once I get the chance I will assemble it all in the garage to test before fitting to the Bongo & will report back.
In the meantime im looking for ideas/pics of the positioning of hot air outlets & fresh air inlets if different to the ones in the fact sheets.

Bit of an update.
The heater arrived last week, I set it up in the garage first to test it out first & I must say im quite impressed with it. Once it gets going the noise is not to bad at all, the fuel pump is quite noisy but not sure if that will be a problem when its mounted in the engine bay on its rubber mount. The heat output is excellent & cant imagine you would be able to run it on full power for more than a few minutes in a Bongo. I ran it for several hours in my garage with the exhaust routed outside & a carbon monoxide alarm in the garage, no alarms went off. The instructions look like they have been written by a 5 year old, the bet wat to work out the controls is via youtube videos.
The bad news is it doesn't look like the heater will fit under the passengers seat area, not without some serious butchering anyway, its just too big.
It seems the 5kw version is quite a bit bigger than the 2 kw version.
I have sold the heater on to a mate with a transit now & will re order a 2 kw version.

Useful update, thanks.

Several people have pointed out that going for a high output power can cause problems, the units like to be run hard otherwise they soot up very easily, so a lower power output is a better from the maintenance point of view and the 2Kw is more than adequate, several on FB have suggested that in a Bongo even a 1Kw would be more than adequate!

Ok my 2kw heater has now arrived & bench tests ok.
Does anyone know the size off hand of the reducing tee piece for tapping into the fuel line?
Dont want to split the fuel line to measure if i can avoid it.

g8dhe wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 10:27 am Several people have pointed out that going for a high output power can cause problems, the units like to be run hard otherwise they soot up very easily, so a lower power output is a better from the maintenance point of view and the 2Kw is more than adequate, several on FB have suggested that in a Bongo even a 1Kw would be more than adequate!

This all sounds very interesting , can you get a 1 kW diesel heater as it it could be a better option for our small buses ?
Brian

nth wrote: ↑Sun Nov 17, 2019 7:27 pm Ok my 2kw heater has now arrived & bench tests ok.
Does anyone know the size off hand of the reducing tee piece for tapping into the fuel line?
Dont want to split the fuel line to measure if i can avoid it.

Can I ask which pipe you splice into and its location ?
Thanks
Brian