Bongo Fury

Given the lack of space in Bongos it makes sense to double up on functions where possible.
So how about this?
A diesel fuelled hob that doubles as a space heater without any need to cut holes and fit heaters under the floor.
Also it means no need to have a vented gas bottle cupboard (to stay legal) as no need to carry gas anyway.
http://www.campervanheating.co.uk/

Looks very neat!
I just wonder about cold feet though.

Diesel is a pretty safe fuel, and if you have an oil burner you should have a tank full.

That's really neat, if a little expensive!

Excellent (and long overdue) idea and i find radiant heat better for health and less noisy than blown air. My only issues with it would be cost (bet its not cheap!), reliability (stories of troublesome diesel ignition systems) and (personally) how much i want to cook inside my everyday car.

Neat. Good spot.
Not so affected by the cold as butane, especially those little canisters. I expect dead cheap to run.
How well would my wok cook on it and my RidgeMonkey sandwich toaster?

Could not find a price on the site - it is new, a great idea, unique maybe, so deserves to have a premium price so long as its affordable!

Keep scrolling down, it's £1600

roosmith wrote:Keep scrolling down, it's £1600

I must have been blind . Selectively!

roosmith wrote:Keep scrolling down, it's £1600

Ouch double ouch! There's a second hand army diesel single burner on ebay currently bidding at under £100 for the inventive among us

It's only realistic if you are doing a new conversion and intend to use it a lot.

If you compare it to the cost of a new gas hob and a new Eberspracher heater, then getting both of those fitted after finding space for the Eberspracher and space for a gas locker it starts to look better value.
It takes up next to no space doesn't need a gas tank and draws off minimal amounts of diesel.
If you only have space for small gas bottles, the gas you will need to buy for ever more to cook with is some of the costliest energy on earth.

It's a bit like when video cameras came out people said they wouldn't catch on because they cost 10x more than 8mm cameras - BUT - the cassette they came with held 90mins of "film" and it could be re-used. 90 minutes of Super 8 film cost nearly as much as the video camera and nobody has yet found a way of re-using that even now.

How many people now have video cameras? and more to the point how many people still use Super 8?

So yes, it's a lot of money up front but the running costs should be minimal and it saves a lot of space.

I am still worried about cold feet.

scanner wrote:It's only realistic if you are doing a new conversion and intend to use it a lot.

If you compare it to the cost of a new gas hob and a new Eberspracher heater, then getting both of those fitted after finding space for the Eberspracher and space for a gas locker it starts to look better value.
It takes up next to no space doesn't need a gas tank and draws off minimal amounts of diesel.
If you only have space for small gas bottles, the gas you will need to buy for ever more to cook with is some of the costliest energy on earth.

It's a bit like when video cameras came out people said they wouldn't catch on because they cost 10x more than 8mm cameras - BUT - the cassette they came with held 90mins of "film" and it could be re-used. 90 minutes of Super 8 film cost nearly as much as the video camera and nobody has yet found a way of re-using that even now.

How many people now have video cameras? and more to the point how many people still use Super 8?

So yes, it's a lot of money up front but the running costs should be minimal and it saves a lot of space.

All very true. I'm just thinking though that you might have to add in the cost of the kitchen conversion it would need to be sitting in. All great if you're planning from scratch with a budget for a newer vehicle and conversion, but a nailbiting cost for retrofitting into an old unconverted Bongo like mine. Very tempting nonetheless as it is an excellent idea. I suppose also it would have reasonable resale value if it had to be removed

For retro-fit it really would depend on how much more than just a new worktop was needed to fit it and just how much you would use it. The big advantage in a Bongo would be no need for a space munching (legal) gas locker and you probably would not even notice the extra diesel consumption.
Bongos with gas bottles bigger than 3.5kg or even Camping Gaz must be pretty rare and the cost of gas in those sizes is truly extortionate so the savings would soon add up.

I am interested in heating systems for my Bongo so when this flagged I was intrigued.

I have just been reading the installers stuff on this unit. It would appear that the heater element,scuse pun, is an add on ducted fan, I would guess they also make the diesel hob as a separate item and decided to marry the two.

The hinged "heater" part attaches to the hob at the rear below the worktop. The fixed portion of this contains a tangential fan that would appear to draw the air from below the heated ceramic radiant and pass it over the top of that radiant.

Now I don`t know if I am reading this right but the thermostat arrangement seems a little strange, you have manual setting,thermostat controlled and a SunStat that shuts down the heater if it rises =>7 degs you have set at the thermostat for longer than thirty minutes .
Once the Sunstat cuts in it requires a cool off and manual start to reboot system.
It would seem that fuel delivery is feathered to control the temperature rather than shutting down and restarting as in Propex and the like.
It also states it needs to be level within 5 degrees or the output would suffer and it takes 11 mins to heat up to temperature to cook.
But for me the big question is with the heater at that height and with the heated air rising the upper cabin temperature would be hot whilst my tootsies were not.

On the gas question I refill my two R 907s from a larger bottle this makes for a significant saving.
I exchange the bottles every fourth fill so that cost has to be factored in.