Moose10

Where are you ordering it from? and how long is your daily commute? I remember reading somewhere a while back that said if you don't drive more (time wise) than you run the Espar that it would put a hurtin' on your batteries......not sure how true that is, but my thinking is like this....if you have a 20 minute one way drive to work in the morning, but you run the unit for two or three hours before hand, I could see that being a problem.
Thoughts???
I love to get one btw!

Diesel_411

Getting it from a dealer in Red Deer, the cheapest price I could find In Alberta. Could get it cheaper in BC, but I don;t want the hassle for warranty. Commutes will vary, but where I park at university I can't plug in, I know Alberta's winter has been mild so far, but it will hit sooner or later.
Got those pics Tate.

Tate

Pics will come tomorrow, was busy today.

If you have good batteries, then running the heater for longer than you drive won't be an issue, unless you never go for a longer drive once in a while. Most of my driving is highway, so its not an issue. This last job I was on was only 5 minutes from my motel, so there was little drivng. My batteries are pooched, but still worked fine for running the heater everyday before going home for about 45 minutes. It would draw the voltage below the lower mark and the check gauge light would come on. With good batteries in my dually, I never had that issue, even running the thing for 6 hours and driving 300 km on no alternator.

Diesel_411

Bump up to the top

Diesel_411

Bump up again.

Tate

Hey man, I'm working 14+ hour night shifts at the moment, not much time to get some shots. Sorry.

dvst8r

I work at the biggest non OEM dealer for Espar in NA. There are a number of different options for mounting, depending on the model of heater that you have.

There is a Dodge kit, but alas it is for the 3rd gen.

One of our dealers mounts the dodge ones to the floor board under the passenger side foot well. Lots of frame mounts, lots of under hood mounts, I know our Calgary location service shop did one with twins and still had room under the hood.

A few things about doing the install yourself:

Add a ground fuse, I have seen more then a few $590 control units go up in smoke when someone jumped a vehical, and for whatever reason it grounded through the unit.

Where ever you decide to mount it make sure it is out of the direct path of road crap, for the most part they are built to take it, but they really do last a lot longer if they are slightly protected.

What ever way you mount it make sure that the glow pin is up!

Cut the harness to length, this will make any wiring issues you have that much easier to sort out, and if you have any future wiring issues that much easier to solve.

Make sure to you use the separate dip tube for fuel, it is there for a reason.

Finally I would say, it is an easy install, but it is time consuming to do correctly, I normally quote people 12hrs for there first install.


The Espar remote starters are JUNK!!! The cool ones can only be had in Europe, but you can use any good car starters aux, like a compustar, and wire it in to work, if your really savvy you can even get the compustar's thermostat feature to work with the espar...

If you have any specific questions I will try to monitor this thread, and will get you an answer.

Diesel_411

So I cannot tie in a T before my Airdog, and run it to the espar?

dvst8r

I would not recommend it. I find that if you run the truck and espar together, you will starve one or the other.

I'm typically lazy with mine and forget to set the timer, so when I'm eating breakfast, I will think about it and hit the remote start, this only gives me about 20min of preheat before I start driving, so I keep the espar running, till the truck is up to full operating temp. On really cold days I just leave it running all the time while I am driving.

Diesel_411

Hey Tate, have you had time to take those pics yet? Thanks

Dr. Evil

Most units will shut off automatically after 2 hours of use - at least mine did.

You do not have to run it for 2 hours either - in most cases 45 minutes, in cold weather is enough to have the coolant warm and ice cleared off the windshield.

dirtydodge

i just installed mine. i mounted it under passenger side floorboard and built a guard over it. i put a deepcycle battery in the box and tied it into a solenoid to isolate it from the other 2 batterys while the truck is shut off. i just teed my fuel line in before my inline fuel pump 4 or 5 inches from the tank.

these heaters are amazing they are worth every penny.

Diesel_411

I'd debating if I should mount it on the frame somewhere, or mount it the cupboards I have in my box(the very front of my short box). But I am a bit worried about running 10Ft of cooling lines, to and from the espar unit itself.

dieselman2300

Joker12valve has his mounted in his toolbox. Been like that for a while without problems.

I mounted mine where the airbox was.