The Fuel-Tap Heater: Why Your Van Doesn't Have to Get Cold Anymore

The install, briefly

Getting a fuel-tap heater into a van means cutting a hole in the floor, tapping your fuel tank, and running a bit of cable between components. 

Air intake and Exhaust: The main thing to watch is where those hoses end up relative to the road. The underside of a van takes a beating: gravel, slush, road spray kicked up by your own tires and everyone else's.

Route the hoses somewhere spray collects and you're asking for trouble. Route them clear of it and you won't think about it again. We like to tuck the air intake up into the frame of the van somewhere or above something that helps block the grime. The exhaust should be clear of the tire spray so that you don’t arrive to camp with a clogged exhaust pipe and heater errors.

No matter how you do it, we recommend using the vehicle’s heat until you get to your destination. Running the heater on the road is asking for maintenance sooner than is necessary. 

Tapping your tank: This is probably the most important part of the installation. Fuel delivery is of the utmost importance so take the time to get this right and you won’t be fighting heater errors on a cold day.

For Sprinters, there is a factory 2mm auxiliary fuel port coming off of the tank that you can feed your fuel line directly into. Because of this, install on a Sprinter is pretty straightforward—they’ve prepped you for adding a heater. For Transits and Promasters things are a bit more complicated. Both vans have auxiliary fuel ports, but they are far too large for the required fuel line spec of an Espar heater. You will need to drop the tank and install the fuel line yourself.

Run your tank to empty, set yourself up with some clamps or jacks, and unbolt the tank to lower it to the ground (this will all be easier if you put your van up on ramps to give yourself more clearance under the van).

We always tap tanks in the fuel sending unit, never the tank itself. This way if you mess anything up you don’t need to buy a whole new tank, just a new sending unit. You can either install the 2mm standpipe that comes with the Espar kit or you can drop the actual fuel line into the tank.

Either way don’t allow the pick up to get to the bottom of your tank. You want to leave about a quarter tank of fuel below the bottom of your pick up so that the heater can’t run you dry.

Check out this Transit Forum post → and Rixen’s heater videos → for some helpful Transit tips. 

Running the Cable: You will need to get 12v of power from your battery system to the heater itself. Run a 12AWG 2 conductor to handle the heavy start up load of the heater. This will need a 20A fuse either on your fuse block or inline. From the heater you will route the controller cable up to where you want that installed, and a supplied power cable to the fuel pump from the heater harness. 

Best Practices:

• Fuel pump should be mounted at a 15-30 degree angle with the outlet side up

• Always install a CO detector

• Fuel line lengths should be no longer than 6 feet on the fuel pump inlet side and no longer than 20 feet on the fuel pump outlet side. 

• Familiarize yourself with the heater error codes →

• Gas lines should be 2mm ID on the suction side and 1.5mm ID on the outlet side

• Always cut fuel line with a clean razor blade. Cuts need to be fully seated in the connectors. 

• Hot and cold can affect the performance of the fuel pump. It can be helpful to insulate the line with an additional fuel pipe of some kind especially if you’re running the line around the vehicle’s exhaust

• If you want hot water in your rig, we strongly recommend the Rixen’s Hydronic Systems → for both hot air and water

Get one before the next cold snap

Fuel-tap heaters, diesel and gasoline versions both, are in stock now.