Attention: TDR Forum Junkies I recently installed the Espar D5 unit and thought I'd share some thoughts about the install and operation.
Install: The install for this product is not particularly difficult but it is time consuming. I dropped the tank for the pickup tube but did not use the one supplied by Espar in the kit, rather I made my own with a brass bulkhead fitting and a piece of 1/2 ID air line. I did this because I wanted to utilize a pickup that would work for me if I decided to use the walbro pump sometime in the future. I also used another bulkhead fitting and some 3/4 hose and put a new vent in the top part of the tank for easy filling. The vent kit is a no-brainer if you are dropping the tank.
Dropping the tank was not difficult but I did wrestle with the electrical connection on top of the tank. Once you slide the red safety to the side of the connector you need to press down on the tab to get the connector off. It seemed I was lifting on connector at the same time I was pushing on the tab and it did not want to come off. Once I put some down pressure on the connector while pushing the tab it slid right off. The fuel connectors are easy to get off and cannot be mixed up. Having precious little fuel in the tank makes the tank dropping part quite easy. The kit I bought had the dosing pump separate from the espar unit and apparently this is a more trouble free design. I mounted the dosing pump on the inside of the frame rail and used an inline filter ahead of it.
I had to fabricate an aluminum bracket to mount the unit under the airbox as I really did not want to frame mount it, but a frame mount would work if you fabricated a shield to protect the unit from rocks etc. It is a tight location but it will fit. I used the tab sticking out of the frame rad support for the main attachment point for the fabbed bracket. I routed the hoses up and installed the Espar outlet into the heater core inlet, and the Espar inlet pulls coolant from the top of the engine. Simple install and works very well.
The 7 day timer installed under the center console cutout in the center of the dash. You have to cut the harness to length and install the wire ends to fit the timer. I ran one extra wire from where the yellow installed to use as a relay trigger for the cab fan and also one extra lead off pin #7 to utilize a ground pulse lead off my remote starter to start the Espar.
There were no directions in my kit in regards to hooking up the cab fan so I got the multimeter out and determined dodge (06) runs the cab blower fan ground through a resisitor to change speeds. I used two relays, one to power the blower fan from the Espar power on wire (yellow off the back of the timer), and the other relay powers the cab blower from "key on" power.
Operation: This unit works fantastic. It heats the coolant from -10* F to 150* F in about 90 minutes. The block is very warm to the touch all over and with the cab fan set on defrost and low, the windows will clear heavy frost in about an hour and hte cb is toasty warm. It is somewhat noisy while running on high output and people will look at your vehicle with a puzzled look on their face while walking past in a parking lot etc. This unit uses about 10% of the fuel it would use if you idled the truck and gets the temp much higher than a block heater can.
After using it this past week I would highly recommend it to those in cold climates. It is expensive, about 2K - 2. 5K Cdn dollars installed depending where you go. I paid $1330 Cdn for the kit. Add another 50 dollars for the bulkhead fittings, hose and relays.
I've been running it for 90-120 minute time periods with no battery power issues whatsoever. One bonus is the heater does such a good job warming the engine the grid heaters do not come on when you turn on the ignition. I suppose its a trade off, cab fan running on low for a couple hours vs grid heater draw.
Install: The install for this product is not particularly difficult but it is time consuming. I dropped the tank for the pickup tube but did not use the one supplied by Espar in the kit, rather I made my own with a brass bulkhead fitting and a piece of 1/2 ID air line. I did this because I wanted to utilize a pickup that would work for me if I decided to use the walbro pump sometime in the future. I also used another bulkhead fitting and some 3/4 hose and put a new vent in the top part of the tank for easy filling. The vent kit is a no-brainer if you are dropping the tank.
Dropping the tank was not difficult but I did wrestle with the electrical connection on top of the tank. Once you slide the red safety to the side of the connector you need to press down on the tab to get the connector off. It seemed I was lifting on connector at the same time I was pushing on the tab and it did not want to come off. Once I put some down pressure on the connector while pushing the tab it slid right off. The fuel connectors are easy to get off and cannot be mixed up. Having precious little fuel in the tank makes the tank dropping part quite easy. The kit I bought had the dosing pump separate from the espar unit and apparently this is a more trouble free design. I mounted the dosing pump on the inside of the frame rail and used an inline filter ahead of it.
I had to fabricate an aluminum bracket to mount the unit under the airbox as I really did not want to frame mount it, but a frame mount would work if you fabricated a shield to protect the unit from rocks etc. It is a tight location but it will fit. I used the tab sticking out of the frame rad support for the main attachment point for the fabbed bracket. I routed the hoses up and installed the Espar outlet into the heater core inlet, and the Espar inlet pulls coolant from the top of the engine. Simple install and works very well.
The 7 day timer installed under the center console cutout in the center of the dash. You have to cut the harness to length and install the wire ends to fit the timer. I ran one extra wire from where the yellow installed to use as a relay trigger for the cab fan and also one extra lead off pin #7 to utilize a ground pulse lead off my remote starter to start the Espar.
There were no directions in my kit in regards to hooking up the cab fan so I got the multimeter out and determined dodge (06) runs the cab blower fan ground through a resisitor to change speeds. I used two relays, one to power the blower fan from the Espar power on wire (yellow off the back of the timer), and the other relay powers the cab blower from "key on" power.
Operation: This unit works fantastic. It heats the coolant from -10* F to 150* F in about 90 minutes. The block is very warm to the touch all over and with the cab fan set on defrost and low, the windows will clear heavy frost in about an hour and hte cb is toasty warm. It is somewhat noisy while running on high output and people will look at your vehicle with a puzzled look on their face while walking past in a parking lot etc. This unit uses about 10% of the fuel it would use if you idled the truck and gets the temp much higher than a block heater can.
After using it this past week I would highly recommend it to those in cold climates. It is expensive, about 2K - 2. 5K Cdn dollars installed depending where you go. I paid $1330 Cdn for the kit. Add another 50 dollars for the bulkhead fittings, hose and relays.
I've been running it for 90-120 minute time periods with no battery power issues whatsoever. One bonus is the heater does such a good job warming the engine the grid heaters do not come on when you turn on the ignition. I suppose its a trade off, cab fan running on low for a couple hours vs grid heater draw.
