How to Have a Heater on Your Crusaders Caravan

Do you have a Crusaders Caravan?

In this video, we’re installing a Truma VarioHeat on Crusader caravan, Musketeer Aramis.

The Van

This Crusaders caravan is a beautiful van with very modern interior. Looks great on the outside with the black checker plate. The only thing we were disappointed with is the vent. It got a white one. The owner did ask for a black one, but they sent him a white one. He knew this already, but it just would look better if it was a black vent.

But anyway, we’ll give you the rundown. This is a pretty easy one this one. If you think you’re going to get one, hopefully this will give you some idea.

The Plan

When the guy originally rocked up, he had a plan of attack. He was going to go through the floor and out. But we shut that idea down, because you can’t bring these under the floor. The vent can’t go through a horizontal surface. Just says it in the book. Would be a lot easier, but it’s probably because when you’re underneath the floor, you’ve got chassis rails. And if that hot air’s there, it could suck in the air to make the combustion, and it might stuff that up a bit. So anyway, it’s got to come out through the side wall, not into your annex or anything.

Here’s the vent on the side here. Again, it’s a bit disappointing that it is white. You could probably swap it over now. It’s only the two screws and the little ring inside that you have to take out. But it’s not the biggest deal. It would just look better in black.

But the owner is going down south soon and it’s going to be cold. So he just needs to get it sorted quickly. He can change the vent over later on. But yeah, that’s where it’s come up. And the cupboards are inside and everything.

Inside

Now we cannot find the light switch in this Crusaders caravan. So if you’ve got one of these Crusader caravans, and you know where the light switches are, can you let us know? Because we couldn’t find them. There’s a little remote thing, but we don’t know how that works. We’ve pressed some buttons and nothing seems to be working.

Anyway, it’s a beautiful van. We love the colors and everything. It’s really cool. And here’s the Truma VarioHeat that we’ve installed there. So we’ve got the vent coming out the front. Obviously that’s all adjustable, so you can switch it anyway you want. If your dog’s lying over there, you can put it that way or whatever.

Got the gas valve there and the gas regulator. And now the vent has to go out here. There’s no cupboard or anything, but that’s the only place we could put it. So he’s going to put a little step or something over this to protect it in the future.

And this is the air intake, so when it comes off the floor it’ll suck the cold air. It’s always good, because the coldest air sits on the floor. So it’ll suck it through there. And that’s out to the vent. Glenn, our mate next door, he’s done all the 12 volt hooking up thing. Little fuse box or something. And he’s got this special wrapping machine. See that? Just amazing. This machine’s worth thousands of dollars, but he, even on this stuff, he wraps it, makes all these wiring looms up so it all looks like one of those Porsches or something. You see it in Toyotas.

Anyway, so that’s the setup. Just comes through there. The reason we put it on a bit of an angle here is, then you can just put something over it. Like he said, he had some aluminium security door stuff to go over this so they can put stuff on it.

It’s very easy to turn off too if you’re traveling. And then this is where Glenn stuck the VarioHeat controller up here. So he just run it down inside the cupboard there and comes up. So when you’re in bed and you’re feeling a bit cold, turn it on and it’s all good.

Interested?

So that’s the VarioHeat installed in the Crusader caravans, the Musketeer Aramis. If you want one of these done and you live in Perth, call your local gasfitter. He should be able to sort it out. But if you want us to do it, then give us a call.

If you’re over east and you feel like coming over to Perth, then yeah, come over and visit. Look at our beautiful beaches, and go to Rottnest Island. It’s good to stay a couple nights. It’s always better when you stay there. Best place for kids’ holidays.