bevdrew
Guest
Just had an interesting morning.
Our company work van is an 02 Boxer (which is essentially same as the 54 Ducato under our MH), so this wee snippit of knowledge relates to other MHs on similar chassis.
Very cold morning up here (-9-ish), jumps into work van (brr) and starts engine up to defrost things before moving off. Drew, being a bloke, cranks heater fan up to maximum to warm up inside too (creature comforts come first!).
Things not much warmer after 15 mins but need to get going anyway, so drive off. Half way to job in Callander, Drew and son are beginning to turn blue inside van - engine got no energy either! Oops - thought cooling system had anti-freeze in? Decide to head back home and inspect damage to engine!
After some investigation, along with a bit of heat to engine area supplied by oil-filled rad (from MH) laid flat underneath. Find out that the engine is OK and it was the heating matrix that had frozen solid.
There was anti-freeze in the system, which had kept everything liquid overnight (just) but the act of turning the heater fan to max in this v cold weather brought a significant wind-chill factor into play, the anti-freeze just couldn't cope.. Result - things froze solid starting at the heater matrix.
Moral of story - wait until engine has warmed up a bit before whacking the heater fan up to max.
Hope this is of use to someone.
Bev
Our company work van is an 02 Boxer (which is essentially same as the 54 Ducato under our MH), so this wee snippit of knowledge relates to other MHs on similar chassis.
Very cold morning up here (-9-ish), jumps into work van (brr) and starts engine up to defrost things before moving off. Drew, being a bloke, cranks heater fan up to maximum to warm up inside too (creature comforts come first!).
Things not much warmer after 15 mins but need to get going anyway, so drive off. Half way to job in Callander, Drew and son are beginning to turn blue inside van - engine got no energy either! Oops - thought cooling system had anti-freeze in? Decide to head back home and inspect damage to engine!
After some investigation, along with a bit of heat to engine area supplied by oil-filled rad (from MH) laid flat underneath. Find out that the engine is OK and it was the heating matrix that had frozen solid.
There was anti-freeze in the system, which had kept everything liquid overnight (just) but the act of turning the heater fan to max in this v cold weather brought a significant wind-chill factor into play, the anti-freeze just couldn't cope.. Result - things froze solid starting at the heater matrix.
Moral of story - wait until engine has warmed up a bit before whacking the heater fan up to max.
Hope this is of use to someone.
Bev
