My Van Needs a Gasoline Heater

Ry, my 2022 Thor Rize campervan, (now for sale) came with a built-in 5.7-gallon propane tank. Propane is used to power the heater, the stove, and the generator. The chassis gasoline tank fuels the vehicle engine. Coach batteries power everything else.

Every additional fuel type adds mechanical and operational complexity. Propane tanks needs to be filled. Levels must be monitored. Pipes, tanks, and connectors can fail.

All Electric

In my dreams, my campervan is all-electric. It is clean, quiet, and environmentally friendly.

The reality right now is that batteries are expensive, slow to charge, require infrastructure that isn’t universal, and do not have sufficient capacity for an all-electric campervan.

Ram actually sells an electric Promaster, but the 164-mile range is insufficient for camping. Even if it had twice that capacity, it’s not enough to keep you warm when camping near ski areas.

Petrocarbon

Instead of adding an additional fuel tank, campervans can run heaters and water heaters using gasoline or diesel from the chassis fuel tank.

Without a propane tank, all the fuel that the van needs can be acquired quickly, easily, and in far more places.

Because of how they are installed these systems cannot use the last quarter tank, preventing you from being stranded because you ran the heater too long.

You cannot use gasoline or diesel directly in a stove so not having propane means switching to an induction cooktop. That’s probably better than burning propane in your tiny living space anyway.

This is one of the reasons I am selling my campervan. It doesn’t meet all of my needs. For example, I need a recirculating shower.