Planning for cabin heat

[Bcone1381]

When flying in Michigan during the winter, will the Patrol need one cabin heat box, or two....one for the front seat with a second serving the rear seat?

[N942VT]

Here in Vermont, one heat box gives plenty of heat if done well. Big thing is to pay attention to sealing up the cabin, you may want to provide rear seat heat like they do with Super Cubs, scat tubing from the heat box to the rear area. Done right a single heat box should blast you out.

[Flygirl1]

Depends if anybody is sitting back there. I lived in Michigan for almost 50 yrs. and yea, it can get cold in Jan. We are using Vettermans dual exhaust system with heat coming off one side. The heat box we have when in the full open mode actually puts the heat down low, almost under the seat so some heat does get back there. I honestly can't say if it's enough for Mi. winters. You'll want to make sure you've put seal around the front window frames. That seems to be the place it leaks the most. I've also plugged the upper wing vents. Lots of air leaks by there too. So far the heat we have in just the front is more than plenty but our winters are pretty mild compared to yours. To be on the safe side i'd go ahead and put some heat to the back seat, especially if you intend on having a lot of passengers. If you intend on having fuel injection, you can take heat from both sides otherwise you'll be splitting the heat with the front seat.

[tailwind]

The vetterman heat muffs work well. Make every effort to seal up every possible place for the heat to leak out. Then go back and find and seal some more.

[Rollie]

I ran two heat boxes, using the Vetterman exhaust. Injected engine so I didn't need carb heat. My thinking was more along the lines that my wife, who will be in the back more than in the front, likes more heat than I do and if I only had heat to the front, I would be way too hot before she got warm enough. There isn't a lot of room in the Patrol for a bunch of extra scat tubing though. My front area is pretty busy with hoses and wiring. I ran the scat tube under the floor to a vent under the back seat, the problem with that though is it has to come back about a foot and a half from the firewall before it goes under the floor because with the tunnel, there just isn't room under the floor until aft of the back of the tunnel area. A good way to hide/protect the scat tube where it is above the floor would be to make u box of some sort that mounts to the floor just aft of it that can be a map case, hold water bottles, or whatever. I've seen similar in Scouts. For the front heat I made a manifold out of fiberglass, the hose from the heat box goes into the manifold which has two tubes directing air towards my feet and two tubes going to defrost vents on the dash that have slide type open/close deals on them. Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll start finding out how well it all works.

Maybe it would have been easier and definitely a neater install to just run heat to the front and just take off my jacket while my wife keeps hers on like in everything else we've flown.

[Bcone1381]

My thinking was more along the lines that my wife, who will be in the back more than in the front, likes more heat than I do and if I only had heat to the front, I would be way too hot before she got warm enough. There isn't a lot of room in the Patrol for a bunch of extra scat tubing though. My front area is pretty busy with hoses and wiring. I ran the scat tube under the floor to a vent under the back seat, the problem with that though is it has to come back about a foot and a half from the firewall before it goes under the floor because with the tunnel, there just isn't room under the floor until aft of the back of the tunnel area. A good way to hide/protect the scat tube where it is above the floor would be to make u box of some sort that mounts to the floor just aft of it that can be a map case, hold water bottles, or whatever. I've seen similar in Scouts. For the front heat I made a manifold out of fiberglass, the hose from the heat box goes into the manifold which has two tubes directing air towards my feet and two tubes going to defrost vents on the dash that have slide type open/close deals on them. Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll start finding out how well it all works.

Maybe it would have been easier and definitely a neater install to just run heat to the front and just take off my jacket while my wife keeps hers on like in everything else we've flown.

Rollie;

Your comment on keeping your wife warm is the same as mine. I just got back from a run this morning....25F, super bright sunshine, the grass is frosty, the kind of sunrise I hope to share some day in the future with my bride.

Brooks

[Bdflies]

"Cabin heat"? I don't need no stinking cabin heat! It was 65 degrees today. Pretty comfy.
See, Louisiana isn't all about humidity and alligators...

Bill

[tailwind]

You can run two veterman heat muffs if you use the Vetterman crossover exhaust. Pull the carb heat off the center bottom of the crossover at the front of the engine.

[jaredyates]

For those who have run cabin heat to the back of the cabin, how do you get the duct through station B under the floorboard?