swedisholdfart Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 Hi! I have an older motorhome fitted with a Truma Trumatic C 3402. The burner is acting up and even though we have tried to find a solution we are starting to realise that we have to find an alternative. A new Truma would cost about €2500! We have read about diesel heaters and it's possible to buy Chinese clones very cheap on Amazon (about €175). Have someone replaced a Truma Trumatic with a diesel heater? Would it work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 Welcome to the Out&AboutLive forums, Aron. Truma "Trumatic" equipments are gas-fuelled combination air/water heaters. They were manufactured from 1994 until 2007 and superseded by the gas-fuelled "Combi" combination air/water range, with diesel-fuelled variants (Combi-D) becoming available later. As there are significant design differences between Trumatic and Combi heaters, it should be considerably simpler to replace a gas-fuelled Combi with a diesel-fuelled Combi, than to replace a Trumatic heater with a Combi (gas-fuelled or diesel-fuelled). A basic potential problem is down to the space occupied by the heater that is to be replaced. My 1st motorhome was built in 1996 and had an Atwood Comfort 3 gas-fuelled combination air/water heater housed in a small cupboard under a wardrobe. That heater failed in 2000 and was replaced by a Trumatic C-3402 that was similar in concept to the Atwood and could be installed fairly easily in the same cupboard. My 2nd motorhome was built in 2005 and had a Trumatic C-6002EH beneath its rear fixed bed and with very little free space around it. Realistically, if the C-6002EH heater had needed to be replaced, the replacement would also had to go under the bed and, if any Combi heater had been chosen as the replacement, major alterations (eg. fitting a different fresh-water tank) would have been necessary to allow the Combi to fit in. My 3rd (and final) motorhome was built in 2015 and had a gas-fuelled Combi 4 heater beneath its rear island-bed. Replacing that heater with a diesel-fuelled Combi should have been fairly straightforward, as at least the replacement would have occupied the same space. There are Chinese-made clones of diesel-fuelled Truma Combi-D heaters and, although these are much less expensive than the 'genuine' Truma equivalents, they are still far from cheap. There's an advert for a 4KW diesel+ 2KW electric 'clone' here. https://www.jp-parkingheater.com/sale-471910-220v-250v-plus-valves-kit-jp-boiler-4kw-diesel-2kw-electric-hot-air-hot-water-combi-heater-kit-5000m-working-altitude-bluetooth-ap.htm and this 2020 discussion on another UK motorhome forum may be of interest to you. https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/replacing-truma-with-diesel-heating-hot-water.227955/ There are also much cheaper diesel air/water heaters (links below) - but I know very little about these. https://www.dscampers.co.uk/store/p13/12V_5KW-8KW_Diesel_Air_and_Water_Heater_Cars%2CBoats%2C_Motorhomes.html#/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yBhM7RXYTQ (I'm aware that one forum-member installed a Chinese-made diesel-fuelled heater in his vehicle and has been very satisfied with it. However, I think this may be an air-only unit, not an air/water heater.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seth77 Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 (edited) It seems like swapping out a Truma Trumatic with a diesel heater could work, but it depends on the available space and whether the new heater will fit. You might want to check out Chinese clones or other affordable diesel heaters, but make sure to research installation needs carefully. Here's a link to a Chinese clone diesel heater https://www.amazon.com/12V-Diesel-Air-Heater-Caravan/dp/B08ZK3JN2L Edited April 3 by Seth77 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 Seth77 Your Amazon link does not work, but there are plenty of other Amazon adverts for cheap Chinese-made diesel-fuelled heaters https://www.amazon.co.uk/chinese-diesel-heater/s?k=chinese+diesel+heater I haven't waded through all the adverts, but they generally appear to be for air-only heaters. It's perhaps stating the obvious, but if Aron were to replace his Trumatic C-3402 combination air/water heater with a inexpensive diesel-fuelled air-only unit, he'd still need to heat water somehow. This 2022 article may be worth reading (though it also relates to air-only heaters) https://www.vvkb.com/how-to-purchase-the-best-chinese-diesel-heater-from-amazon-and-ebay/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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