Add-On Manifold Heater Keeps Tractor Cab Warm

Add-On Manifold Heater Keeps Tractor Cab Warm TRACTORS Cabs 22-1-12 When the heater in his Deutz DX 120 tractor cab couldn't produce enough heat to defrost the windows and keep him warm, Neil Kramer, Jamestown, N. Dak., made his own "manifold heater" that uses a fan already in the cab to draw heat off the engine and de-liver it into the cab. "It adds enough warm air to the original cab heater that it'll blow 85 to 95 degree air even when the outside temperature is only 0 to 10 degrees. I've used it for two years and am well pleased with it," says Kramer. The tractor is powered by an air-cooled diesel engine, and heat for the cab is normally produced by the engine oil as it runs through a heater core in the cab. The engine is cooled by a fan on the right side of the engine, with the fan blowing air across the cylinder fins and out the left side where the exhaust manifold is located. "The problem is that when the tractor is run at low engine speeds, the oil doesn't get warm enough to produce ad-equate heat," says Kramer. He solved the problem by mounting a box on the left side of the engine that catches the warm air. A 4-in. dia. flexible hose runs from the box up to another box that he made to cover the cab's air filter, which mounts on the hood just ahead of the cab. A fan inside the cab draws the warm air coming off the engine through the hose and air filter and into the original cab heater. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Neil R. Kramer, 8622 35th St. S.E., Jamestown, N. Dak. 58401 (ph 701 252-1541).

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