Bowen water heater door with newer suburban water heater

[durans54]

Has anyone had success using a newer water heater but still keeping the bowen door on your trailer? Did you have to fabricate a lot? Can someone post a pic??? Im about to go down that road and would love to have a better idea on how to go about this.
Thanks
Its going in a 63 tradewind.

[bjond]

Haven't done it yet but the Atwood looks to be a close copy of the old Bowen. So maybe not much fabrication would be required.

see: Wacky Water Heater

[durans54]

Link shows up as an email address

[scottanlily]

hello durans54 ,

I installed a suburban unit 10 gallon in my 60 trdwnd .I did use the original
bowen outer shroud assembly. The atwood water heater closely matches
the original bowen heater in regards to the exhaust outlet and so forth .I went to O.S.H. and picked up a few furnace ducting pieces ,and fabricated them to fit .they have to direct the exhaust of the suburban heater to flow out of the original shroud.it takes some work to fit up the new pieces.
It worked out great .so then ,I have no pics of the work unfortunately as I did it before being on the forums ,but I could take some for you if you like .
The gap from the old unit to the new at the opening needs to be filled also ,so you can devise a way to deal with that ,say some scrap type thin aluminum pieces to fill the space. and the outer rivited portion that the shroud all connects to remain in place .It is worth it to do this if your wanting the original look .

Scott

[durans54]

Originally Posted by scottanlily

hello durans54 ,

I installed a suburban unit 10 gallon in my 60 trdwnd .I did use the original
bowen outer shroud assembly. The atwood water heater closely matches
the original bowen heater in regards to the exhaust outlet and so forth .I went to O.S.H. and picked up a few furnace ducting pieces ,and fabricated them to fit .they have to direct the exhaust of the suburban heater to flow out of the original shroud.it takes some work to fit up the new pieces.
It worked out great .so then ,I have no pics of the work unfortunately as I did it before being on the forums ,but I could take some for you if you like .
The gap from the old unit to the new at the opening needs to be filled also ,so you can devise a way to deal with that ,say some scrap type thin aluminum pieces to fill the space. and the outer rivited portion that the shroud all connects to remain in place .It is worth it to do this if your wanting the original look .

Scott

Hi Scott

I almost PM'd you earlier today, saw you posted something along these lines last year. Yeah, if it isnt too much trouble I would appreciate a pic, it would give me a point of reference.
Mitch

[scottanlily]

Mitch ,I will get some pics tomorrow on Saturday and get them posted .
Im sure they will be a help and its no trouble at all .

Scott

[CanoeStream]

Originally Posted by durans54

Link shows up as an email address

I fixed the link above. That looks to be part of TheVAP's Tim Shephard's homepage (Safari Tim) -- good place!

[durans54]

Thanks Scott, look forward to it.
Thank you Canoe stream, works now.

[scottanlily]

Durans 54 ,here is the first pics ,Im sure only 3 or so will load at a time
seems to be the case most of the time.

[scottanlily]

Well ,thats 4 so better than average ,Ill go for more.

[scottanlily]

Doing good ,so Im going for the rest now.

[scottanlily]

Ok then .thats them ,I did this install a few years ago so the cover and pieces do show some weathering on the back side and all ..The one pic with the oval cutout ,was where the old bowen exhaust went ,and I just pop rivited a piece in at the bottom (small shiny square piece)to bridge the cutout
there to strengthen it so its not flimsy.The fabric type matt you can see at the
top of the exhaust vent (square section )is high heat material for racing ,it
can withstand temps of 2000 degrees they say ,but It keeps the heat off the aluminum behind the exhaust .The shroud actually goes over that square
exhaust chiminy and goes down over it and behind it .i also fitted small
aluminum sections (thin sheet angle leftover from the bowen sectioned out )
to fill the openings and gaps between the sides and top of the heater and opening.I did not modify the original opening in any way ,but did install
stainless slotted pan head screws for the vintage look all around the existing
outer perimeter piece .The bottom section of shroud is not changed or cut.
also I used new copper where needed to connect it all up and brass compression fittings as well ,NO leaks ,there is only one small section of the grey plastic type tubing in there from the PO ,it will be replaced at some point with a new copper line ,I did caulk around the outer perimeter of the heater
just inside the outer perimeter piece to prevent outside leaks .I also was able
to hook up the gas line easily (its close to the Bowen hookup ) and it has a
shutoff manual valve inside on the floor in the pic with the copper lines by the wall .You will want to put in a drain tube just in the bottom of the inner
heater surround from the outside ,so water can drain out from rain or the pop
off valve letting hot water out when needed.The drain can be drilled down into the belly from that inner area .Id install a tube ,epoxy it in place so water cannot get to the floor in some way .hope this can help you out.
I need to put in a drain myself ,you can see some corrosion (now cleaned)
marks when looking down into the lower part of the heater from the outside
Scott of scottanlily

[durans54]

Thanks for the pics Scott, these will help tremediously. Looks like I will have to do some metal work. Now that I look at yours it looks as though the PO may have cut the hole bigger but left the factory door in. I will have to fabricate some metal but that shouldnt be a problem. Was the opening pretty much the size of the new Water heater?
These should give me a good start to fit mine in, Thanks again, I will let you know how I do.
Mitch

[S C Streamer]

Mitch for asking the question that has been on my mind...

and to Scott for the great photos and detailed explanation.

I also want to keep the vintage look.



Does anybody have an opinion as to whether I should keep the old Bowen water heater or install a new modern one during the restoration?

[C Johnson]

Originally Posted by S C Streamer

Does anybody have an opinion as to whether I should keep the old Bowen water heater or install a new modern one during the restoration?

It depends, How well does the old one work ? Do you want to be able to light from inside the trailer with a switch ? Does the old one need a lot of parts ?

Mine only needed a burner tube and pressure relief valve. A few of the parts on the Bowen are obsolete, keep that in mind. The burner tube is one of them. The pilot light assy. is another. It is possible to dissassemble the pilot light if it is clogged and clean it.

You can still buy new, thermostat, pressure relief valve, thermocouple.

I did a minor refurb on mine. Painted housing, new pressure valve, new burner tube and cleaned out the tank. It works great now and I suspect it will for quite some time.

I believe that your WH is very close to my model on my Caravel.

Don (Norcalbambi) rebuilt his. You can PM on it. I bet he would be glad to tell you about how he did it.

Oh yea, I vote keep the original - unless it is toast then get new and use the old shoud as discussed previously.

[scottanlily]

Agree with C Johnson ,

you can refurbish the bowen ,but it depends on its condition .In my case
the Bowen was really corroded inside .the control unit unscrews from the tank and corrosion had eaten away at those threads from the inside of the tank ,looking in with a borascope automotive tool ,it was a terrible mess.
lots of heavy corrosion .If you take it apart like Norcal Bambi did and
refit the tank (if its in good shape) it can work Im sure .The artisan in him
allows that kind of dedication ,he cut the tank apart and restored it. A first
rate job. I figured a new unit was in order in my case for sure. Many have not
had any issues as mine had ,Im thinking mine had heavy use for many years.

Scott

[scottanlily]

Durans54,

The original opening is close to the same size ,a little larger requiring you to
add some (filler) pieces to close up the gaps .I installed it so Id have a little
bit of room on the wall side (inside pics) .All in all it went in good. The bowen
just sat right on the floor ,and the suburban required me to add 2 ,2x1"
wood strips on each side of the tank to have it sit on the floor correctly.I
then used plumbers strap over the top of the tank to secure it down .You
might find a different approach to secure it .The main idea is to get the best fit in the opening .I also screwed the front inner metal section in place with
screws also .Once you get going on the install ,you'll see what you need to
do .you may find another way works well too .Im not sure how the Atwood
will fit ,but it should be similar.

Scott

[S C Streamer]

Originally Posted by C Johnson

It depends, How well does the old one work ? Do you want to be able to light from inside the trailer with a switch ? Does the old one need a lot of parts ?

After sitting unused for 17 years, to my amazement it fired right up (after some cleaning of the burner area) and ran very well with all controls working.
I was unable to run it too long because there is/was no water in the tank, because the plumbing is incomplete.

I'm stripping the interior right now in prepartions for a FULL MONTY. Once the cabinets are out, I'll fill with water and check it out to see if it holds water, heats water and that the inside of the tank is clean.

Thanks guys.

[durans54]

The more I look at the great pics Scott to the more I think Im missing the shroud in the second shot fromt the top. More metal work

[scottanlily]

durans54 ,

do you mean the upper cross piece that remains on the trailer held on by
the slotteds screws? its polished up on mine.or the the main piece that
goes on first before the actual shroud itself ? take some pics of what you have so we can see whats up there if you don't mind.

Scott