Auxiliary Heater Tired
of scraping ice from the inside of my windshield in the winter, I set out
to come up with a better way to heat my Bronco. Granted sealing up all
the air leaks goes a long way towards making the factory heater perform
the way it was designed, but I have a tendency to overbuild everything.
I also wanted the option of leaving the soft top on during parts of the
snowy season. The obvious answer was to let more engine heat into the cab.
The space right under the passengers seat proved to be a great place for
a second heater. I spliced the factory heater hose just before the original
heater and ran the coolant through soldered copper tubing (wrapped w/ 3/4"
heater hose for insulation) under the passengers floor pan and up through
the vertical shelf under the passengers seat. Then I ran standard heater
hose to a homemade heater. This basically consists of the cheapest heater
core I could find at a local parts store and the metal plenum off an early
Mustang. I actually used a Bronco blower motor because that was all I had
on hand. The Mustang motor would have worked with a lot less modification
and cutting, but I do now have the bonus side affect of having a spare
heater motor. To switch the new heater I simply mounted an extra Bronco
heater switch in the dash next to all the others.
