Drew Callahan

Most RV owners assume their diesel heater will work the same way every time they turn it on—that it’s a “set it and forget it” system like the furnace back home. That assumption will cost you a winter night huddled under blankets. The Webasto or Espar heater in your Hymer Aktiv is nothing like a … Read more

I’ve spent enough mornings elbow-deep in the engine bay of a Chinook Bayside that I could probably do this job blindfolded — though I wouldn’t recommend it. The glow plug on these units fails in a particular way: quiet at first, then your heater starts cranking for thirty seconds before it catches, then forty-five, then … Read more

Skip this repair and you’ll be sitting in the cold, watching your heater cycle and fail, cycle and fail—or you’ll crack and hand a dealer $400 to $600 for what amounts to swapping a spark plug. I’ve seen it happen too many times on Jayco Melbournes: the glow plug dims, the fuel pump starts misfiring, … Read more

I have a glow plug sitting on my workbench right now that I pulled from a Thor Dazzle last February—it’s blackened at the tip, corroded where it threads into the combustion chamber, and completely dead when I run voltage across it. That plug represents a frozen cabin at 2 AM in the Sierra Nevada, a … Read more

“Drew, my Galleria’s diesel heater won’t light on cold mornings anymore. It tries, but nothing catches. Should I just replace the whole thing?” That’s been the question landing in my inbox more than once this winter — and here’s the truth: nine times out of ten, you’re looking at one of two parts that went … Read more

I’ve got the Ekko’s heater shroud off and I’m staring at the combustion head—the glow plug is right there, corroded enough that I can see carbon buildup around the threads without even unscrewing it. This is the moment that separates a half-hour fix from three days of chasing phantom fuel pump codes. On every Winnebago … Read more

A shop quote for a diesel heater glow plug swap on an Outside Van Aterra runs somewhere between $180 and $280 in labor alone — which is absurd, because the part itself costs $35 and the actual work takes ten minutes. I learned this the hard way after sitting in a Montana forest at 22 … Read more

Diesel heaters on a Pleasure-Way Ascent don’t fail because you’re careless — they fail because cold, altitude, and sustained boondocking put genuine stress on two moving parts: the glow plug and the fuel pump. Most owners ignore the warning signs (slow ignition, hesitation before firing, clicking without heat) until the heater quits entirely in January … Read more

What do you do when your Grech Strada’s diesel heater won’t fire on a freezing morning and you’re staring at a fault code with no idea whether you’re looking at a $40 part or a $400 repair? That’s the moment I’d already know—because I’ve shown up to this exact scenario on enough Stradas that I … Read more