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I just installed my diesel heater and I appreciate the input that others have provided in this thread.    I'll provide some aspects of my install for anyone deciding to do the same.   Sorry for the long write up, but it may be of use to someone.   1) German versus Chinese manufactured.    Everyone wants to save money and this seems like a no-brainer  decision.   However, after giving it some thought I did not want to go the cheap route on something as important and vulnerable as the cabin heater.   I did not see any heater reviews on the internet that saw the Chinese model as superior to the German brand in any way.       I went with the Espar AS3 D2L.  Tip: You might save some money as I did by buying the Espar heater from a Canadian eBay vendor.   2) Gasoline versus Diesel.    I really wanted to tap into the gasoline tank to feed my heater.   I wouldn't have to worry about running out of fuel with the 28 gallon tank.   However,  it appears that the Espar gasoline heater does not work well above 5000 feet.   That's a deal killer.   With most of the national parks that I'm going to visit being above that altitude,  it would be a big letdown to not have heat when you need it most at altitude.  Who needs a heater when camping at sea level on the beaches of Mexico?    3) Keeping the heater exhaust away from windows and doors.    Most YouTuber state this precaution in their videos but rarely show where they place the exhaust exit.     The fact is that most people mount the heater under the front passenger seat.    The espar kit contains only 3+ feet of exhaust  hose (and the muffler).   If you extend the hose any any direction from the passenger seat position, you are going to place the exhaust under a window or the sliding door or in the center of the van which is deemed unacceptable.   This is simply the geometry.     I bought an additional extension of the pipe and exited in back of the slider door and just in front of the rear wheel.   This left me right at the maximum length of 6.5 feet recommended by Espar.  More on this later.   4) Tank location.   I really wanted to place the diesel tank in the engine compartment, but after a few hours contemplating possible locations there, I decided it wasn't an easy thing to do.   And I was concerned about engine heat affecting the fuel lines and tank.  I did not want to mount the diesel tank inside.  One spill and you have the attractive aroma of dinosaur juice forever in your van.    I decided to mount a rotopax tank on my T-rex ladder at the rear of the van (as Andy  has done on his van).   5) Air Ducting or Outlet Error.   After installing the heater, I could not run the heater for more than 30 minutes without getting this error.   Digging into the "workshop" portion of the menu, the error code is P000115 - over heating.    Suggestions to correct this on-line were to reduce the length of the intake and/or exhaust hose.   I removed 3 feet of the exhaust hose and the muffler and dangled both hoses to the ground without any 90 degree bends.   Still would not run beyond 30 minutes.  Granted, I'm running this in May when my ambient temperatures outside are at 65-70 degrees,  not like 30 degrees when I'm camping in the Rockies.  But I was told that this should not matter with the P000115 overheating error.   OK,  so I'm a bit frustrated at this point and I reached out to Esperspacher (Espar) 800 customer support.    They are terrific and this is one big reason to choose Espar over the cheap internet heaters.   There is support and replacement parts when you need it!    Alex from their support line informed me that it was probably a problem with the angle of the fuel pump causing to much fuel to reach the heater.   He suggested going way beyond the recommended 30 degree angle  and that I could go vertical if needed.   I changed the angle to over 45 degrees and that extended the run time to over an hour but would eventually shut down with the same P000115 error.      My next step was to remove the rotopax gas tank from the rear ladder and place it on the ground.      This seems to have solved my problem and the heater has stayed on for hours without error.    Attaching the fuel tank 2 1/2 feet above the heater location I believe is causing to much line pressure to the burner.   Time will tell and I'll update this post if I have any further problems.   6) Smooth conduit pipe versus the supplied ribbed flex exhaust pipe.      After I installed the ribbed flex pipe (6.5 feet total), I started having the overheating problems as mentioned above.   I decided to go with 1" rigid smooth conduit (EMT) pipe instead.    I got this idea from another van-lifer who stated the fact that the ribbed nature of the Espar supplied pipe causes a lot of friction in the exhaust line.    After replacing the Espar ribbed pipe, I just like the look and durability of the electrical conduit pipe much better and I know the flow of exhaust gas is much smoother.   Pipe and fittings can be purchased at Lowes and Home Depot.    JB high-temp epoxy works great at making a tight strong seal.        The conduit pipe does not fit the muffler or the ports right off the heater, but you can use small sections of the ribbed pipe and a couple of strands of aluminum reflective tape to make the transition to the conduit pipe coupler.   7)  Heater Mount.    The NV van floor has a ribbed nature around the passenger mount location.  I strongly recommend mounting the heater first to a metal mounting plate and then installing the plate to the van floor.  This way you can install the intake/exhaust hoses and the fuel line right to the heater when it's on your work bench rather than on your back underneath the van - fighting gravity.    Cut out the 3" x 4" hole in your van floor and drop the hoses down beneath the van.    Put a few screws through the plate and van floor and you are ready for the next step of running the hoses underneath the van.   I recommend high-temp gasket maker.  You might have to chip out some of the hard white insulation that Nissan as sprayed on the interior floor to get the plate to mount flush.   8.  Espar funky electrical connectors.   Eberspacher requires you to assemble ("pin") metal prongs to plastic connectors to make the necessary electrical connections to the controller and fuel pump.   I chose to use solder butt connectors and heat gun to make these connections instead.    I guess it's a German thing.    9)   There is a fan option on the Espar heater.     On this setting the burner does not fire.      Air is recirculated through the van with no outside air being exchanged - the burner intake is not used unfortunately.   No better air to put into the van than the cooler air that resides underneath.   darn.      10) Recommended sources.    https://www.youtube.com/@BoChuonOUTDOORSVANBUILD  - The wiring harness is not easy to sort through.  Bo does an excellent job of explaining what portions of the harness are not used and where each segment goes.  He also explains the use of a mounting plate.            

Thanks Last2ConvertNV for your kind words. You are correct, I am retired automotive designer. Having my campervan for sale for the last 4 months, I made some interesting discoveries from what people were saying about my DIY build. Here is a link where such posts are good example of "a mainstream" vision for a campervan.   Affordable 2018 low mileage campervan | Class B Forums   Nobody mentioned about my list of installed equipment or quality of the components or my focus on natural, non-toxic materials used.   It is always a standard set of cravings: there should be an air conditioner, black/grey water tanks, electrical water pump, propane stove, big "garage" at the back, queen size bed and so on... Everything above should be based on a smallest van, and it should cost not much. What a "pipe dream"! But I listen to the feedback. Replacing my dog bed by a stock seat plus adding the second sleeping space, that is what I had implemented. I think that it is because my campervan is DYI project. Most people consider DYI builds as a low-quality workmanship using cheapest components/materials with poor ergonomics and safety product.  To make a long story short, I have no regrets going that DYI path. I had my fun designing and building my campervan on Nissan NV platform. It is a remarkable vehicle I must say, never let me down.    

Andy,  I'm just at the end of my van conversion.    I bought my 2018 standard roof NV2500 with only 13K miles last November for $30,500.    It had some conversion done to it - most of which I have removed due to bad design or things no longer working.    In 6 months, I have added over $20,000 in my van conversion.    It's also been a lot of work and a lot of "Mcgyvering".    I look through your list of equipment that you have added to your van and I know what you have put into this van both in time and equipment.   It's a bargain at $49K and if I could turn back time, I'd probably would buy your van with all of the additional equipment.   Any one interested in an NV van should consider the total cost.    Just start with a low mileage cargo van and then start pricing the add-on's you have put into this van.   It adds up quick.   I understand the need to remove the dog seat for the original passenger seat.  It just makes the van more appealing to a broader market.      But I have to say as an owner of a German shepherd, I like that feature.   I put in a swivel seat before I saw your dog seat otherwise I would have done the same thing and just used the dog seat as a "reverse" seat to watch TV mounted in the interior.     I would swap in the original passenger seat when doing trips with the wife.   You must have been an engineer in your career.    Your van shows it.   Best of luck with your sale.   

Thanks for the insight @cray54and @Local Apparent Friday

The electromechanical fan clutch has been around for close to 20 years.  The first one I remember was on a Cummins Ram truck.  Thought it was pretty trick back then.    From what I can tell there are no codes because none of the electrical circuits are broken.  The clutch just doesn't hook up when told to do so.  Happens to thermal fan clutches as well.  This just has electrical control instead of a thermal spring.  Kinda strange to call it a clutch since there is no friction material inside.  Just the flow of silicone fluid that controls the coupling.  Something gave up on the control.  Not common, but not unheard of either. 

I think that's the best looking set up I've seen. Can you share the names of rims and tires you went with? Look like Fuel rims...

Hey Crusty. It looks like you are correct. My auxiliary fan runs when the test is performed. ( Door Test also) As it appears the main fan clutch was not working. We replace the fan clutch on the main fan, the engine fan. The Clutch was not operating the fan at a higher speed. It was just running with the engine speed. The issue is that the dealer that a was dealing with they diagnosed the whole AC issues as a leak. I'm in the refrigeration service industry and i know that i did not have a leak on the AC System. One was because when i would drive the AC would work fine. When i would stop that's when it would kick OFF. Even though i had told them that appears to be some king of an issue on the fans. Due to the condenser not cooling down. ( Fan Issues). At the time i was not sure when the primary Fan (Engine Fan & Clutch) or the auxiliary fan were supposed to come on. The main fan and the clutch seemed to be a very interesting setup and design. Also there is not much talk about them. Special on this vehicle. as far as i can tell. And again the auxiliary fan seems to come on as needed from the main ecu im assuming.   After replacing the main Fan Clutch seems that all my issues have been resolved.  It is very interesting that there is no fault codes for the clutch on the main Fan. A local mechanic some how had another vehicle in the shop same one 5.6 engine. As we were trying to diagnose my issue with his tool, he noticed that the other Vans main fan was moving much more air through it and running much faster.  That promoted us to focus on the Fan clutch. Which was the correct issue. Even though originally  we were focusing on the small fan the auxiliary. But we could not find anything wrong with it. We had looked at every HVAC diagram at the vehicle. It does not seem to have much information on the clutch fan. It seems to be a hidden issues.   I want to thank you for the reply, you have the correct answers on this topic.

Thanks so much to all for the info on here, super helpful. Geesh, it's not straightforward finding a setup that will work on the NV. I'm looking at getting a set of American Racing Bajas at a stock 17". It's a 0 offset, wondering if anyone has done a 0 offset before and how it went? I'm doing 245/70/17  Cooper AT3s. According to my math it'll be out an extra 40mm from stock = 1.57" and I'm worried it might be just barely to tight for the sliding door...

Hello everyone!   want to ask to see if anybody has had a similar issue….   It is mainly at lower revs 1k to 2K   When the van is up to speed and you are cruising around 40mph + at very low revs and you start pressing the gas slightly to keep momentum or accelerate slowly the car jitters / sputters randomly…  If I am above 2500 RPMs or have the engine with power I don’t feel the sputter or jitter   there are no codes with a scanner (cheap scanner ) Kind of feel like slippage from transmission area, not sure if anyone has felt something like this and can maybe lead me to a solution   Van has 125,000 miles 2012 4.0  NV 2500  

Has anyone installed a pull-out step by the sliding side door for their NV2500?  Right now I'm using a box, but the "Stromberg Carlson" 3" rise step on Amazon (or E-Trailer) seems like it would be what's needed...... BUT I don't see an easy way to mount this because of the extended piece that is mounted on the frame.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  Thanks in advance!!!