New to me alaskan

[coloradocamper]

HEY everyone!

So I just purchased an Alaskan after years of searching. I live in Colorado and for whatever reason every one I ran across was in very poor shape, or not for sale. Finally found a vague posting on CL that had a truck and camper for sale...but the lady was willing to separate. Long story short, 2 hours and three benjamins was all it took.

Now for the questions. I have no idea how old this thing is. By the side windows I guess late 50's to early 60's. It needs new seals, has some water damage on the upper clam shell by the windows, but overall it is in good shape. I have questions about the heater however and what kind it really is. Mine says it is a peerless, and cannot see that it has any electric going to it. It has a round hollow cylinder (8" round x 12" tall approx.) to the right of the gas valaves that has what seems to be a pilot inside.

Is this a forced air furnace or a catalytic? (It has a round vent at the rear of the camper, right ride of door)

Whichever it is does anyone have some advice as to how to actually light it, and if required before lighting, cleaning procedures?

Here are some pics of it mounted on the sellers very tired and underpowered f-150!!

Thanks for any help you guys give. I hope to contribute as I can!

 

[caseboy]

my 64 nco doesn't have a heater , but my 74 10'cabover does. it's a hydro flame 80, i believe. i found some pics to match mine and even found some lighting instructions on the internet.i lit it once just to see if it works, but it doesn't put out much heat. i didn't burn it for long though.i'll try to attach the pic i found, but the instructions might be too big a file. i can e-mail it to you if you can't round it up on the net.both my alskans had some rebuilding too do,but your starting out cheap and will be way ahead when done.in my 64, we just use an olympian catalitic heater and we are very toasty even in feburary at the ocean.

wes

 

[caseboy]

oops, it's not an 80 it's a ars 10xL 9000btu. the instructions i found were for an 80, they seem very close

wes

 

[coloradocamper]

Thanks for the info...

I actually got the nerve to go light ALL my appliances today and to my surprise everything worked. I had the heater on about 2/3s power and tested in for about 4-5 hours with a CO detector. All was well to this point.

I dont thing mine is a catalytic heater however, but it isn't a forced air unit either as there is no fan...its more like a convection heater of some type.

Now if only I could figure out how to lay the table down to create a platform for the bed...