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Lowcost heater option!

4 dog knight

By 4 dog knight
in Kawasaki UTV SxS Forum

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4 dog knight Rookie

4 dog knight

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EZ heater for a Mule 2520

My first post here, but I thought I'd share this as I think it has some merit. I did a quick Mule Heater search but nothing came up. I live in N. MN. and will use my Mule to plow my 650 ft. driveway. Just got it running after 3 yrs. of dorking around with a broken
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case and then two blown head gaskets. (Kept trying to "get all the air out of the cooling system" to now avail!!!) So, I found a cloth "cab" online and put it on and then began thinking about how I was going to keep the windshield from icing up. I looked at After Market heaters and they are EX-PEN-SIVE! I did find what appeared to be a good solution for around $200, but still didn't want to part with that much cash. (my wife sez i'm CHEAP...I prefer to think I am thrifty)

So I started thinking...with a rear engine and a front mounted radiator there shouldn't be any kind of engine contaminents in the air coming thru the radiator...so why not use THAT as my heater core? I'd been having trouble with the radiator mounted fan switch anyway and I wanted to pull that to troubleshoot it. I pulled the right front wheel off and the side panel next to the radiator and then removed the radiator. I guess you could do it without removing the side panel and wheel, but it's just four phillips head screws and you gain so much more light and visibility. I cautiously bored four 2 1/2 in. holes in open spots on the fire wall/floor boards directly in line with the radiator, carefully checking before I completely bored thru to make sure I wasn't going to hit any wiring our anything crucial. Now, when the cooling fan comes on it blows nice warm air in thru all the holes and works GREAT! I had actually purchased some 12v. computer cooling fans to screw to the firewall to pull more air thru, but the the radiator fan blows plenty of heat and moves much air. Maybe I'll need to add the fans for colder weather running. I was thinking I may need to "duct" one of the holes thru the fiberglass dash and up toward the windshield to de-fog that, but so far so good, so I will wait on that as well for colder weather testing.

I did stuff some weather stripping foam around some of the larger gaps in the area around the radiator. I also cut some 1/2" plywood and screwed it to the bottom side of the frame under the seat area and vertically ahead of the engine compartment to inimize outside air infiltration. (it also quieted the engine noise down as well!)

I can buy some 2 1/2" computer desk plugs to cover the floorboard holes for summer operation, but for now it's working exceptionally well, toasty warm in the cab at around 20
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outside temps. Windows aren't fogging or anything.

I can only speak for the 2500 series, but I'm wondering if this
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mod won't work for other models as well?

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