Old School Heating Solutions?

[wildlife2019]

https://youtu.be/Za86w9PSP-s?t=294

Video of an Aliner winter camping in N.H. with a homemade wood furnace. I have it start after much irrelevant parts.

 

[smlobx]

I camped there many times when I was in college and it does get very cold there but I would not want to burn wood in my little camper..

 

[wagoneer]

I would think done right it is safe. As propane has been known to increase moisture as a by product burning wood does dry the opposite, beneficial to wood bases construction. Just be 100% careful

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

From my perspective, you can turn a furnace off if it gets too warm in the trailer. A wood stove, not so much. Way too easy to turn your trailer into a sauna, I would think.

 

[PackRat]

Carbon Monoxide detector?
I would add a stovepipe cap/wind deflector so gusts do not force a backdraft down the pipe, into the stove and into the camper while you sleep.

 

[ntsqd]

Combustion is combustion, and the by-products of that if not a clean fuel or not correctly proportioned air/fuel include CO and moisture. There's a reason that the RV type heaters exhaust outside and have a heat exchanger inside them. The combustion technically happens 'outside' so that the combustion by-products are never inside the RV in the first place.

 

[cwdtmmrs]

I can only say that I have (and still do) camped hundreds of nights in a cabin tent with a wood stove. Granted it is naturally more vented than a camper and I do use a smoke/CO detector. I don't think I would want to do the same in a FWC, but most of the sheepherder type rigs do so. The stove must be airtight and well vented. These stove are surprisingly easy to regulate and the one I use is an "8 hour" stove and very efficient.

cwd

 

[wildlife2019]

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Nice installation video (makes sense on a trailer):

Kev’s Alaskan Overland Sauna Gear Trailer @hugothebiggreenvan - Tiny Wood Stove

added this website: Small, Efficient, Modern Wood Burning Stoves on 2019 Jan 08

• The one small advantage is not being restricted to entering tunnels as is the case with propane tanks.
• Not troubled by altitude.
• It's reliability as well as its durability is unmatched.
• I'm assuming it can also heat a pot of water... can it fry an egg?

• Cost of these little stoves is close to the cost of an Atwood et. al., minus the installation and related systems and maintenance.
• Another disadvantage is cleaning, as well as assuring that it is completely extinguished for safe travel.
• Setting up a flue at rest stops is another issue; it might prove too attractive to the fire marshal and it may just burn some overly curious youngster while in operation.

• All the talk about needing adequate ventilation for the catalytic type seems counterintuitive to the goal at hand. But it does makes sense for this application.

• A proper furnace system will mean upgrading my 35 amp house battery as well as likely upgrading to solar. Love the idea, but I'm still not there yet.

Summed up: I have my doubts about this wood stove in a truck camper. The space to maneuver seems just a tad to confining for that. I've never used wood pellets, but maybe that would be the fuel to use in a situation like this. Pellets can be far more efficient and easier to haul.

For the time being I will likely burn through all those one pounders when I repurchase another buddy heater.

Thanks to all for treating my desire to maintain some semblance of comfort with your thoughtful responses.

 

[rubberlegs]

Burning inside the camper sounds really dangerous. We use hot water bottles. Mmmm, warm!

 

[Drew]

Here's two other YT channels using wood stoves in their trailers:

Here is Elsa Rhae camped in her Scamp at -11 degrees F.