Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Heat source for an enclosed trailer camping conversion.

I once saw a homemade wood stove in a motor home. He'd welded 1/4" plate on both ends of a 12" piece of old well casing that he'd squished to an oval shape and made a door for it. He had it mounted on some bricks on the counter top. He could use it for making coffee or whatever, too. It put out way too much heat even for a big RV. It must have been 90 in there while it was way below freezing outside.

I use a Buddy heater in my 25ft trailer for heat, however I do crack a vent or a window. This past month I ran into a guy my buddy knows that has a 16' utility trailer that he built bunks in, has a gas cooking stove, and a wood stove with a jack out the wall. The stove jack is removable when traveling and he spends months Steelhead fishing on the Salmon River below North Fork. He also has some nice pictures on the walls to keep him company at night.

We also use a Buddy heater in my other friends camp trailer but don't have to worry about ventilation since it leaks air like a sieve. Doesn't rock when the wind is blowing, so the heater is on high and hooked to a 7 gal tank outside.

In the tiny space you're talking about, a woodstove would likely take up too much space and be a danger, as well.

Had an 1958 18' Airstream I used in British Columbia and the western US; it was equipped w/ a built-in propane convection furnace which was fed outside air, for combustion. No danger to occupants. Nearly effective enough. Fairly large. My 1967 24' Silver Streak has a similar system. My boat has a diesel convection cabin heater which is very efficient but, again, too large for your app.

One of the small, portable catalytic heaters seems more suitable for your tiny trailer.

Buy a Atwood RV furnace off Ebay and install it.

No CO2 to worry about, and you can get a thermostat too.

I did.

I simply put the bottles on the tongue, run a propane line and put in a deep cycle battery for the rig. I can run it on one bottle all week, but I have to charge the battery every couple of days.

It's not hot enough to dry cloths out, but it's plenty warn for sleeping. I insulated the trailer with that pink foam too - the only thing that isn't insulated is the floor, I used foam to insulate the back doors (hard to take those pannels off).

Spot

Thanks to everybody for the ideas and cautions.

And thanks so much for the photos, Spot. That's a neat setup!

I can understand the desire to go off road with something warm. Heck, my "RV" is a 9'10" Lance Truck Camper on a 4WD truck, not a trailer or a 5th Wheel.
The thing about these are they can go any place you can make them fit. At -10, I loose my hot water. At -20, I loose both. Prior to that point, the forced air and design of the ducting keep the pipes running and the holding tanks from freezing. When it gets that cold, it's time to go home anyway.
One thing I've learned if you are staying out there for very long, you need to stay warm, especailly after a tough day in the mountains. A good night's rest and some warm food, and I can go for weeks. even months. But if i'm marginaly warm, I don't sleep well and "burn out" in a week or so. E

I had a Lance squire for a while and wished I had gone that way instead of a longer RV trailer.You can get them in many more places you can't a trailer..My Lance also had the small Catalytic heater...There much better for towing ATV's or horses..



Jayco

Small enclosures are generally easy to heat.
My RV is about twice the size of the one in question (22') and I have never felt the need to use the furnace. Simply making a pot of coffee heats the whole thing with just the residual heat from the burner.
I have to qualify that by saying it's not extreme cold where I hunt - about +10 degrees at the coldest. Also, I use a down bag.

Whatever heat source you wind up with a carbon monoxide/smoke detector would be a good idea.

Yeah, they make a very good unit. Had mine since '96'.
Odviously many options. E

Coming in late to the game, but I went through a similar deal building a small cabin.
The blue flame type heaters have a "safety feature" that only works when the place is depleted of oxygen because the flame on the thermocouple safety valve starts to fade away in low oxygen (told to me by the HVAC guy installing a new heating system in my mothers house)
Also - the water products from combustion go into the cabin and everything is damp or walls rot.

Direct vent models are available through northern, menards, etc for about 2X the price, but what is your safety worth?
Using a direct vent RV model may make more sense if they are built to road vibration.

Ever look at wood pellet designs? Although I lean towards the convenience of propane.

Redundant safety systems are always a good idea

Empire heaters there direct vent... A lot of people use them in wheelhouses and ice shacks... I got one in my wheel house works great..

Making coffee in a 6 x 12 trailer will heat it up. A Buddy propane heater works great while getting ready to hunt. If it were me I would add one of the really great small wood stoves available. You never run out of fuel and get to hear that wood pop and smell the smoke. Why are you out there in the first place?

I loved logcutters photo of a Nevada motor home.

Anything that burns will produce Carbon Monoxide unless its 100% efficient; which is near impossible to get. For warming in the morning or at night, the mr buddy should be okay, but if your wanting to burn all night....the CO buildup could be fatal.

Spotshooter has it dead on. Last year I finished my 8x16 fishhouse. It is insulated with the pink foam. It has a Suburban 20K BTU forced air furnace. Set the thermostate (!) and forget it. No safty worries, and can very confortably fish in sub zero MN winters. I also used a RV "power distribution center" that also has a battery charger built in. Plug in the gen set during the day, and charge the batteries. Runs all night off the batteries. For a lot of information, check out various web sites that deal with building fish houses.

Hope this helps.

dukhntr

Catalytic Propane Heaters: Catalytic heaters differ from other propane heaters in that the propane is combined with oxygen to create heat on the surface of a hot platinum catalyst, so that there is no flame. The absence of an open flame, and the relatively low temperature (the catalyst in the Olympian glows a faint, dull, red - visible only in the dark) increases the safety, relative to open flames. The catalytic process also results in a nearly perfect conversion of propane and oxygen into harmless carbon dioxide and water vapor, with no significant carbon monoxide produced.

Jayco