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Posted By: Fireball2 Travel trailer heaters - 09/20/14
Just purchased a 24' trailer and am researching heaters that require no electricity, such as radiant/catalytics. I have very narrow wall spaces available to mount to, maybe 10" wide, but would love a permanently mounted unit if possible. The best/largest wall spaces have obstacles in front of them like the slideout, or the bed.
Would like to be able to keep the trailer from freezing while I travel, so a portable unit would have to be shut off and stored or secured to the floor for travel, and I don't like the idea of a propane hose laying around the living area. I might be stuck with a portable and a hose though considering the lack of wall space to mount to.
I'm sure a bunch of guys have solved this problem already, so what'd you guys figure out? Thanks for the help.
Posted By: Rock Chuck Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14
Catalytics work great but they have a big drawback - water. I have one in my 20' camper. If kept running for long periods of time, you'll have water running down the windows. On a hunt a few years ago, it was so cold that we had to keep it running during the day to keep the water from freezing. After 3 or 4 days of steady burning, our matches were too damp to strike and we had ice on the insides of all the windows. All of our clothes and bedding felt damp, too.
Posted By: Sycamore Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14
whatever you find, please get a CO detector, and keep it new! It seems like every year, some hunter dies in a CO incident with a camper/heater situation.

With the new electronics, there is no reason not to get a CO monitor.

take care and best of luck!

Sycamore
Posted By: Fireball2 Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14
Originally Posted by Rock Chuck
Catalytics work great but they have a big drawback - water. I have one in my 20' camper. If kept running for long periods of time, you'll have water running down the windows. On a hunt a few years ago, it was so cold that we had to keep it running during the day to keep the water from freezing. After 3 or 4 days of steady burning, our matches were too damp to strike and we had ice on the insides of all the windows. All of our clothes and bedding felt damp, too.


Did you have any windows cracked?
Posted By: Fireball2 Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14
Originally Posted by Sycamore
whatever you find, please get a CO detector, and keep it new! It seems like every year, some hunter dies in a CO incident with a camper/heater situation.

With the new electronics, there is no reason not to get a CO monitor.

take care and best of luck!

Sycamore


Agreed.
Posted By: pira114 Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14
Originally Posted by Fireball2
Originally Posted by Rock Chuck
Catalytics work great but they have a big drawback - water. I have one in my 20' camper. If kept running for long periods of time, you'll have water running down the windows. On a hunt a few years ago, it was so cold that we had to keep it running during the day to keep the water from freezing. After 3 or 4 days of steady burning, our matches were too damp to strike and we had ice on the insides of all the windows. All of our clothes and bedding felt damp, too.


Did you have any windows cracked?


Yup. It can still happen, but an open window will greatly reduce it. Learned that lesson the hard way myself.

Personally, I wouldn't mount any heater to the wall. Fire chances are too great.

I'll run my fridge while driving (still not recommended by manufacturer) but that's it. And only the fridge runs when I'm not in it. Seen the aftermath of guys wanting to keep their rig warm while away.

I basically deal with a cold trailer. Water bottles in a cooler without ice will prevent freezing (inside the trailer) if it was at room temp when you left it. To quickly heat a trailer when I return, I turn on the heater and a couple stove burners for several minutes. That seems to do it. Usually want to heat up dinner or coffee anyway.

Coldest I hunt in is low teens though. Lower than that, I don't know if my solution works. You can always fill the empty space of the cooler with towels. That helps
Posted By: Rock Chuck Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14
Originally Posted by Fireball2
Originally Posted by Rock Chuck
Catalytics work great but they have a big drawback - water. I have one in my 20' camper. If kept running for long periods of time, you'll have water running down the windows. On a hunt a few years ago, it was so cold that we had to keep it running during the day to keep the water from freezing. After 3 or 4 days of steady burning, our matches were too damp to strike and we had ice on the insides of all the windows. All of our clothes and bedding felt damp, too.


Did you have any windows cracked?
Yup. I won't run any propane device without it. Normally the byproducts of burning propane are water and CO2. However, if it burns incompletely, like without enough air, some of the exhaust will be CO instead of CO2. Nasty stuff.
When it's cold and snowy, like in our case, the humidity in the air won't allow the ventilation to remove enough water to keep the camper dry.

Back to the OP question: How about a Buddy Heater? For traveling, it can be run on 16oz cylinders so a hose isn't a problem. Strap it to a table leg or something.
Posted By: RogueHunter Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14


I used a buddy heater last year, and had the same issue with dampness, ice on the insides of the windows, etc.

Fireball, I know you said no electricity, but this year I'm going to try a small genny, a 50' extension cord, and a ceramic heater, or maybe a oil filled portable radiator, or both. I don't mind cold, but I hate damp.

PS: +1 on the CO detector.

Posted By: KFWA Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14
I have the single can and dual can buddy heaters

Even on the half setting, I can only get about 3 hours out of a single cannister.

Changing the cannister out in the middle of the night when you're half asleep is a pain the butt

that said, for camping its definitely the easiest way to go, but if I was in a camper, I'd figure out some way to hook into the gas lines the feed the stove

Of course you could find a camper furnace used on craigslist - I would have figured a 24' enclosed camper would have one anyways and set it up to where you can run it off two propane tanks that ride on the camper tongue. That would get you several days of uninterrupted heat.

Now that I think of it , I guess the camper furnace has a fan that runs off of 12v battery.
Posted By: Rock Chuck Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14
Originally Posted by Fireball2
Just purchased a 24' trailer and am researching heaters that require no electricity, such as radiant/catalytics. I have very narrow wall spaces available to mount to, maybe 10" wide, but would love a permanently mounted unit if possible. The best/largest wall spaces have obstacles in front of them like the slideout, or the bed.
Would like to be able to keep the trailer from freezing while I travel, so a portable unit would have to be shut off and stored or secured to the floor for travel, and I don't like the idea of a propane hose laying around the living area. I might be stuck with a portable and a hose though considering the lack of wall space to mount to.
I'm sure a bunch of guys have solved this problem already, so what'd you guys figure out? Thanks for the help.


Please give us some more info. No 12V? Does it have a furnace of some kind, working or not? Forced air maybe?
Posted By: RoninPhx Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14
few years ago i towed my trailer up in the woods a few days early to hunt season, and went home. Didn't notice i had nudged the themostat, and i really don't use the heater, so didn't pay attention. Till i went back up and found i had no battery from the fan running.
in the 20 years i have had the trailer, used the heater maybe twice.
running a couple of burners on the stove, or one of those little coleman portable heaters for a few minutes has always worked. I always have a window open, mainly cause i like it, but also because of co concerns.
Posted By: JBGQUICK Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14
I would still get a portable like a Mr Heater Portable Buddy Propane Heater, has safety features like tip over and low oxygen shut off and you can use in other situations power failure at home or heating a garage or crawl space.

Posted By: Fireball2 Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14
Thanks for the ideas. The trailer is a 2005 Keystone Zeppelin. You can see the problem with a lack of wall space for a heater.

[Linked Image]

It has a propane furnace, which is directly under the oven. Furnaces eat batteries and hover between 30-50% loss of heat from your propane. By comparison, some catalytics are 99.9% efficient.

I had a mouse in the trailer when I bought it and he loved the oven and furnace. I spent days disassembling and cleaning, and replaced all the air ducts. At this time, I have a 1000 watt Honda inverter for charging batteries and haven't tried to run the furnace with it, so don't know if it's an option to run that all night to keep the furnace going.

No table leg to tie a heater to, but it's no problem to create stability for a heater if needed while traveling.

I had another 1996 trailer with a then new catalytic mounted to a wall. The problem is, the walls on RV's are (usually) 1/8" material, so it pulled off while driving and nearly burned the trailer to the ground. No tip over shut off on that heater! Anything mounted to the wall will need to be reinforced.

My problem is I have narrow wall spaces available. If I had the width, I'd reinforce the wall and mount one permanent, done deal. I read about one that mentioned floor mount, but gave no details. I don't trust manufacturers to provide the best hardware for mounting. I'd rather engineer my own solution that I KNOW will work!

I do have a large chunk of wall available in one spot, but it's overhung by a countertop, where presumably you could sit at the bar to eat. I'd have to shield the underside of that countertop from the heat, and I'm not crazy about that idea. It's right next to the gas lines too, so it'd be a snap to mount there, just to the right of the entry door.

Go with a small oil filled and small gen. I about went broke last year buying propane to heat a 26 ft trailer. WE were using a 20 pound tank a day. went to town and got a oil filled radiator problem solved, only used a couple of gal of gas per day and kept the trailer at 70.




Originally Posted by RogueHunter


I used a buddy heater last year, and had the same issue with dampness, ice on the insides of the windows, etc.

Fireball, I know you said no electricity, but this year I'm going to try a small genny, a 50' extension cord, and a ceramic heater, or maybe a oil filled portable radiator, or both. I don't mind cold, but I hate damp.

PS: +1 on the CO detector.

Posted By: Rock Chuck Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14
My catalytic is radiant heat. It heats objects, not the air. If it was mounted under the counter next to the door, it would nicely heat the bathroom door but the rest of the camper would be cold.

My partner's camper has a forced air furnace and 2 batteries. It can go a week without recharging the batteries although we only run it at night.
Posted By: GunTruck50 Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14
I have 27ft Arctic Fox, and when I leave the trailer to hunt
I leave the heat main heater on 55-60 degrees. That keeps
the interior of the trailer warm and also blows hot air to the
sealed underbelly to keep the tanks from freezing. If I,m
not plugged in to another power source, I charge my golf
cart batteries when I get back in from hunting. Heating
systems do kill batteries.
Posted By: 338rcm Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14
This is what I've used


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Camco-RV-57...ries&hash=item2341356930&vxp=mtr

Posted By: RogueHunter Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14
Originally Posted by KentuckyMountainMan

Go with a small oil filled and small gen. I about went broke last year buying propane to heat a 26 ft trailer. WE were using a 20 pound tank a day. went to town and got a oil filled radiator problem solved, only used a couple of gal of gas per day and kept the trailer at 70.




Originally Posted by RogueHunter


I used a buddy heater last year, and had the same issue with dampness, ice on the insides of the windows, etc.

Fireball, I know you said no electricity, but this year I'm going to try a small genny, a 50' extension cord, and a ceramic heater, or maybe a oil filled portable radiator, or both. I don't mind cold, but I hate damp.

PS: +1 on the CO detector.





That's what I'm thinking. I already have the Honda EU2000i, so a Delonghi oil filled radiator or something like this would be the trick.

http://www.amazon.com/DeLonghi-HMP1...mp;keywords=delonghi+oil-filled+radiator


Fireball - any problem with running a small genny at camp? Many uses, that's for sure.
Posted By: 338rcm Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14
Originally Posted by RogueHunter
Originally Posted by KentuckyMountainMan

Go with a small oil filled and small gen. I about went broke last year buying propane to heat a 26 ft trailer. WE were using a 20 pound tank a day. went to town and got a oil filled radiator problem solved, only used a couple of gal of gas per day and kept the trailer at 70.




Originally Posted by RogueHunter


I used a buddy heater last year, and had the same issue with dampness, ice on the insides of the windows, etc.

Fireball, I know you said no electricity, but this year I'm going to try a small genny, a 50' extension cord, and a ceramic heater, or maybe a oil filled portable radiator, or both. I don't mind cold, but I hate damp.

PS: +1 on the CO detector.





That's what I'm thinking. I already have the Honda EU2000i, so a Delonghi oil filled radiator or something like this would be the trick.

http://www.amazon.com/DeLonghi-HMP1...mp;keywords=delonghi+oil-filled+radiator


Fireball - any problem with running a small genny at camp? Many uses, that's for sure.




Might as well run the furnace if you have to use a generator
Posted By: eh76 Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/21/14
[Linked Image]
Posted By: 24mileboy Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/22/14
I use a buddy heater with a connection to a 20 pound tank outside. Only use it at night hunting or more when momma is camping. CO detector and roof vent open and haven't had a problem for 8 years and stay warm.
Posted By: Fireball2 Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/22/14
Originally Posted by RogueHunter



Fireball - any problem with running a small genny at camp? Many uses, that's for sure.


No problem other than the use of gasoline and potential for theft. If I ran an electric heater off the generator it would undoubtedly be better than the 50% efficiency of a furnace, and quieter, and have the added benefit of dry heat rather than wet propane heat.

It would be nice to leave a heater on when I'm out hunting to keep the trailer from freezing, and in that case I wouldn't want to run a generator and leave it unattended. Too many thieves anymore.
Posted By: Bama_Rick Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/22/14
Originally Posted by 24mileboy
I use a buddy heater with a connection to a 20 pound tank outside. Only use it at night hunting or more when momma is camping. CO detector and roof vent open and haven't had a problem for 8 years and stay warm.


This right here. Our camper is so old it has "natural vents"!

We still crack the vent, but we did get ice on the windows.

The extra hose is worth every penny when you don't have to get up in the night and change a frozen propane cylinder. grin
Posted By: kennyd Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/22/14
My first popup had a gravity heater that used only propane. I have not seen one in a long time. The generator and oil filled heater sounds interesting.

Be aware that the Buddy low oxygen sensor will shut the thing off at around 7000'.

Right now I am working on running a 12 volt to 110 converter to the battery charger, then have the battery run the 12v. outlet. My electric blanket will tank the rest.
Posted By: Spotshooter Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/22/14
I put a RV furnace in mine, draws air from outside and exhausts outside, uses a 12 volt battery and propane.

They have them on eBay.

Mines an Atwood
Posted By: ConradCA Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/22/14
How about putting the heater on the roof and blowing the head down through the ceiling?
Posted By: DaveR Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/22/14
Originally Posted by Sycamore
whatever you find, please get a CO detector, and keep it new! It seems like every year, some hunter dies in a CO incident with a camper/heater situation.

With the new electronics, there is no reason not to get a CO monitor.

take care and best of luck!

Sycamore


Absolutely sound advice someone would be an idiot not to heed. I run a CO detector, and combo CO / smoke in my camper or tent when I'm running the portable big buddy heater. Sixty bucks for a couple CO detectors is cheap insurance to make sure you and everyone in your camp wakes up the next morning.

Read of a couple guys and a teenage boy a while back on an elk hunt that died from it. Thought they were safe because they were using the camper furnace, which exhausts outside. The furnace exhaust pipe had popped loose on a rough road on the way in. All 3 were found dead, having never left their beds.

Posted By: KFWA Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/24/14
Was looking thru Sportsmans guide and they had a Mr. Heater propane heater on wheels that could heat 400 sq ft and will run 72 hours on a 20lb propane tank at the 6000 btu setting for $98

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/product/index/mr-heater-cabinet-radiant-heater?a=1659401
Posted By: ol_mike Re: Travel trailer heaters - 09/25/14
http://www.kni-co.com/alaskanjr.shtml
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