Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Wood burning stove in RV?

With the cold weather moving in, I've been thinking about putting a wood burner in the motorhome...maybe a "parlor type".
I have a living room slider so I've got quite a bit of room...thoughts? Using the propane heater really burns the fuel in short order & my blower motor is also starting to go out. (bearings) Anybody have any luck doing this?

It can be done but don't count on meeting anyone's regulations doing it. Your RV fire insurance will also likely be void.

The way mobile homes burn so quickly, I'd sure be darn careful.

You might have a problem of getting one small enough such that you over heat all the time and then you have a problem of getting long burn times.

I saw a homemade one one time made from a piece of 12" well casing. He'd welded on a top and bottom and made a door. He had it sitting on a counter covered with brick. It put out some serious heat but it was small & he had to keep feeding it.

Get a radiant heater.

Is your electricity free. Use electric heaters.

Wood stove, I think is a real bad idea in a RV.
Nearly died along with one of my kids once in my RV just from Carbon Dioxide getting into the RV at night from a generator.
Yes they do use a lot of propane, 40lb tank in a weekend for me, so I have electricity and I use it.

Electricity is NEVER free!
As the manager of a small RV park, I can vouch!

I would not think it any different than a small mobile home which it really is.

Thats all we ever heated with in our mobile home.

Obviously you'd have to have small and make sure all clearances were correct. And the pipes and penetrations and all were correct and so on.

Beyond that I can't see why not. Again i'd be very careful, just like we were putting the one in the house... fire sheetrock, then cement board and brick tiles and clearances met...

I understand Mark. OP is a guard/manager of a storage building so I figured he just might get electricity with "NO BILL TO HIM" as part of his pay. Regardless I would pay any electric bill whatever the cost rather than try an wood burning stove in an RV.

Jeff, 12x60 is about the smallest mobile home. I would never put a wood fire in a RV.
OP what size RV do you have.

I have seen it done atleast 10 times and there all alive and well.From a 15ft trailer to a larger class A-Motorhome that didn't even have a slide and they all lived in them 24/7..Myself,I use a catalytic heater and have for umpteen years but I don't live in one right now 24/7..

Just make sure you have a good barrier from the wall and fresh air and it will keep you toasty warm..If I went full time in my trailer with slide I also wood put in a small wood stove.

There is always the alternative to put in a mobile home approved wood stove that takes in the air from outside via a tube.

If this guy can put one in a Volvo, anything is possible

I would, however, rather pay the electric bill - than have an RV in my park burn, or find dead tenants!

Asside from safety concerns, the real issue running a woodstove in a small space is that an appropriately sized firebox will need constant feeding. If you don't mind getting up a couple times during the night to keep the fire going, so be it.

http://www.marinestove.com/sardineinfo.htm

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http://sheepcamps.com/

Yeah, it's "free" BUT she (the owner) has commented several times on the amount of electricity used by former "watchmen"...I do have a small radiant heater I'm using now along with intermittent use of the propane heater...the motorhome is 42' There's also the real possibility that I'll be heading down the road before long.

MFM,

The "hippies" have done it for years in their buses. I however tend to agree with the others if you have the option for electricity.

I live in one 8 months a year now, and lived year round for a year or so in Juneau AK (down to minus 8 or so that winter).

Couple of things I've noticed that help.

First, check to see if you have a bird nest or mouse nest in your furnace's "squirrel cage" blower. Sometimes they get in there over the summer thru the exhaust outlet. Makes it sound like a bad bearing.

Next, do you have a programmable thermostat? I got one in AK and it sure saved on propane. Wake up to warm, come home to warm. Rest of the time just kept it above 40 or so. Sleep under a down comforter or sleeping bag.

Once the "house" was warmed up I used a "Heat Dish" heater in Juneau, or now, a radiator type space heater.

Did you/ are you planning to insulate? A skirt around the perimeter? Foil "bubble wrap" type in the windows? Sure helps up here in WA. Sonora's probably about the same elevation as Placerville? I doubt you'll see minus temps then, but insulation still helps.

Good luck, if you decide to go wood heat, be safe, get a functioning Carbon Monoxide alarm, smoke alarms if your RV doesn't have them already.

Geno

Well you have a Class A I guess, that's a good one. May be big enough for the wood, I don't know. Carbon Monoxide just scares the chit out of me after my deal. Wood stove is going to put out a lot, so be sure and leave lots of windows open. Please, it's real easy not to wake up and there is no pain.

The carbon monoxide detector I have, works great. The last time I traveled, I pulled between two semis & the damn thing went crazy....This is kind of what I was thinking would work...It's a long ways off though... http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/app/5313117293.html

Yeah. Put it right out the fugging stack.......