Wood or Charcoal Fired Heater

[Tomterrific]

We have used an electric blanket or sleeping bags when it is cold weather camping. I know there has been discussion about heating without shore power so I started to day dream.

Eventually I thought of sail boats. How did the old sail boats warm a cabin safely? This lead to small charcoal heaters, which lead to an idea.

Safety! I know a fire around a wooden structure is dangerous no matter how well designed. With this said, here is what I've come up with.

Keep the main burner on the outside. The back of the main burner will be a panel larger than the small stove. This allows a section to be cut into a wall or door and the stove installed in its place.

Since the stove is outside, the outer 3/4 of a square or 1/2 of a cylinder would be insulated for efficiency. The chimney would also extend up the back panel of the stove giving up heat. We should think of the chimney as more of a long stove as it extends up the back panel. All fuel would be added from the outside, as easy as opening the camper door and dropping in a briquette from the top.

No, I have not made the stove and am not likely to do so. It is just a fun idea I can't get out of my head.

Tt

[KennethW]

Have you looked into Chinese diesel parking heaters. About $150 and fully vented. SAFE

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

[Tomterrific]

No I haven't. That looks like it is small also. I'm searching those now. Nice but pricey.

My thoughts were to have heat the old fashioned way without electicity, even 12 volts.

Tom

[Pinstriper]

Not old fashioned but a Heater Buddy works great.

[KTM_Guy]

Okay, we have done it. My brother had an old chevy panel truck around a 1964 or so. We took a freon can can cut and welded a door and ash pan with the flue that went out the back door window. Yes the fire box was inside. Worked good with wood. One winter we were drinking out to Colorado to go skiing and sleep in the van. We saw a freight train loaded with coal and stopped and walked down the tracks picking up coal lumps that fell off. We had a bucket full in no time. it burned a lot longer than wood but stunk. Still wouldn't last the night. We camped out at on Rt6 at Loveland Pass about 12'000. one day was the biggest swing in temperature I have ever seen. -19 low the next day was 79 for the high at A-Basin.

Full disclosure, we were in high school at the time.

In this day and at my age I'm not going to mess with trying to keep a fire going all night with wood or charcoal. That little diesel hearer is cool and a bargain at the price. I would prefer propane over diesel and that would be the Buddy. We tent camp in the mid 20's and am hoping we can push that to the high teen's in the teardrop. We'll see this winter, we are planning a trip to the Grand Canyon over New Years.

Todd

[crttaz]

From VanDwellers on Facebook....

"Camco Wave 3 Propane Consumption Question Answered"

My initial inquiry: "About your Wave 3: What is the propane consumption per hour on the 1600 BTU setting and also on the 3000 BTU setting. Thanks! – Frank"

Their response (5 days later): "Hi Frank: Here is the answer according to our engineering department, "1600 BTU/hr to 3000 BTU/hr = .074 lb/hr to .139 lb/hr of Propane"

My final response (same day): "Thanks. That looks like about .6 lbs of propane for 8 hours at the 1600 BTU setting, and at 3000 BTU I'll get just over 7 hours. Excellent. Thanks again! - Frank"

Then again a nearly empty 20 lb tank did this....

https://www.wlwt.com/article/woman-who- ... n/23480445

[crttaz]

I have seen small wood stoves like used on boats, I wonder if pellets could be used?

https://cubicminiwoodstoves.com/

http://dickinsonmarine.com/product/newp ... el-heater/

Likely either is too much for a teardrop though.

[crttaz]

I have seen small wood stoves like used on boats, I wonder if pellets could be used?

https://cubicminiwoodstoves.com/

http://dickinsonmarine.com/product/newp ... el-heater/

Likely either is too much for a teardrop though.

[Aguyfromohio]

What about the hot tent on da side..like hunting camps do in the fall. Side door to tear open..and say a sheep herders stove or asmall out filters wood stove in the tent.large buddy propane heater or even a small portable kersone house heater.....???..thoughts on a attached hot tent??.. heaters outside the tear..and vented though canvas??...slow.

If I really wanted to heat a teardrop with wood or charcoal I would do it indirectly.
I would use the fire to heat bricks or rocks or a chunk of steel, and then bring the hot and heavy objects into the trailer with me.

[Hamilton Felix]

It would be fun to fire up the welder and make a tiny wood stove, or maybe just make an ammo can stove. Heck, I knew someone who had a regular cast iron Franklin fireplace in his 1959 Ford school bus RV. But a teardrop is so tiny, that by the time I made the heater installation reasonably safe, as well as the stack, I'd be eating up too much space. Not saying it couldn't be done, just that the tradeoff might not be what one wanted. It would be an interesting challenge, though.

[ae6black]

Where would you put that thing in a small trailer. personally I think a small ceramic heater with shore power or plenty of blankets and sleeping bags without it would be the way to go. Very few of us camp in temps below zero.

Art

[Cosmo]

Slim Potatohead on YouTube has steps for building one using an ammo box.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3XOLLg8wn0&t=3s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CskimuvL4ZI&t=3s

I like the titanium foil chimney shown at 18 min and 3 seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsHSfZ-nwws

=Cosmo

[Hamilton Felix]

Heck of a nice ammo can heater. Not sure I'd want to give up the space it would take to make it a safe installation of stove and pipe inside a teardrop.

[GuitarPhotog]

Just my $0.02 worth. In residential building, it is illegal to have a heater that gets its combustion oxygen from a sleeping area. So, even if you vent that charcoal, wood, or... heater's exhaust gas outdoors you are still creating a hazard by using the air in the trailer for combustion.

There are reasons behind building codes, almost always that reason is related to occupant safety!

<Chas>

[Tomterrific]

I am really bad at getting my different ideas across to folks. Basically what I am proposing is having only the back of the stove mounted to the inside of the camper. All the air, fuel and clean out would be on the outside so the inside is completely sealed.

Tt