Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I design in my sleep I know it sounds crazy but I wake up and the idea is there.

I'll throw this out for laughs. Think of an 8"h x 8"w x 16" long light gauge steel box with a shoe box style removable lid. Thru this box runs a 4" round mild steel tube. place the contraption a safe distance away and connect one end of the tube to a non combustable flex hose to a vent into the tear. Powered with a tiny 12 volt computer fan fresh air is drawn thru and into the tear.
Now take off the lid and add coals from the campfire on a cool night to warm that tube as the air is drawn thru. Conversely as a chiller just add a bag of ice. Poor mans a/c and heater combo.

Excuse me the nice men in the white coats are here with the net ,
GOTTA GO NOW !

bob that is a great idea, it is a great expantion on the idea I had when I started this thread. I plan on starting my weekender soon, I think I might have to get back to the drawing board and make a slight adjustment.

Or you could just get one of these. Zodi tent heater

I believe the subject line is CHEAP heater. The Zodi is far from cheap.

I like the rock in the DO idea but I don't carry a DO and it's too filthy (on the outside) to bring inside the tear anyway. Maybe put it in a dish or something when I'm camping alone. With Kate & Sarah, I'm never cold anyway.

Burying rocks and putting your sleeping bag over them reminds me of that scene in Jeremiah Johnson:

"Didn't put enough dirt down. Seen it, right off."

Joseph

That web site is deceiving. It's just the first one I found. While not cheap, This site is about $70 cheaper.

Anyone useing a Humphrey Light to heat a teardrop? I would think one would put out enough heat to warm a tear before bedtime.

Q

Unless you camp in very cold weather you really don’t need a heater in your TD
My wife and I went camping in mid October in western Washington and we were
quite warm in the trailer with just body heat, it was cool when we first got in. But we
read or played card games and in a short while it had warmed up to where it was
comfortable in side.

Roger C.

roger-c wrote:Unless you camp in very cold weather you really don’t need a heater in your TD
My wife and I went camping in mid October in western Washington and we were
quite warm in the trailer with just body heat, it was cool when we first got in. But we
read or played card games and in a short while it had warmed up to where it was
comfortable in side.

Roger C.

...this is a point that I have tried to make several times in the past...a tear has such a small volume of area (less than 100 cubic feet in most cases...sometimes significantly so) that unless the temps never rise out of the sub-freezing area, a heater is not needed...my wife(as cold natured as they come) and I have camped with temps in the 30's and had to keep a window and vent cracked to keep it comfortable...a nice quilt was all that was needed...if we needed more than that, I would get an ElectroWarmth 12v mattress pad and it would work for very cold temps...we have a small ceramic heater that we have never had to use...of course we don't see much is the way of zero degree weather down here either...FYI, our tear has 3/4 ply walls and an insulated ceiling with a 1/2 ply floor.....
madjack

I'll reiterate what Jack said. The only real reason to have a heater is to "preheat" the tear. When it is cold, it's nice to crawl into a nice warm bed. If you leave the heater on, you'll soon turn it off.

We've camped in temps down in the mid-upper 30's. I've lived in the South most of my life so my blood is thin 30's is the coldest I'd want to encounter. In the tear, we use an unzipped sleeping bag as a comforter, that's it. We will crack the top vent and crack the windows when we go to sleep, sometime during the night, one of us will open their window because it gets too warm. I've camped in the same conditions in a tent with the same sleeping bag (zipped up) and it was cold.

Granted, my tear is fully insulated. I can't say with certainty how an uninsulated tear would perform. Either way, a heater any larger than a small ceramic job would be excessive.

Since I live where it gets down to 35 below at times the question of heat always is of interest. I,m located about 150 miles north of Grand Forks N. Dakota. Anyway, Coleman sells a Black Kat catalytic heater that uses platinum as it,s catlyst. The info on the box says it makes no carbon monoxide. However it does consume oxygen. I did use it while winter camping a couple of years ago in a small trailer I had made. One of those small green propane bottles lasted about 6 hours or so [I was asleep till the cold woke me up] and it was about 15 below. I made sure to have proper ventalation since I had no desire to wake up dead and it did work. For our gathering in the evening before bed we use one of those 10 by 20 portable garages. A sheet metal worker buddy made a flat "fire ring" panel we put in the side wall of the unit and another friend donated one of those cheap airtight heaters and yet another friend designed and made an ingenius smokestack. Now the walls and ceiling are just plastic but with some dry firewood we can get that stove real hot and then we can sit around the fire out of the wind and enjoy an evening having a few beverages and talking. The 2 pictures show the small 1st attempt trailer with a tarp extension where the heater was used, the 2nd shows the "garage" where we cook supper and spend a warm evening.

This is what I use. I also added a thermostat that plugs into the outlet. Plug the heater into the thermostat. Set the temp for whatever makes you comfortable.
The flat panel heater puts out a soft radiant heat. Does not get hot enough to combust. I placed it on the wall under my base shelf. It mounts 3/4 inch from the wall. I got the 18 X 24 inch version which I do not now see available. It is 284 watts. This is a little expensive. I paid 75.00 two years ago and the thermostat was extra. Takes about 15 minutes to warm the interior from 35 degrees up to 70. This device is the only way my wife will camp in the winter. Worth every penney to me.
http://eheat.com/

Has anyone tried soapstone. Soapstone is a natural heat absorber. It loads heat fast from a camp fire or stove top and discharges slowly.

I've seen soapstone balls for sale on the internet. Placed in a wire basket and hung from the ceiling would certainly keep a teardrop warm for hours.

There's a couple of old soapstone bed warmers for sale at the antique mall by me. Maybe 8" X 10" X 1" with a wire bail handle.

For the $10 investment maybe I'll buy one and give it a try in my little tear. Find a place to hang it so it's not in contact with anything. I have to believe that after sitting by the fire for a couple of hours it would add plenty of heat.

Maybe I'll do the heat calculations some day - or just buy it and try it.

Eric

My mom used to tell me about heating up paving bricks on the stove then wrap them in a towel & put them at the foot of the bed to keep your feet warm.

[quote="Rock"]There's a couple of old soapstone bed warmers for sale at the antique mall by me. Maybe 8" X 10" X 1" with a wire bail handle.

For the $10 investment maybe I'll buy one and give it a try in my little tear. Find a place to hang it so it's not in contact with anything. I have to believe that after sitting by the fire for a couple of hours it would add plenty of heat.

Maybe I'll do the heat calculations some day - or just buy it and try it.

Eric[/quote]

Eric,

Please let us know how it works out. What the temp is outside and in and how long it keeps your tear at a comfortable temp.

Bob