Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

This is probably more of a question for those with 6 x 10 trailers with standing room. It may be an outrageous question in general.. haha

BUT... Have any of you put a tiny woodstove into your trailer?? It doesn't seem like such a bad idea. I'm talking like the smallest woodstove you can find. You could cook on top of it, heat water, heat the trailer.. Again, maybe an atrocious idea. Haven't really put much of any thought into it.

Bob Henry has a great little stove that he uses in his "Chubby". It's a miniature pot belly type stove. I've built a number of smaller wood stoves for shop use and have given some thought to actually making up a really tiny one, but the problem is keeping it fueled all the time. I've also thought about some sort of a stove type item that would be fueled on briquettes.

I'll probably stick with warming up the trailer on cold nights with the Coleman lantern, (yes I do vent the trailer) then shutting it down once the walls and interior are up to temp. for the night. Once you get the interior warmed, it stays pretty warm, at least till I fall asleep. Doug

if you want a wood stove, make sure you draw your intake air from outside the trailer, seal the stove and exhaust to prevent CO inside trailer, have proper exhaust pipe and stack length for combustion with spark arrestor, minimum. Alternative is forget the wood stove, along with the 1000 pound hide-a-bed in a small trailer. A sheepherder wood stove that is compact and lightweight can be a very useful outside cooking and hot water source.

There are little sailboat stoves that I dreamed about putting in a skoolie at one time. I'm more worried about overheating in a teardop.

"Derick (sp) the pirate" had a wood stove in his second Vardo style camper, IIRC, and in his sail boat, too.

doug hodder wrote:Bob Henry has a great little stove that he uses in his "Chubby". It's a miniature pot belly type stove. I've built a number of smaller wood stoves for shop use and have given some thought to actually making up a really tiny one, but the problem is keeping it fueled all the time. I've also thought about some sort of a stove type item that would be fueled on briquettes.

I'll probably stick with warming up the trailer on cold nights with the Coleman lantern, (yes I do vent the trailer) then shutting it down once the walls and interior are up to temp. for the night. Once you get the interior warmed, it stays pretty warm, at least till I fall asleep. Doug

I have heard talk of using a lantern to heat a trailer but it has always seemed like tempting fate between the heat, fuel, and carbon monoxide gas. Is there a good way to do this safely? Am I just paranoid?

Cheers!

Derick had this one. I think it might have been the propane version.
http://www.nuwaystove.com/model965.php
Here are some more.
http://www.marinestove.com/sardineinfo.htm

http://www.fatscostoves.com/

http://www.ammocanstove.com/stoves--gear.html

http://www.salamanderstoves.com/docs/52/the_pipsqueak/#.TtToFfS-k6Y.facebook

And the cream of the crop.
http://www.mykimberlystove.com/index.html

Then there is this pellet stove. It's to big but it's cool.
http://www.clarrypelletstove.com/

Since most people have campfires when they camp, has anyone ever tried heating rocks and then putting them in the teardrop? It might not be a bad way to go, no CO2, no flames, no drain on the battery and the best thing of all... free! You could even make a box to put them in so they won't get the camper dirty. Then for entertainment you could ask it a lot of easy questions to find out just how dumb a box of rocks really is.

On a side note, I remember my grandpa heating up an old fashioned iron in our pop up camper. I don't know how long the heat lasted but it helped take the chill off a bit. Although I think he may have been ignoring the "not for comfort heating" warning on the stove.

Here's a little one I made out of cutoffs from another project
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It's a 6"x 6" tube with 2 pieces of 2"x 6" tube on top for an exhaust channel. I just started stacking them on the bench and looked at the pile and realized that it kind of looked like the beginnings of a stove. I put legs on from sections of channel cut to about 3/4" and even has a set of "grates" to let the air under. Whole thing took about an hour and a half.
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The chimney also straight from the scrap pile, an exhaust pipe from someones Range Rover. I may upgrade that if I decide to bring it indoors.
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I still think it would be way too big, at least for my tear!

!

I've wondered about this when the subject has come up before. When I was in Boy Scouts we were always warned not to pull rocks from a stream to ring the campfire as the embedded water could turn to steam and explode the rock. Bricks in an ammo box sounds like a way to go, too.

If it's putting out too much heat for too short a period of time, you could wrap in a blanket to release the heat more slowly?

Water would work, but you can't get water above 212F under normal atmospheric pressure. Solids like bricks and rocks, you can get hotter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_capacity

Dirke wrote:Since most people have campfires when they camp, has anyone ever tried heating rocks and then putting them in the teardrop? It might not be a bad way to go, no CO2, no flames, no drain on the battery and the best thing of all... free! You could even make a box to put them in so they won't get the camper dirty. Then for entertainment you could ask it a lot of easy questions to find out just how dumb a box of rocks really is.

On a side note, I remember my grandpa heating up an old fashioned iron in our pop up camper. I don't know how long the heat lasted but it helped take the chill off a bit. Although I think he may have been ignoring the "not for comfort heating" warning on the stove.

_Ryan_ wrote:I have heard talk of using a lantern to heat a trailer but it has always seemed like tempting fate between the heat, fuel, and carbon monoxide gas. Is there a good way to do this safely? Am I just paranoid?

Cheers!

Paranoid...no, cautious yes.
I don't fall asleep with one running...I just warm up the interior, then shut it down and put it outside while it shuts down as that's when it wants to put out a lot of unburnt rich fuel smell. I also have a window cracked. It is NOT a recommended method of heating a trailer. I'm typically out at the campfire while it's warming up so am not in the trailer. By the time I go to bed, I've opened and closed the door a couple of times and have exchanged the air. It's just what I do when it's really cold.

Don't light up a lantern or a stove in a trailer without some ventilation, and never go to bed with one running, white gas or otherwise. Also, as a side note, most propane stoves and ovens in small RV's aren't vented to the outside either. A cracked heat exchanger in a furnace can be a hazard as well. Like previously mentioned, stoves need to be well vented to the outside. Doug

"I'm typically out at the campfire while it's warming up so am not in the trailer."

I'd say that is the key rule of thumb. Don't combine yourself with the CO source if you're at all tired. In the world of mountaineering there are some pretty sad tales of exhausted climbers falling asleep while cooking dinner in their tent after a big day, and never waking up.

CO is a major concern with woodburning stoves.
All light aircraft have carbon monoxide detectors because the heating generally comes from the engine and if there is an exhaust leak, CO gets inside the cockpit and it ends in tears....

I've made a woodburning stove for my workshop, it's really cold at the moment. I'll add a carbon monoxide stick-on detector just to be sure.

I filled my propane bottles with water and then used the grinder. Don't just cut them open, they are potentially lethal and will cause some serious damage.
These are 15kg bottles but you could make a really "cute" one from the little bottles.

All I need is a 6" steel pipe to weld to the top, add the stainless insulated flue and then I can fired it up.

doug hodder wrote:Bob Henry has a great little stove that he uses in his "Chubby". It's a miniature pot belly type stove. I've built a number of smaller wood stoves for shop use and have given some thought to actually making up a really tiny one, but the problem is keeping it fueled all the time. I've also thought about some sort of a stove type item that would be fueled on briquettes.

I'll probably stick with warming up the trailer on cold nights with the Coleman lantern, (yes I do vent the trailer) then shutting it down once the walls and interior are up to temp. for the night. Once you get the interior warmed, it stays pretty warm, at least till I fall asleep. Doug

Thanks for the plug Doug !

Here are some pics 09 shivaree low was 12 with a 38 MPH sustained wind most of the night. It can take the trailer from 34 to 78 in 12 minutes.





As you see it is a clamp on neich any serious problem and it can be jettisoned if necessary.

Here is the exact same stove on e bay . It expires in one hour though

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-SPARK-Cast-Iron-Salesman-Sample-Pot-Belly-Stove-/200990273491?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ecbf42fd3#ht_329wt_1362