Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hi all, first time posting. I stumbled across this site while searching the web for ideas on a new project I hope to start on this spring. What luck finding a whole forum of resources devoted to cargo trailer conversions! So here's the plan, feel free to chime in with advice (I'm sure I will spend many hours mining this forum and digging through old posts for ideas and solutions in the coming months):
Up until this past fall my travel vehicle (and from time to time home) has been a 1994 Ford conversion van. Nothing fancy, but a comfy fold down back seat and a warm dry place to sleep whenever I needed it. But after many years and many miles the van was showing it's age, and as much as I love it, it was time for a newer and more reliable rig. I ended up with a 2014 jeep wrangler, great little vehicle, but hardly comfortable to sleep in. The best thing about the van was being able to pull into a rest area or quiet parking lot where ever I happen to be and get a real nights sleep, not just a catnap behind the wheel. I have a small pop-up (needs new canvas) but it's not really conducive to this sort of "stealth" camping, which made me think cargo trailer! So the plan was to pick up a small cargo trailer, insulate it, add a heater and some wood paneling, and a futon type bed. But coming from Minnesota by way of the UP, I got to thinking, small wood paneled insulated room with a good heater, why, dat sounds like a sauna, eh?! After all, ask any old Finlander, da sauna is the most important building on the farm. They always built the sauna first. You can cook in it, bath in it, keep warm, and sleep in it, what more do you really need? Everything else is a luxury that can come later. So the current plan: 5x10 or so cargo trailer, lots of insulation, fold down cedar benches I can throw a thermarest down on at night, nu way 4000 stove, sunshower, cooler, and little Webber grill. Portable sauna I can road trip in and use as a fallback when the weather turns camping. Whatcha all think?

Sorry for writing such a novel, didn't realize how long it was til I posted!

-Ryan

Now that you brought it up ..... I gotta add a sauna too !!

Anyone running a nu way? Do they pump out decent heat? Can I reasonably hope to pull 200 degrees or so difference between interior and exterior temp with their big stove in a small well insulated trailer?

formeryooper wrote:Anyone running a nu way? Do they pump out decent heat? Can I reasonably hope to pull 200 degrees or so difference between interior and exterior temp with their big stove in a small well insulated trailer?

200 degrees between interior and exterior?

Do you really want a 100F interior when its -100F outside?

<Chas>

If you know the BTU output of the stove it should be a fairly straightforward calculation. If you let me know the size of your planned trailer, insulation type and thickness so I know the R value, when I get home I'll pull out my physics book and run the calculation.

Double post

GuitarPhotog wrote:

formeryooper wrote:Anyone running a nu way? Do they pump out decent heat? Can I reasonably hope to pull 200 degrees or so difference between interior and exterior temp with their big stove in a small well insulated trailer?

200 degrees between interior and exterior?

Do you really want a 100F interior when its -100F outside?

<Chas>

From Wikipedia:

A sauna session can be a social affair in which the participants disrobe and sit or recline in temperatures typically between 70 °C (158 °F) and 100 °C (212 °F). This induces relaxation and promotes sweating.

If he wants it 200 °F and it's 0 °F outside, there's the 200 °F difference.

I have a 6x12 cargo trailer that I added a NuWay 2000 propane stove to. It is on pages 4 and 5 here: viewtopic.php?f=42&t=55219&start=45


I don't even run the stove on anything past about medium, and it gets plenty warm for me when I am camping. But I am not looking for it to be a sauna.

GuitarPhotog wrote:

formeryooper wrote:Anyone running a nu way? Do they pump out decent heat? Can I reasonably hope to pull 200 degrees or so difference between interior and exterior temp with their big stove in a small well insulated trailer?

200 degrees between interior and exterior?

Do you really want a 100F interior when its -100F outside?

<Chas>

Around hear sub zero temps are pretty common, and I'd like to be able to pull if not a proper 200 at least a halfway respectable 170-180 or so.

jseyfert3 wrote:If you know the BTU output of the stove it should be a fairly straightforward calculation. If you let me know the size of your planned trailer, insulation type and thickness so I know the R value, when I get home I'll pull out my physics book and run the calculation.

Size will most likely be a 5x10 or so, still working out the details of how much room I need versus what the jeep is comfortable towing. I'm hoping to find a friendly salesman at some point who will let me try tossing a bit of weight in a couple trailers and see how they handle. I believe the stove puts out 26000 btus. Insulation will be a function of trailer size, available space, and what I need to get her nice and toasty

formeryooper wrote:

jseyfert3 wrote:If you know the BTU output of the stove it should be a fairly straightforward calculation. If you let me know the size of your planned trailer, insulation type and thickness so I know the R value, when I get home I'll pull out my physics book and run the calculation.

Size will most likely be a 5x10 or so, still working out the details of how much room I need versus what the jeep is comfortable towing. I'm hoping to find a friendly salesman at some point who will let me try tossing a bit of weight in a couple trailers and see how they handle. I believe the stove puts out 26000 btus. Insulation will be a function of trailer size, available space, and what I need to get her nice and toasty

Heh, this is easier then I thought. An R-factor of 10 means it'll lose 1/10 of a BTU per hour per square foot for every °F difference. So let's assume your trailer is 10' x 5' x 6' high, which means you have 280 square feet of outside surface area. 2" pink closed cell foam board is R-10. Using this means you would need 28 BTU/hr per °F. A 200 °F difference would therefore require 5600 BTUs.

Now, this does not take into effect other factors, like air leakage, spots with no insulation, windows, ventilation. Also note that unless the furnace has a dedicated combustion air intake pipe, it will use the inside air for combustion, thus causing outside air to be brought in, which then has to be heated as well. I don't really feel like running the calculation on that right now, but if I remember I'll run it tomorrow (or later today now I guess since it's past midnight).

Bottom line: I think it would be quite doable with that monster of a stove. Be sure to bring a bunch of propane though!

Thanks for running the numbers! Sounds like this won't be too difficult at all, I was afraid I'd need to use much thicker insulation than that.

Rainier70 wrote:I have a 6x12 cargo trailer that I added a NuWay 2000 propane stove to. It is on pages 4 and 5 here: viewtopic.php?f=42&t=55219&start=45


I don't even run the stove on anything past about medium, and it gets plenty warm for me when I am camping. But I am not looking for it to be a sauna.

Some great ideas there I may have to borrow! I love your exhaust vent set up. Also the cargo net on the ceiling - great idea, will have to do this!
I've been playing around with a few floor plans. Next big decision is V or flatfront. Having the tongue area for propane and cooler would be handy, but my poor little jeep would probably appreciate the V.

I'm currently thinking I'll go with a 5x8 V, provided I can still find enough room to mount the tanks up front somewhere. Otherwise it will have to be a 5x10, but I want to keep the overall length of the rig as short as possible (things get pretty tight in the woods around here). I want the benches to fold down to a 7' bed (with a little short cutout on the door side), so a 5x8 with a deep V should give me just enough room for the bed and leave the V open to mount the stove in.

Still need to do some noodling about the height. I'm 6'5", so having a stand up interior means a pretty tall trailer, and I'm not sure just how much the jeep can take. It seems like it's got plenty of power, but I don't want to push it.

One idea I was throwing around, maybe I could get by with a lower roof then add a large domed skylight to gain a few inches in kind of the main walkway/entry type are. I don't really need extra height over the benches, never standing there. Seems lime this could make things a bit brighter and roomier too, and not as much drag as a full higher roof line. Just worried all my heat might go right out the top