Camper with wood Stove? Bad idea?
 

Has anyone out there installed a wood stove in an old camper? Thinking about doing this for late season hunts. Please let me know if I shouldn't do it, and if you have please post photos of yours. Thanks.

Use a gravity propane furnace . Doesn't use and electric and you don't have to get up and add wood at 3AM.

In the Yukon these are known as ( hippie killers). Google the term for more info

I've had one in an old holiday trailer for years. Have camped at -30 moose hunting and ice climbing west of Nordegg. No issues at all. Here is a site that specializes in them for small campers, tiny homes and marine use. There's nothing like wood heat to dry you out and keep you toasty. You can even cook on them! Mine is homemade from a piece of heavy wall pipe.
https://cubicminiwoodstoves.com/

Wow those are surprisingly cheap. They look well made. Are you running one now?

I think it'd be a great way to heat but I'd be dam careful. Those old trailers are tinder boxes and the chance of getting out if things go wrong in the middle of night would be slim.
As petew mentioned a gravity feed furnace is a great source of heat that doesn't require power. My uncle had an oil furnace in his old trailer and it worked great.

My Father in law has one in his 5th wheel.
He put down one of those wood stove bases, and some thin insulated reflective stuff behind it.
Always crack a window.
He stayed in it for 1 year all threw the winter and was fine.
Make sure your chimney is quite high.
Worked like a charm.

Cousins built a hunting rig out of a fifth wheel Cargo hauler. Carries gear and atv's, bunks fold down. Wood stove heat. Pretty sweet and they use it on Utikama during the hard water season. Air intake pulls from outside and a couple co2 detectors are a must.

I would think a stove in a camper/Rv would keep it nice and toasty with minimal wood fill ups.

It's a great idea if done right, like anything else really.

The thing to remember is wood needs a high-temp quick burn with lots of oxygen (air) for a clean burn to avoid smoldering smoke and creosote buildup. So you need a way to capture the heat and release it slowly.

Otherwise you need some sort of commercial catalyst system to oxidize all that smoke and tar into CO2 - which still needs air anyway, probably wastes fuel, and throws off too much heat all at once unless you make a lot of tiny short burns.

Heat capture usually means mass (weight) of brick/stone or even water. Like a Hawaiian pig-roast where they heat up rocks with a big fire, then cook the meat from the heat of the hot rocks overnight. Packing in that weight might be less of a problem with a trailer and weight-distributing hitch that an in-box camper, though. Or you could use river stones or gravel once you get to site and dump them back before leaving.

An outside air supply, outside ash rake-out and a sealed system like a heat exchanger is a very good idea too.

Check out some of the Tiny Home bulders. They put stoves in small spaces all the time. As well as the yachting community.

https://www.unforgettablefirellc.com...ly-wood-stove/

http://dickinsonmarine.com/product/n...d-fuel-heater/

http://rockymountaintinyhouses.com/w...r-tiny-houses/

Hahahahahahhahahahahah beauty!

Nothing better than wood heat to dry out wet clothing.
Propane doesn't cut it and if weathered in you won't run out of wood.
Add a vent, use a good chimney and heat deflectors and it can be safer than propane.
Been doing it for a while.

I believe there is marine wood stove made for small areas. If done safely and with alarm it would be the way to beat a trailer

No mine is home made. I'm building a new off road expedition truck. F550 with a Uhaul van box on the back that I'm converting to a custom camper. It will have a cubic stove going in to it though.

I put cement barker board on the wall behind mine and on the ceiling above. My stove will keep my trailer toasty for about 4 hours on a small load of wood in -15-20 weather. As far as safety goes I have a CO detector, and one window up front is the "emergency exit" type that swings out. I know several incidents of injury and 2 of fatalities (one just this summer at Hummingbird) from CO poisoning from propane appliances/heaters in trailers, but have never heard of any, other than fires, from wood stoves in cabins, wall tents, etc.