Wood burning stove in an fifth wheel?

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ljcygnet

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Joined
Jan 27, 2013
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17
Has anyone ever put a small woodburning stove in a fifth wheel?

I live in an mid 90's Avion 5er. It stays plenty warm with propane (had it down to 10 degrees so far) but it uses a lot of it. I live in it full time, it will probably NEVER be towed again. It's permanently installed on a lot in a remote area of Arizona's high country. We get lots of snow and unpleasantly cold weather. (We had 30 mph winds and it never got above 35 degrees today.)

Wood is basically free. I can get all the juniper, oak, or manzanita I need to burn. We use wood to heat the main cabin on the property and I'm pretty familiar with wood stoves and love them. (I'm disabled -- I have Ehlers Danlos with pretty much every complication that comes with it -- and I live with my folks.)

I have a space about 4X8 I could devote to a stove and hearth.

Would it be totally crazy to put a small wood stove in the trailer? Yes, I know trailers are fire traps -- could it be installed in a truly safe manner, since the trailer's never going to be towed as long as we own it? A small stove (including hearth and chimney) would pay for itself in a couple of months given we can get the fuel for free.

Also, would I need to add supplemental heat to the compartments where the black and greywater tanks are? I'm thinking one of those little doghouse heaters would work, if that's the case. I think the furnace also heats the compartments under the trailer, as they're always nice and warm when I open them.
 
Bad idea for a whole host of reasons. 
If you want to do something using wood for heat, how about installing a woof furnace outside, using it to heat water and pipe the water to some radiators carefully located in the furnace duct work?
BTW do you have the trailer skirted and insulated?  That would probably be the fastest payback modification you could do.  It would dramatically reduce your propane usage in the winter.
 
Yes, it is doable, but there are a lot of safety issues.

If I were to do it, I would use the triple wall stove pipe where it goes through a wall and run it out a wall instead of  straight up.  This would help prevent water leaks around the pipe. You could use flanges to make sure the pipe is not touching any thing flammable. Asbestos is a thing of the past, but I am sure there is something to replace it. Put up a non-flammable backing on the wall and keep the stove 2 feet away. I would put down sheet metal or bricks for a hearth. You can put small fans that would blow warm air into the heating ducts and keep the tanks and pipes from freezing, especially if it is skirted. Make sure the outside part of the pipe is well supported so that it will not fall off in a high wind.  And, I would keep the fire small and the pipe clean. A dirty pipe and a large fire can cause a chimney fire, which is the creosote burning off the walls of the chimney. 

Oak is a better wood than juniper. It produces less creosote when burning and it makes a longer lasting fire.
 
ljcygnet said:
Would it be totally crazy to put a small wood stove in the trailer? Yes, I know trailers are fire traps -- could it be installed in a truly safe manner, since the trailer's never going to be towed as long as we own it? A small stove (including hearth and chimney) would pay for itself in a couple of months given we can get the fuel for free.

    Had a neighbor parked on the same acreage that I am on here in NCal that did just that. His was in a bus conversion that remained mobile and worked just fine. The heat generated through the coach greatly reduced his heating costs. He also cooked plus heated water on it.

I have an outside photo someplace that I will try to find that shows the stack from the outside. He left several months ago - just climbed up the step ladder he had built to his second level patio. Amazing fellow. His work is Solar systems installs. He had set up a huge solar system on this farm that was integrated into the PG&E bulling system. Unless heavy usage otherwise, his KWH meter runs backwards most of the time.

So, yes, it can done and done safely - but as already posted, it should be studied carefully to make sure it is done right. BTW, he burns mostly oak. Tons of it on this farm.
 

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Looking at that picture,  it looks like a fire just waiting to start and burn down that rig and possibly take someone's life. Because of the close quarters in and RV, I would never install a wood stove in an RV.  If that person had the local Fire Dept. inspect that install, they would never pass it. Anyone notice the propane torch right next to the stove and all that combustible paper inches away. That guy is nut's!!!!!!!!!
 
I feel the safety issues are more of a proper installation issue than anything else. Properly done, a wood burning stove in a trailer, especially a fixed one, is no more (or less) dangerous than one in a site-built cabin or house.

That said, yes you can probably install a wood burning stove. I've seen several RVs with them, a few even factory options. my main concern would be that a fireplace needs a combustion air source - it consumes a lot of oxygen along with the wood. A trailer has a small interior volume, so the available supply is relatively small. There are two problems associated with that:
(1) If the trailer is well-sealed (most are not), oxygen depletion is a risk. The fire burns low and any people inside get tired & fuzzy. Some sort of oxygen sensor might be wise.
(2) All the air that goes into the combustion and then rushes up the chimney has to come from somewhere, so cold outside air leaks into the trailer, making drafts and defeating some of the benefit from the fire heat. A propane furnace gets its air from outside, so that's not an issue with them.
 
donn said:
Bad idea for a whole host of reasons. 
If you want to do something using wood for heat, how about installing a woof furnace outside, using it to heat water and pipe the water to some radiators carefully located in the furnace duct work?
BTW do you have the trailer skirted and insulated?  That would probably be the fastest payback modification you could do.  It would dramatically reduce your propane usage in the winter.
There are outdoor wood burning furnaces that use ducted air, too.  Insulated ducting could be connected thru a window or even windows if no other option exists.  My BIL had one once that would hold a 4' log (if you could lift it) and could burn all night w/o reloading.  It even had thermostat control.  Of course, a wood burning stove does not shut down like a normal furnace so he had his rigged to switch the blower output from the main living area to the upstairs to dump the excess heat without waste.
 
While I would never do this in a unit... Being it's stationary and as Gary said, probably not much different than any other shack with a stove.  I would stress turning off any propane when not present though, also, removing any combustibles from the area as much as possible. 
 
Don't listen to the nay sayers, unless you drink a lot, Use a cement backer board on nearby walls, and a proper insulated double wall smoke pipe thru the wall. Use the backer board with a piece of tin on top under it. Make the stack tall too, 4'-6' above highest point of rv. use staywires to stabilize, you don't want it to topple in a storm at night. Do your research. Don't biggie size your stove. Search the internet for small stoves in boats, campers, tiny house and hunting forums. Use your head, fire is a real monster, it will take your life.

 
Here is a link to two small wood stoves.
http://www.timmystoyota.blogspot.com/p/information-on-kimberly-wood-stove.html

This one is used in sail boats
http://www.marinestove.com/orderinfo.htm
 
Rene T said:
That guy is nut's!!!!!!!!!

Actually, no more than you or I -- and most likely technically superior.  :)

The rig when the picture was taken was just prior to his moving it - and had been used for some storage in the meantime. The stove hadn't been lit since the preceding winter. And was used many winters all winter burning oak logs and keeping things warm at a minimum expense.

I recall seeing a movie of the life of the fellow that wanted to go to Alaska and live in the boonies. He found an abandoned school bus that already had a wood burning stove on board. He lived in it and used it through an Alaskan winter. He actually died from starvation - but not from a wood burning stove inside the rig.

Edit: After a bit of Googling.

About the fellow that died in Alaska. The book and movie were titled, Into the Wild:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_McCandless

Here's a video of a fellow installing a Kimberly wood burning store in an RV. He seems to have covered all the safetly issues brought up here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H2AXMrspFg

And finally have attached another more well kept RV with wood burning stove. This is a rig that moves and travels as much as they want to move from place to place.

So it appears such an install isn't such a wild, nutty idea . . .  :)
 

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I saw one in an old bluebird sometime ago. Don't recall seeing any scorch marks, and it was small.
 
A pellet stove might be more practical. I saw a window mounted pellet stove on the Northern tool site. Also a lot of pellet stoves draw air from outside not depleting the oxygen from inside.
 
Here is an interesting one.

http://www.go2marine.com/product/20010F/dickinson-marine-newport-solid-fuel-heater-00-newsf.html?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=gb1&utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=productfeed&utm_campaign=googleshopping&gclid=CJHHwoy6s7sCFUiGfgodlXYAaA
 
Thanks for the input.

The trailer's definitely not airtight. I've been tracking down and sealing air leaks for the last month. Some just aren't fixable, like the leaks around the flanges for the slides.

I've mulled over putting in an outside wood burning furnace, but they're expensive and I can't lift much weight. A small stove inside would use fewer (and smaller) logs. Also, when it's blowing 50mph and there's 2 feet of snow on the ground, I'm not inclined to go outside if I don't have to ... LOLOL!

Everyone burns mostly juniper here -- our local variety of juniper (alligator juniper) burns clean enough and smells great. It's also plentiful. On really cold days or at night before going to bed, the usual practice is to get a fire started with juniper and then throw a log or two of scrub oak on the fire. Milder days, we just use juniper because scrub oak puts off too much heat. Scrub oak is incredibly dense, and burns hot and for a long time, but it dulls chain saw blades in no time because it's such a hard wood. It's also hard to get going unless you already have a fire in the stove. I can't imagine using it as my only wood.

The trailer isn't skirted. We have issues with rodents and that seemed like a great way to encourage rodents to take up residence. The underbelly is really well insulated. I may revisit this decision later, but in a choice between a higher heating bill or dealing with chewed wiring and finding rodents breeding in my underwear drawer, I'll take the higher heating bill.
 
Skirt it and set out a sm?rg?sbord of DCon.   ;D ;D

We lived in SW Virginia last winter and it got down to 15 many nights.  We had an older trailer with no slides.  It had no insulation in the floor either.  We got by quite handily by hanging a blanket over each door and putting plastic over the windows to stop the drafts through the old louvered jalousie windows.  That one thing (the windows made a huge difference.

If I were to do it again, I would get double or triple glazed Lexan panels.

http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/cat1;ft_greenhouse_equipment-ft_greenhouse_covering;ft_greenhouse_polycarbonate_panels.html

Cut to fit the exterior dimensions of each window and wrapped with a rubber "U" molding to seal the open ends and screw them to the aluminum frames around the windows.  I have them on the roof of our entry way into our house and they are very strong and do not conduct cold very well at all.
 
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