Tips for installing a wood stove?

[captainkf]

DJ, why wouldn't you use the heaters your future bus has stock? The risks of running a wood stove on the road seem far to big of a risk when you could just use a little electricity and the heat from you engine (coolant). I used mine in minus 34 degrees celcius (not incl wind chill ) and I had to keep it on low as it could cook me out in 15 minutes. I love wood heat, and to have it while parked sounds very nice, but not driving. Can you imagine the damage a lit burning stove would do in a rollover? It's way too frightening to think about. Go stock for driving man.

-Richard

[dadeo]

The company that makes the cool little wood stoves for boats I showed before is now making one that runs on diesel!! Perfect for people with diesel buses!
http://www.marinestove.com/newspaper.htm

[Caravan Monster]

Anyone used alternatives to woodburners for heating?

I would be very interested if I could find an economical alternative - propane is very expensive in the UK.

Oil fired heaters- eberspacher et al. sound good; if they can burn veg oil even better (not so much tax on that). I have 20 cubic metres to heat, so need around 4kw max output.

[HoFFdOg]

Anyone used alternatives to woodburners for heating?

I would be very interested if I could find an economical alternative - propane is very expensive in the UK.

Oil fired heaters- eberspacher et al. sound good; if they can burn veg oil even better (not so much tax on that). I have 20 cubic metres to heat, so need around 4kw max output.

Hey caravan monster, good to see another UK housetrucker. I know you posted this quite sometime ago but i thought i'd respond anyway incase you havent yet got round to sorting your heatsource out.

Heating our truck and doing it right was paramount! Originally we had some huge old pottbelly cast iron stove we were gonna install but after some research and talking to various professionals it seemed this ol' girl was'nt ideal.

I scoured the net and found this website http://www.windysmithy.co.uk/html/woodburners.htm which is where we eventually got our woodburner from. The guy Jon Snow is a very friendly & highly skilled backsmith who is based in Devon and makes woodburners from plate steel especially for living vehicles, mobile homes, buses etc. We bought the big 6kw burner from him and its absolutely fantastic. All the joints are welded so its super air tight with great draw.

I know you were asking about 'alternatives' to woodburning stoves but i thought it was worth a mention about this chap in Devon as your in the Uk an' that! As far as alternatives go ive heard from people who live on the canal Deisel heaters are great dry heat as opposed to the pricey condensation propane equivalent. You can have multiple heating ducts heating different areas of your dwelling. We are thinking about getting a small deisel heater to heat up our luton bedroom as the burner is right down the far end of the truck.

Hope this helps.

[Caravan Monster]

Hey HoFFdOg, funny how we all seem to end up going to Windy Smithy- he must make a fortune off his internet sales!

I've had a 2.5 kw 'Wendy' in my knackered touring caravan for some years now.



She' s seen me through a few winters now. I found it was an important modification to cut out the baffle plate at the bottom of the flue and make a new one that will slide out. This enables easier cleaning, and also helps avoid soot blocking the flue at the base. You will know if a blockage has occured because the base of the flue glows red!

Having gone round in circles looking at different and better heating possibilities, I have more or less decided to transfer Wendy to the new wagon. Better quality woodburners put too much heat, and as for oil/ gas burners- they are just too expensive to run. If you guys in the US ever complain about fuel costs, just be glad you don' t live in the UK! The combination of rising oil costs and around 70% tax currently has diesel costing £1. 20 / litre - I'll let you convert that to US$ and gallons!

At least now I' ve made my mind up, I can get prepared for next winter and stock up on ash trees to log up and season.

[DrClue]

I and my partner have lived in a converted 1967 shorty school bus for several years and
the thought of a full fledged wood stove is just too much.

We currently use a catalytic propane heater , and with all the insulation we have in the bus
it only takes about 5 minutes on the lowest setting before the bus is totally toasty
no matter how cold it is outside. As a side benefit it does not generate humidity.

We have considered getting one of those really tiny wood stoves that fits in the palm of ones hand and has like a 2 - 3 inch diameter stove pipe. I tried to look up
a web link to these tiny wood/coal burning units but , I could not find a link.
A friend of ours had one in his bus and it did the trick nicely. The trick
is in having a really good does of insulation.

Of course currently we are parked out in the desert where we fend off 120 degree heat
during the height of summer. The insulation on the floors , ceiling , walls etc allows us
to stay pretty comfortable with but a tiny air conditioner that fits in one of the half open bus windows.

Of course this year we hope to finish stripping off the mountain camo paint job from the
roof (shades of black and gray) and paint the roof a proper shade of glossy white.
The camo paint job came with the bus, and a bit at a time we are going to give it a proper
paint job that is more in line with our own personality.

If I should run across that little stove I'll try and remember to post a link.

UPDATE: I found not exactly the stove I was thinking of , but something similar
newport dickinson stove http://www.ahoycaptain.com/shop/dickins ... ortSF.html


--Doc

[HoFFdOg]

Hey HoFFdOg, funny how we all seem to end up going to Windy Smithy- he must make a fortune off his internet sales!

I've had a 2.5 kw 'Wendy' in my knackered touring caravan for some years now.


She' s seen me through a few winters now. I found it was an important modification to cut out the baffle plate at the bottom of the flue and make a new one that will slide out. This enables easier cleaning, and also helps avoid soot blocking the flue at the base. You will know if a blockage has occured because the base of the flue glows red!

Ha, you been there already i see!! I think he must make equally as much business from simply 'word of mouth'! Certainly seems to have abit of a niche. I found out about him from a surfer in cornwall over the net and consequently have spread the word to a friend of mine who lives in an old bedford ambulance to get through winter without retreating to his girlfriends house for 3 months!

Im interested in how you went about removing the baffleplate from inside the burner?! The only tool for metal i have is a small grinder but the idea of weilding that inside the firebox doesnt seem like goodtimes!

Great progress on your trailer as well on other thread. I can totally relate to what you said about a first build taking longer than you think. Ive been converting a bedford TK truck for about a year and had'nt so much as picked up a drill before i'd started!! Having to learn through mistakes and educate myself prior to every job takes time if you dont want to compromise on the quality of the home you'll have at the end!

[dadeo]

Here's some cool little stoves, kinna like the marine stoves I posted earlier, but cheaper:
http://www.windysmithy.co.uk/html/woodburners.htm
This guys also got some really cool hand tools and a custom made gipsy trailer!:
http://www.windysmithy.co.uk/html/wagons.htm

[dadeo]

HAHAH, I actually read back some and realized why this looked familiar

[HOGCAT]

Heres a pic of "ole BUCK" taking a nap one cold morning. There was just a few hot ash left burning. He liked the heat in the winter.



It took him a few minutes to get under there!!!!

[GoodClue]

Hello All ...
All of you have offered great information on woodstoves in vehicles. Here's my take. First, No fire in the moving vehicle ... sparks will fly from the chimney pipe ... a great consideration here in the Colorado high country with drought conditions and high fire danger... No gas station fuel stops with an open flame ... along with all the other sound advice from forum members, it's an accident waiting to happen.
Like Sharkey, I used asbestos sheets on the hearth, then up the back wall behind the stove. Because I used rockwool batting, a fireproof mineral. as insulation throughout the bus, I removed the backing paper and ran it beyond the asbestos on up the wall and past the pipe in the ceiling.
I was lucky to find several sheets of scrapped stainless steel from catering trucks (roach coaches) to cover the asbestos from hearth, wall and sides, again running it past the stovepipe on the ceiling ... also giving a nice, quilted design as a bonus. Use metal strapping (plumbers' tape) over the feet and screwed to the floor/hearth to anchor the stove ... easily removable ...
Basically I created a box of stainless steel surrounding the stove ... and added a second layer, an inch away, on the sides with spacers, open an inch above the hearth on the bottom to create a draw or draft, creating a self-ventilating airspace to disperse sidewall heat and create a natural airflow to aid in heat circulation. Using the same material I covered the top of the stove, forcing warm air from the stove out front at counter level, aiding in mixing the airflow, creating additional counterspace and a secondary warming area ... works very well.
I originally had a stovepipe oven to aid in heat circulation but had major creosote buildup and eventually removed it ... was too efficient ...
The woodstove is a great primary heat source, especially in the mountains in the winter ... tho you do have to get up through the night and restoke it. evem with tossing in a hunk of coal or geen wood . Originally I had a wood/coal waterjacketed antique wash stove ... wish I still had it ... had a flat two burner top for cooking and heated the water too ... you can still find them at some antique shops ...
Currently I am lucky enough to be next to a power utility box and use the stove sparingly ... and am living quite nicely thorugh the winter with microwave on the counter, small fridge under the sink, and one quartz electric heater ... TV and compuer also ... no wireless, have to go to hotspots to use the internet.
I'm always looking for antique or unusual/practical heat and energy sources ... I'll either modify my current woodstove or build something the next time, but it is nice, in my situation, to have woodheat available ... at my altitude, above 8,000 feet, other fuels ... kerosene, even propane, have issues.
Hope this is usefull to someone, Doug in the '46 shorty.

[Corwen]

Hi all, just popped in to say hi!

I'm a Traveller having lived in trucks, benders, boats, trailers etc for 16 years now, so I've put in a fair few stoves, not that I'm some kind of DIY genius but anyway here is my normal procedure:

I generally sit the stove on a paving slab- good bit of ballast! In a truck with weight issues I've also used 4x1 foot square slate tiles on a wooden sub frame. The slab is screwed to the wooden floor and then I generally screw the burner to it using rawl plugs and metal L brackets, though my favourite Traveller type stoves (made from recycled gas bottles- propane cylinders for you Yanks! made by Geof of Glastonbury) come with feet ready drilled. Stops the whole thing moving about, you've got to reckon on a collision not sending the stove to join you in the cab....

To insulate the stove from the wall I've usually used sheet metal, generally any bit of aluminium or steel to hand. I've used the thin aluminium from a caravan (trailer) cladding and sheet steel from a garage which installed sun roofs in cars- using the old bit of roof they cut out. This is spaced from the wall using wooden blocks so there is an air gap behind, good if there is a gap at the bottom so cool air can flow in behind. A 6 to 8" gap between the stove and the wall is enough, and you only need to heat proof immediately behind the stove, above the height of the stove doesn't get too hot in my experience. Its the radiant heat not the convected heat that can scorch the wall. The stove I'm sitting in front of now has the trough of a gents urinal behind it, complete with plug-hole in the middle!

With regard to flue, I usually use steel flexible flue liner. Looks like air conditioning ducting but its steel, its usually used to reline chimneys here. I think the builders have to use a continuous length so I've always been able to blag a long enough offcut from a friendly heating engineer or get some from a skip. Its bendy so no need for angles and its one piece so no leaks.

If I possibly can I put the pipe out the wall rather than the roof, working on the principle that rain doesn't fall sideways! With caravans I just cut a hole in the lining so the bare aluminium of the wall is exposed for about 6" around the flue pipe. If I have to go through the roof I've used silicon sealant to seal the gaps, though recently I put a burner in a friends truck and used one of those new fangled silicon stovepipe manifolds sold for use in yurts. With stealth vehicles (living vehicles disguised as panel vans) I've hidden the protruding stovepipe inside an old heating vent or refrigerator vent box, so it doesn't look like a stove. Nothing attracts the police like a big chimney sticking out of your truck!

With regard to length that depends on the diameter of your pipe, I reckon on about 6 foot being best to avoid too much draw- though if you have flue with a butterfly valve in it any amount of flue is fine because you can control the draw with the valve. Its easy enough to make a valve if your flue didn't come with one. I have used as little as 4 foot with a small stove and its drawn fine, but Geof's gas bottle burners are really good, he has perfected the design and they run well, even with the door open and with a short flue, he's designed them with trucks and benders in mind.

A couple of last tips- big food tins, (dog food cans seem biggest) can be used to adapt an odd sized flue to a burner it doesn't match- just cut a hole in each end to match the two different sizes. Car exhaust repair bandage can heatproof flues where they aren't too hot, more than 4 or 5 foot above the stove, this is useful if you want to make a smallish hole in your roof lining which would be too close to the uninsulated flue for safety. You can also buy rockwool insulation wrapped in foil which you can insulate flue with, its easy to cut to fit and wire into place, or a second layer of metal around the flue with an airgap between works too.

hope some of that helps! Corwen

[Corwen]

...forgot to say that the flue can get hot too, but using flexible flue liner I usually bend it away from the wall. When I've used rigid flue I've heat proofed behind that too like behind the stove, at least for the bottom 2 or 3 feet, though you only need insulate a strip behind the flue where the wall is nearer than about 1 foot to the stovepipe.

[southpier]

there's a pretty good discussion at the SBMCC forum. http://sbmcc.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=27797

here's one the guys were using:

http://snailstoves.moonfruit.com/#/wood ... 4526103748


another possibility:

http://www.naturalbushcraft.co.uk/gas-b ... ood-burner

[dburt]

Hey Corwen- welcome to the site! How about posting some pics of your rig so we can see it? You can post your pics to a site like tinypic.com and then copy the web http address for the pic into your post in the forums here so your pics then show up with the post. You probably allready knew all this anyway, but in case you are technically challenged like me, this will help you. Rudy helped me figure it out so I could post pics on the forums!