winter living

[Cat futrell]

stay warm and be safe!

[bec]

Originally Posted by DaleB

Hi all

i am new to this and am looking at buying a 5th wheel or trailer and living in it all year round in Winnipeg Manitoba Canada and was wondering if anyone knows where i can park a unit like this all year round spot, i know i have heard good and bad about doing this but if people in Alaska and Calgary are doing it it sounds not that bad. i know the mousture is a problem but was told to use a dehumidifier and all is good, any information will be much appriciated.

thank you

Dale

Having lived in Wpg. for some years and now in Calgary for a long time , got to say there is a difference in the winters ...... a " cold winter " in Calgary is never as bad as a " cold winter in Wpg . Best place to park a trailer in Wpg for winter living is a heated garage ... really ...

[Cyndi B.]

We could not have done it in the Scamp, but we survived in a sticky in North Dakota, skirted and insulated. Ours was a brief adventure in the oil patch compared to some.

[kirkman]

Night Sailor... here is a Pellet stove that does not need electric.
Clarry Pellet Stove, off-the-grid heat, *powerless pellet stove, hunting, wall tents, line shack, ice fishing, out-buildings

[cpaharley2008]

Jason,
That looks nice but there is the warning not to be used in homes or campers. Other than that that, I was impressed.

[Night Sailor]

That pellet stove puts out 40,000 BTU's! I think it would melt my foam insulation on the other side of my camper and kill me with the out gassing. I am planning on using fiberglass insulation near my stove and would love to have a pellet option, but this Clary stove is too hot and does not have enough control for heating a small space. The self feeding is very nice though.

[Darwin Maring]

Dear Night,

If you decide to install that pellet stove and use it, sleep with an apple in your mouth.

[rabbit]

Dear Darwin, the image is very effective, maybe belly up and all four in the air also but I think you meant to address Dear Kirk.

Dear jack

[Francesca Knowles]

Originally Posted by kirkman

Night Sailor... here is a Pellet stove that does not need electric.
Clarry Pellet Stove, off-the-grid heat, *powerless pellet stove, hunting, wall tents, line shack, ice fishing, out-buildings

Interesting!

Too bad it doesn't have an outside combustion air supply- its lack is probably the reason it can't be used in mobile homes or trailers, due to oxygen depletion danger.

I see it can be used in big tents, though...

Francesca

[kirkman]

If you where to leave a windoow open I think the small Rocky Mountain Elk stove would work just fine even though they don't recommend it.
Night Sailor.... You can damp them down so they don't put out to much heat.
On there home page it now says this.
New!
Damper control for more comfort on warm days
Deeper ash drawer means more heating/less cleaning

[Francesca Knowles]

If one were to stay in a single spot long enough, the Clary pellet stove might be very effective used in a sort of "attached" outside tent-like structure.

I'm reminded of an experience I had with a sort-of-similar arrangement:

There's a big snow-and-hunter's camp up on the Chewuck River near Winthrop, Wa. No frills except outhouses, of course, but there are a lot of camper-built stone "fireplaces" there that have tall backsides/sides that reflect heat back atcha. A few Octobers ago I spent a week there in one of the spots that had such an arrangement. I parked the trailer so that the fireplace was just outside my deployed-awning rail and jury-rigged a trailer skirt and "sides" for the space the awning covered.

Naturally I had to exercise restraint per size of the fire due to proximity to the awning, but I had the advantage of low-spark local pine for fuel- and how those stones stored and reflected the heat! I was able to "capture" so much heat that I just left the trailer door open and warmed the inside, too, and it worked even better once I allowed the heat to get under the trailer by way of removing the skirt from the doorside.

It seems possible to me that a similar arrangement could be made with a freestanding stove, and if fuel is hard to come by this pellet stove could really be the bees knees in such an arrangement. Obviously it would only be worth the trouble if one was staying in one spot for a goodly stretch as I was, but still- food for thought...

Thanks for the info re. the pellet stove, Jason!

Francesca

[LK Gray]

Francesca,

The Chewuck River has 3 state campgrounds. Would you care to recommend one?
Thanks

[Francesca Knowles]

I don't know of any State Campgrounds up there...I think the closest one is above Winthrop at Pearrygin Lake ( Link). Nice Park, good facilities including some FHU sites. Good swimming/boating opportunities there!

On the Chewuck itself, the CG's I'm familiar with are all managed by the Forest Service...no "facilities" to speak of, though all are in nice spots along the river. I prefer the free dispersed camping, of which there are lots of choices upriver until one reaches the Wilderness boundaries, at which point no overnight camping at all seems to be allowed.

Francesca

[Night Sailor]

Larger campers could make good use of a Clary stove. Or a small camper could use the premium pellets is a small stove like a Sardine or Fatsco Tiny Tot or Pet stove. While it might seem to be a disadvantage to have to feed something like this constantly, attended operation would make it safer.

I also agree with the suggestion about an outside air source. It would be easy enough to fabricate something, which, along with a draft control and a CO detector would allow safe operation.

Fabricating a grate would allow the use of coal. A few pieces might be enough to carry some coals overnight.

Scaling down a Clary design would be difficult, most because it would be hard to get a draft going with a smaller flue. Priming the flue with paper or a propane torch might solve that problem.

A battery powered auger with a thermostat to this gravity feed method would work also.

Finally, the whole idea of a more complete burn means a very hot fire. I think the combustion chamber needs to be insulated.

[Francesca Knowles]

I'd love to find some kind of hard-fuel heat system that would fit my trailer! I don't like the noise and battery life limitations imposed by 12v fan-equipped heaters, so I use a catalytic with outside air supply and a heat powered fan. It works great for quiet, heat, and low fuel consumption, and without using any battery power. But that extra water put into the trailer is sure annoying. Almost a gallon of water per gallon of propane burned! A drier heat source would sure be nice.

I've long speculated about trying to fabricate a "presto-log-burner" out of stovepipe or something....in my addled brain I keep visualizing logs-in-a-tube that sort of self-slide into a combustion chamber that just burns a bit of the end at a time.

But I keep running into those pesky laws of physics as embodied in/vocalized by the resident Killjoy/Engineer, also known as "the Guy I Married"......

Francesca

[Night Sailor]

Originally Posted by Francesca Knowles

I'd love to find some kind of hard-fuel heat system that would fit my trailer! I don't like the noise and battery life limitations imposed by 12v fan-equipped heaters, so I use a catalytic with outside air supply and a heat powered fan. It works great for quiet, heat, and low fuel consumption, and without using any battery power. But that extra water put into the trailer is sure annoying. Almost a gallon of water per gallon of propane burned! A drier heat source would sure be nice.

I've long speculated about trying to fabricate a "presto-log-burner" out of stovepipe or something....in my addled brain I keep visualizing logs-in-a-tube that sort of self-slide into a combustion chamber that just burns a bit of the end at a time.

But I keep running into those pesky laws of physics as embodied in/vocalized by the resident Killjoy/Engineer, also known as "the Guy I Married"...<_<...

Francesca

Fatsco Pet is what I'd put in that camper of yours.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8232/8...801f57ce_m.jpg