Heating while driving?

[Borrego Dave]

Originally Posted by Steve Outlaw

Living here in the Deep South, that is exactly the time period we avoid camping. We will start in early October and keep going until just about May. Of course, a good chunk of that time will be spent in the desert at Quartzsite from January to March. Apparently our camping styles just depend on where we live.

Agree 100% with you Steve. My early years in SW Mich and military time in Tx cured me of snow and humidity. I enjoy seeing the snow on the mountains around me cuz I know I'm only going to watch it melt . We met you last year at the Q, white Ranger with a lumber rack. We'll be there next year and look you up.

[steve dunham]

Stacked 6 cord of oak firewood last week , put the boat in storage , took the dock out of the lake , bought a new fancy snow shovel ,
washed & waxed our Casita and picked up some RV antifreeze.
Looking forward to Fall , Deer Hunting and our first snowfall.
The geese are starting to move

I still have an outhouse to dig and build before deer season, hopefully the frost won't be too far in the ground.
I guess I am the opposite of many , if I had a choice between 80 above and 20 below , I would choose the 20 below.
I love the white blanket of snow on the ground 6 months out of the year , it's a wonderful break from that 6 months of green.
If you gave me the State of Florida , I would just give it back , too HOT & boring for my liking

[Raz]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

Stacked 6 cord of oak firewood last week , put the boat in storage , took the dock out of the lake , bought a new fancy snow shovel ,
washed & waxed our Casita and picked up some RV antifreeze.
Looking forward to Fall , Deer Hunting and our first snowfall.
The geese are starting to move

I still have an outhouse to dig and build before deer season, hopefully the frost won't be too far in the ground.
I guess I am the opposite of many , if I had a choice between 80 above and 20 below , I would choose the 20 below.
I love the white blanket of snow on the ground 6 months out of the year , it's a wonderful break from that 6 months of green.
If you gave me the State of Florida , I would just give it back , too boring for my liking

They said yesterday's Packers game at Lambeau field was the warmest home game ever. No frost in the ground yet.

[ZachO]

Ive done teens overnight and highs in the 40s during the day. Wouldn't want any colder than that in my camper personally. In a cabin with a woodstove...whole different deal. I haven't been in my camper below teens so I can't say...mostly I don't like how humid the camper gets.

Wind is no fun...but I thrive in daytime temps of about 40-60. 70s are still ok. 80s and I start losing motivation for anything more than sitting around a lake or in the house.

Fall is the perfect season.

[steve dunham]

Originally Posted by Raz

They said yesterday's Packers game at Lambeau field was the warmest home game ever. No frost in the ground yet.

We had 89 degrees yesterday, the warmest Sept 24th since 1932.
My neighbor had a case of heat stroke , cause it was just too HOT
It was a lovely 56 degrees this morning so things are back to normal.
If we start getting a period of cold weather , I will just pile up some leaves and tarp over where I need to dig.

[ZachO]

We had a great weather change almost two weeks ago. Went from so much smoke you couldn't see the mountains and 80s-90s, to overnight getting a whole day of snow. Since then it's hardly gotten out of the 40s, with 30s at night.

Just this weekend the sun finally came back out and we're into the 50s during day. Really, really nice. No heavy frost yet, except higher in the mountains. Hopefully smoke season is finally over...

I'm sure I'll start seeing more elk in the back of trucks soon...bow season is tough with 80s, smoke and no snow

[Buggeee]

Because I'm ridiculous, I have been on a quest to do an electric heating solution so I don't have any propane inside my small Playpac camper.

What makes this ridiculous is... I'm going to boondock this solution off of my battery bank for short trips (which I call a 3 full day weekend). Can't be done? Tell the Wright brothers, I'm not listening.

I'll litter this thread with a little info I have so far in the event anyone ever finds it useful.

I'm running a 2000w peak pure sine inverter to get 120vac household current from a battery bank. At the time of this test I had half my bank in place, meaning I tried this on only two 100 amp hour SLA (valve regulated really, they all are) 12v batteries for a total of 200 amp hour bank for the test.

I'm playing with an electric "kickspace" heater, used for under kitchen cabinets and toll booths. My rig is smaller than a toll booth. It's called: Broan 112 Kickspace Fan-Forced Wall Heater with Built-In Thermostat, White. Here's the link to it: https://www.amazon.com/Broan-112-Kic...ckspace+heater

It can be internally modified, by instructions from the factory, to run at 240vac/1500watt or 120vac1500watt or 120vac/750watt. On 120vac/1500watt it pulls 12 amps. On 120vac/750watt it pulls 6 amps.

I have it knocked all the way down, running it at 120vac/750watt and it pulls 6 amps.

It's like a luke warm hair dryer.

But... it runs. It will immediately force a low voltage light on the inverter (meaning its pulling almost everything the batteries can offer at any given time while its running).

If I also click on the chest freezer (120vac at 1 amp when running) I'll step into the next level of alarm, meaning I'll be getting a low voltage beeping from the inverter in addition to the light (meaning "I'm givin' 'er all she's got Capt'n, there aint no more!). Even then, though, I'm not tripping a low voltage shut down, so I have found the edge of the cliff for my rig without quite going over it.

[Edit: The low voltage warnings here do not mean that the batteries are exhausted. It just means that the inverter "sees" lower voltage for the moment because the deep cycle batteries can't stream out electrons with as much volume (amps) at a time as a car battery does. Here, all of the volume that can be streamed out of the deep cycle batteries at a given moment is being demanded so the inverter thinks there is low voltage. Don't rely on me for the formula stuff because I may have it expressed inaccurately. It has to do with the math of amps and watts and volts but I'm not good at math so I just run experiments and see how far I can push it. The next step is to see how long it lasts.]

That's as far as I've gotten. This was just a "will it start?" stage of development. I let it run for about 10 or 15 minutes in mid 50s weather and the cabin warmed up just fine. Then I shut it off. No appreciable loss to the state of charge on the multimeter, but then I wouldn't have expected to see one as the batteries were excited by the test.

The goal is modest. I've experienced what a small candle can do while tent camping (don't go to sleep!) just to take the edge off. Then the body heat really keeps things moving. So here, I'm looking to just hit this thing once in a while to get things started, or to take the bite out if I wake up in the middle of the night.

I use sleeping bags by the way.

Later peeps.

[War Eagle]

Buggeee, Not saying it's simple or safe or advisable or even a sane thing to do, or suitable while driving as your thread states, but there are those who put wood- or charcoal-burning stoves in their RV's or boats. There are some past discussions on this forum such as: http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...rro-62173.html
Also, there are old, antebellum homes here in the South considered modern-day firetraps by their owners, so their heating solution is to incorporate a wood or coal-burning stove OUTSIDE their home and then pipe the resulting warm air or water into the home for heating. Example: WoodMaster 3300 - WoodMaster
So, I'm not sure it would work for you at all, but you would be the talk of the campground if you rolled in with a wood pellet-burning stove mounted to the tongue of your camper (with spark-arresting stove pipe) that then circulated resulting warm air from the stove throughout your little camper for heat through the night. A little bag of wood pellets or charcoal, and you'd be good to go for days. It would be interesting to see how campgrounds that ban open fires would view your outside stove since the fire would be contained within the stove's fire box. Just more stuff to muddy the thought process....

[stevebaz]

The un-vented gas leak on the 3 dog type heater will likely drive you out into the cold. I don't think this type of heater will be used much due to the small size of our trailers. I am sure that this type heating source is not RVIA approved.

[War Eagle]

Okay, so forget venting a little wood stove and just mount one of these bad boy wind turbines on top of your tow vehicle (you didn't mention drastic reduction in fuel mileage as a limiting factor), and you should generate plenty of watts to run a little floor heater in your camper while driving. Just watch out for overpasses!

[k corbin]

you can buy 12v electric blankets at the truck stops or online. That seems a workable solution to wrap around yourself for lunch stops or at night time if one is going to insist on running off of battery power.

I always have a down lap blanket handy in my vehicle and in my RVs and at home. It is perfect for a quick warm up needed situation. I live in the Pacific NW where we use down and fleece year around. The daytime might be warm but the night time rarely is. Dress for the weather, that is how it has been dealt with throughout human history. Just put layers on and off as needed. You don't need a "technical" solution.

[Buggeee]

When calculating your needs - Would you have to run the heat while driving? Not unless you bring the fish tank along. Just turn it on when you stop for a break and the turn it off when you leave. Unlike a hot water tank or a fridge, you would only need the cabin heater to operate when you are occupying the cabin

[Buggeee]

Originally Posted by War Eagle

Okay, so forget venting a little wood stove and just mount one of these bad boy wind turbines on top of your tow vehicle (you didn't mention drastic reduction in fuel mileage as a limiting factor), and you should generate plenty of watts to run a little floor heater in your camper while driving. Just watch out for overpasses!

Wood stove, wind turbine, of course the ever popular solar panel... Now we just need a method to capture the methane from the three dog heater...

[Jon Vermilye]

While running an experiment to see if it is possible sounds interesting, some thoughts:

With 200 amp hours of battery, common usage says you can expect to get 1/2 that or 100 amp hours before the batteries are drawn down to the point where long term damage starts to occur.

A 6 amp, 120V load will draw at least 60 amps from the batteries; more if you consider losses, and if the input voltage to the inverter drops below 12V - most inverters draw what ever current it takes to produce 120V output, and watts out = watts in.

At best, I suspect you could get a very optimistic 20 - 30 minutes of run time. How are your going to recharge the batteries for the next round of usage? Putting back 40 - 50 amp hours without a generator (and even with one) is a difficult project.

I run a 1000 watt sine wave inverter, combined with a pair of 6V, 232 amp hour batteries & have 355 watts of solar to recharge them. I find that if I go over 40 amp hours of usage during the winter when the sun is at a low angle (195 watts of the solar panels are on the trailer roof) it will be unlikely that I will completely refill the batteries, even on a cloudless day in the Arizona desert.

[Buggeee]

Jon

That is really useful information for my quest.

I am at risk of hijacking Nancy's thread here as I think she was interested in a broader question that may get lost in my nonsense. So... I have started a thread for "Boondocking an Electric Heater" under the electric and solar area by quoting my post and your reply into that one. In case you are interested in further discussion (which I would surely benefit from) here is a link to it -

http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...tml#post663559

Nancy feel free to join me over there too if you are into exploring an all electric option, which is probably not a practical solution to the longer treks at very low temperatures that you are describing.

Sounds like a small propane heater is the path for this thread. I had a Suburban forced air furnace in my long long trailer. It heated with propane and blew air with a 12v powered fan throughout the camper. It kept you comfortable in any weather even with drafty jealousy windows. With propane you can just crank it up til it runs you aout of there!

[Raspy]

Buggeee,

I know it's fun to experiment. Go for it. But while you're doing it keep the basic physics and battery protocol in mind.

The most basic rules are: Only discharge batteries to 50% of their rated amp hours. Inverters draw about eleven times the amperage on 12 volts that they deliver on 120 volts. So, 7 amps at 120 volts requires about 77 amps from the battery.

With a battery bank rated for 200 amp hours, you'll get less than three hours from a fully charged battery bank. Then you have to re-charge them. Any other loads will educe it further.

Jon explained it well, and you can take it up with the Wright Brothers too. Physics is physics so I won't be the one to tell you you can't do something. Of course you can, but specifically what, is the real question. Let us know how it goes.

[floyd]

60MPH wind while going down the road is a factor. While 1500W will heat a trailer on shore power while stationary, wind chill at speed would rob a substantial amount of the heat produced even if you did produce it.
Of course with Propane you could stop for lunch, fire up the furnace, wait a few minutes in the TV then have lunch in a warm trailer.

[wire]

Originally Posted by floyd

60MPH wind while going down the road is a factor. While 1500W will heat a trailer on shore power while stationary, wind chill at speed would rob a substantial amount of the heat produced even if you did produce it.
Of course with Propane you could stop for lunch, fire up the furnace, wait a few minutes in the TV then have lunch in a warm trailer.

That's what I had in mind throughout this post. There is no way to keep the trailer warm while moving, unless you use a LOT of electricity.

Just buy a warm sweater for when you stop, it's the best you can do. It will be cold in the trailer, but with no wind, it won't feel that cold. Have a hot soup and you'll be fine.

[stevebaz]

build a wind generator so while your driving down the road you generation the added power the trailer needs so when you stop keep it short because you have some charging to do.

[gordon2]

Originally Posted by stevebaz

build a wind generator so while your driving down the road you generation the added power the trailer needs so when you stop keep it short because you have some charging to do.

No no no.. thats not practical (or comprehensible). The solution is really very clear. Your car or truck heater uses the heat from the engine which is transferred through the engine coolant to the cabin heater. It is almost always more heat than you can use in the car or truck. Auxiliary heaters are available that can utilize this excess heat energy. So all you have to do it tap into the radiator hoses in your tow vehicle, route new high temperature hoses under or on top of the tow vehicle (if on top, shielded to prevent injury), and into the trailer where you install the aux heater. Of course you need to increase the amount of coolant in the system and any warranty you had on the tow vehicle is just a memory. The heater also requires electric power so be sure you can connect it to the trailer's battery and the charge line from the tow vehicle is installed and stout enough to handle the load so you are not stranded in the middle of Timbuktu with a dead battery on the tow vehicle.

Or, just put on a sweater