Cubic Mini Grizzly Wood Stove

Temp is heading down to 40• tonight here in northwest Virginia, and I’m out of propane for my 30’ RV trailer furnace. In fact, the furnace hasn’t worked right since the spring.

So ... first fire of the season in my mini wood stove in the trailer tonight! i installed this stove in January but it didn’t get much use till I could widen the roof and delinking penetrations and put up secondary heat shields late last winter.

I’ve got some well seasoned ash from several standing dead ash trees we took down this summer, and the 12”x12”x12” Cubic Mini Grizzly wood stove is heating right up.

I cut “logs” 6” to 7” and then split them down small. This stove really likes to burn ash hard wood. I used Supercedar Firestarter with these small logs and it starts right up. I don’t need to use “kindling.”

I need to reload the wood stove every 3 hours or so because the firebox is so small, and the stove cools off fast as it only weighs 40 pounds. But I’m a past middle age guy so I’m up multiple times a night any way.

Even though it’s a miniature version of a full size wood stove, it reaches stove top surface temperatures of 600•+ easily, and will hit over 700• if you don’t pay attention and overfire the stove.

I installed double heat shields, one an inch from the stove, and another behind and on the ceiling over the stove, so I don’t have to worry about the combustible areas around the stove at all.

I can heat with it and even cook on it and heat water for cooking and cleaning, so even if we have a temporary power outage I can still heat and cook in my trailer.

I REALLY like heating with wood. It’s so satisfying and such a blessing to be back to running chainsaws, a tractor and wood splitter after multiple strokes four years ago.

This is one of those simple things in life that is so rewarding.

It looks like overkill for my 30’ trailer, but we’re also heating our work shop behind the wood stacks with a big wood stove this winter. It will take a lot of wood to keep that big garage wood shop up to temps when we’re out there in the winter, so we’re doing a lot of cutting, splitting and stacking full size firewood for the winter. In comparison my little wood stove won’t use much firewood this winter.

 

I’m using a combination of ash wood and compressed firefuel logs. One block of compressed sawdust “firewood” keeps it burning hot for two hours, but produces a lot of coals/ashes.

I do have some oak and locust cut 6” and split small, but I know the ash is dry enough to burn now.

 

It actually got down to 36• for much of the night here. If anything I overshot my indoor temp goals. It stayed 72• to 78• in my trailer last night running the stove mostly clamped down. I prefer to let night time temps drop into the 60s indoor. Better for sleeping.

 

Nice setup BrianK !! Are you still in MA or back in PA? Getting chilly here too. Getting close to firing up the stove for the first time here.

 

Cute stove.

I have that same splitter. I find it really helps the old back if I get it up higher, on a bench or pickup tailgate.

 

I’m actually down in northwest Virginia now, since the beginning of the year. I live in a 30’ travel trailer on a friend’s five acre property. We have a wood shop and work there in his spare time, as he is still full time.

Currently we’re building chicken coops. There is a demand for them and we’re close enough to the DC suburbs that for every one we can make, we get about 20 inquiries.

 

I use it on the 3 pt carry all on the back of my tractor and that gets it at a good height. We were using the tractor to move firewood when that photo was taken.

 

Thanks Dennis! It’s a real blessing to be back at firewood hoarding and burning at this point. It’s therapeutic!

 

My current “deluxe” accommodations for CSS:

 

Good to hear!! This is my handy work for this year. Added an ADor1 and a small run. Girls should start laying any day now. Have 10 so far. Should be good for up to 25. Stole the plans from someone else on line.

 

That little stove is pretty neat...but what I want know is when you will release the new line of BK tiny home/RV rocket stoves!?
Good to see ya back at it though...

 

Thanks!

I just did some basic searches and I find there has been disappointingly little further commercial development off any rocket stove mass heaters. I stepped away from the subject 3 (?) years ago now. I could pick up right where I left off and still be ahead of what I’m seeing currently.

 

Love all of it, splitter, box, tractor, coops, stove. Nice!


Ford made some great tractors. My FIL owned 14 of them...always said they were the best tractors he ever owned...which was more than 14.

 

This is a 1994 4x4 Ford 1620HST (hydrostatic transmission) with a 27hp 3 cylinder diesel. It had 1400 hours on it when I bought it this spring. So far it’s a great little tractor with a tremendous amount of power in low gear for its size. I’ve picked up a brush hog, rear blade and built that 3 pt carry all box for it.

I think this was when the Ford tractor line was transitioning to New Holland. This one has a New Holland labeled steering wheel.

I just found an older 8.5hp gas log splitter on Facebook Marketplace for $250! It’s an older unit, a lower, more compact horizontal only splitter but it runs fine with no leaks. I just brought it home. The 5hp electric splitter is fine for splitting up my small logs for the mini stove, but we have a lot of huge oak and ash rounds that we’ll need to split for the workshop stove.

I had just picked up the electric splitter, barely used, a couple weeks ago. The owner was selling it with 24 feet of log racks for $250. So I’ll keep the log racks and resell the electric splitter for $200.

For our workshop we found a very large stove, a “HiFlame Stallion,” a guy bought two years ago at Home Depot for $1400 for his large A frame house. When he found out what it was going to cost him to run Class A flue up to the peak of his A frame, he never installed it. We got it for $500 unused. It’s a Chinese unit but a good looking solid feeling 500lb stove nonetheless. It should be more than adequate for our garage work shop.

 

Here’s my typical “logs” for this mini wood stove, about 5” to 6” long and split down to 2”x3” size on average:

I found the matching miniature stove tools at an “antique” flea market near here. They’re the perfect size for this mini wood stove. I have no idea what they were originally made for:

 

I am loving this post. I am currently in a similar situation in that I moved out onto my land early in this year where I have a barn and a travel trailer. I have been staying in the trailer this summer while trying to get a cabin/tiny house built and been held up by materials, trades people available to do the heavy lifting like clearing land, building pad site etc. Now it appears that I may be able to get the site cleared this week for the cabin, but looks like at this pace I will not be out of the trailer this winter. So I need to prepare the trailer for the winter now. I have been considering putting the cubic mini in the camper. What problems did you have in getting the cubic installed and working? Have you had problems with creosote that I have seen others report online? Do you think that if you fueled the stove full before you went to bed that the trailer would retain enough heat that you could just wait until morning to re-fire the stove? Thanks for sharing.

 

I had no trouble with installation. It was simple and straightforward. I used 3” “class a type” flue (it’s not certified so they can’t advertise it as class a flue, but it’s the real thing) from 3" TINY HOUSE Small Stove Installation Kit – SHINGLE Roof Exit BUNDLE - Tiny Wood Stove. I did not use Cubic Mini’s chimney system. I think it’s substandard and may contribute to the creosote problems you found online. Further, if I had to do it over again, I’d buy TinyWoodStove’s mini stove, not the one from Cubic: STORE - Tiny Wood Stove

Mainly because of their window air wash system and optional oven.

I have to load this stove every two to four hours. It will not last through the night. The firebox simply isn’t large enough. And there’s no way I can keep the door glass clean. It builds up creosote and I can’t stop it. Actually viewing the fire is nearly impossible even minutes after I clean the glass with wood stove glass cleaner.

Does it keep my 30” trailer with slide out warm? Yes! It heats up quick and achieves “real” wood stove top temps without difficulties. It’s easy to control with primary and secondary air and responds immediately to adjustments.

Do I like it? Mostly.

Would I buy one again? Probably not.

I’d opt for the TinyWoodStove option (made in America, not Canada as is the Cubic) now I know they exist. I only found them AFTER I bought the Cubic Mini Grizzly and was looking for flue options.

The TinyWoodStove costs twice as much as the Cubic, so if you’re on a limited budget I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a Cubic. If not and you plan to transfer it to your tiny house or cabin, the TinyWoodStove is the better option.

(I was a beta tester on the Woodstock Ideal Steel before they first came out and documented that experience thoroughly here so hopefully my experience has some merit.)

 

Thanks for the feedback Brian. The stove for the camper won't be going into the cabin. It however may get transferred to a smaller cabin later that I will use for my office/workshop down the road a bit. So keeping the cost down is a priority at the moment.

Thanks for the links on the chimney and the other stove. Finding chimney/flu parts for these tiny stoves is not easy. I have been putting this off too long as I have been in denial that I would have to stay in the camper this winter, but reality with the cooler temps is dissipating my denial. LOL

The chicken coop business is very cool. There is a huge run on all things chickens for many people as the food supply is becoming dodgy with recent events. So I think you will be busy for a while!