A friend of mine has some woods up on the Gunflint trail just off the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota. Bruce rarely uses the land since it has no accomodations. I have toyed with idea of building a Vardo like camper trailer that I could drive up and park somewhere and stay as get away place in the woods. We would leave it up parked from about the first of May until the middle of October. It would be able to sleep two people and is 8' x 16' so not large. I would insulate it real well and would want to put a very small wood stove for heat on the real cool nights in the spring and fall. My question is has anyone have experience with a wood stove like a mini-cubic or a Tiny tot and how they heat? Both are used in boats for heat and don't take up much space and are considered pretty safe and can be obtained for about $400. Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome at this point. Marty
Get a used small wood stove that would give you a bit longer burn times that would avoid the temps swings between feeding the stove or sleeping. Craigslist? And large enough to cook on?
yooperdave, I thought of that but the smallest, normal wood stove is about 25,000 btu's . The trailer is only 128 sq. ft. " The Norwegian" , my wife probably won't be with me most of the time so naked sleeping might be a little wierd. LOL. I guess I could try it with a really small stove and see what I get. The other problem is the clearance requirements. I don't want the stove to take up a fifth of the trailer sq. ft.
Here is a good thread with a bit of information. May be a little above your price range though. It sounds like a good project. There must be some good information out there with the surge of tiny homes being built. New stove company: Gray Stove Works' & their Mini 12 CT stove | Firewood Hoarders Club
Jon, Thanks for that thread. I remember reading it but couldn't find it. My biggest question now is, burn times and efficiency to heat 128 sq. ft. I think the Gray and the Cubic would work just which one would work better for me. At first glance the Gray might be too much for such a small space. Marty
I did a quick search and the tiny house sites and blogs have a lot of good info. A few are quite spendy though.
Check out Grays Stove Works, he manufactures small woodstoves that would be perfect in your application. They're beautiful little stoves and VERY efficient! Pretty sure he's a member here, I know he's on our FB page!! Tell him Scotty from FHC sent ya! GRAY STOVE
I did some reading on them and they have really made some nice improvements over the past few years. Veteran owned company, made in America!
NC13 or better yet, a pellet stove! A model that can be bolted down to accomidate insurance requirements.
WW, I like the idea of a small pellet stove but then I got to haul the pellets. I would prefer to harvest some would at a campground to burn in the stove. But, fastening it down would be a must. Thanks for the tip. Marty
Google marine wood stoves, lots of older bigger sailboats have very small wood stoves for heat. Here's one. Tiny Wood Stove | Efficent, Affordable - Small Wood Stoves for Tiny Spaces!
13NC is 325lbs. IIRC. Not exactly SMALL IMHO!!! And it needs and R2 hearth and 12" off the back wall with double wall stove pipe. I remember reading here about real small wood stoves used in boats and RV's.
