Camper Wood Burning Stoves - How To Heat Your Camper

Everyone has good memories of spending nights at the lake side in their camper. Usually however, this is in the summer time when the weather is good. At night the temperature can often suddenly drop and you are left with cold air, and in extreme cases can see your breath.

Picking the right heat source for your camper, is usually down to how much money and effort you are willing to put in. We will take a look at some of the options that exist, and the one I am currently the most interested in.

Electric Camper Heaters - Small Space Heaters

This sort of heater as been around for quite a while. The idea is simple, give it electric and it converts it to heat. The only problem with this is that if you are working in a solar environment where you use the sun for all your power needs and do not have a mains connection, this can quickly run through your power. The amps running to the heaters are usually very high and pull so much power that a 12 volt system would feel the strain.

A simple example of this is the ceramic car heaters that can be bought for about 10-20 euro. If your engine is not running, you will suddenly have a flat battery. Electric heaters also do not produce much heat in low amp situations. Considering the type that are run in typical homes and have a ready supply of power, it is a different world when you are running on batteries.

Gas Camper Heaters - The Old Friend of Camping

Using gas has always been the companion of camping in every shape and form because it can pack a lot of heat for such a small size. A camper can quickly be heated on small canisters and larger campers can be run on larger cylinders of gas.

One issue that people often forget about is the need for ventilation in the case of using gas, or any heat source that is sucking up oxygen. Some heaters, such as the Mr Buddy brand of heaters come with a oxygen detection system to automatically cut the heater of if the air begins to run out to an unsafe for human level. 

Wood Burning Stoves - Using What You Find As Fuel

Apart from open fires, wood burning stoves have started to get a momentum as a viable source of heat again. Mainly due to the cost of the fuel, e.g. trees that have been cut down in the past or old shipping pallets, this has become a good cheap solution for a lot of people.

Again the issues of venting need to be considered, the air going to the stove needs to be regulated to keep it at a good pace to prevent too much or too little air from reaching the fire. When used inside, the user still needs to be focused on the safe human oxygen levels. The entire burner becomes a heat emitting tool for your camper.

Water Heating - For Air Heat and Water Heating

One of the simple ways to move the heat around a building has been through the use of hot water pipes. These pipes are connected to a burner, which inside a copper coil style element is added allowing the heat (often from a wood burner) to be transferred to the water. This water is then pumped on a closed loop around the camper to emanate heat through heaters.

This process can allow you to move your heater outside of the camper, and just have the feed and return pipes plumbed into the camper. This has proved to be one of the most interesting and affordable ways of heating a camper I have seen. For this project, a custom wood burning stove to heat water should provide all the heat needed.

The advantage of this approach is that long burning fuels, such as logs and coal can be left during the night and the hot water can just be circulated into the camper. In time as the idea comes together and implementation of this will be posted!

The Rain Has Lifted, Time To Do Some Work On The Camper - Reinforcing The Walls

The last number of weeks have been getting pretty crazy weather, but today for the first time the rain finally lifted. It was time to get down to reinforcing the walls. The bad weather managed to pull apart some of the frame that was head together with 1 inch L brackets and also pull a bungee chord apart (they did only cost 1.49 each though so i'm not too sure about the quality). I first started off by removing those brackets and upgrading them to the 2 inch brackets. It was not because of choice I started with the 1 inch brackets, I just happened to run out of anything bigger.

I went to the shop, and picked up 40 of the 2inch brackets, and 40 of the one inch brackets just to have by chance I need them further down the line. Nothing is worse than starting the job to realize that you don't have what you need.

In the picture below you can see some of the brackets I was left with after today, along with the Makita drill that was given to me as a present over Christmas. This drill came with the usual spare battery that can be charged while you are using the other battery. And today, like every other time while working my battery did go flat and a jump to the other battery was needed.

Below you can see what the corners look like, they are 2x2 inch batons that are held together with the brackets using 4x40mm screws. Turned out quite well.

A side profile of the camper to date so far. You can see on the front left corner, there is a bit of wood connecting the left panel and the front right of the camper. This is to hold the entire frame together during the next few weeks, which will no doubt be windy again.

In the very middle of the camper, I added a sort of T-shape piece of wood. What is this little guy for? The job is pretty simple, just like a circus tent, the leg in the middle holds the tarp up, stopping water from collecting in the middle of the tarp. The big pools of water that were seen earlier in the blog are avoided this time!

The picture below shows a floor view of the camper to date so far.

The over all frame is now in place, and nicely secure. Now the interesting bits such as the curved edges which will be made from MDF can be added. The camper will stop looking like a box and more like the camper that I have in my mind.

Although the frame has come together will, some work will still be needed to affix the frame to the cross members (bit 4x3 inch wood at the chassis level) that were put in place earlier on. This is a job for a day when it is less windy, and the sprit level can come out to make sure everything is level!

Adding The Floor Into The Camper

Given the very simple blueprint that was drawn up, the next step was the floor. With a bad floor, the whole camper would pretty much come apart over time, so a little bit of thought was needed to ensure the maximum strength was in it.

A width of 2 meters, which is about 6ft 6 inches are decided for the total width of the camper. This means that no matter what happens, we can never exceed this. There was a few little tricky bits along the way that are often forgotten about during the design phase. The most important of these was where the wheels and the axels come into play with the floor. Room needed to be available so the wheels can be added and removed easily from the axels, without interfering with the floor or the wall panels.

Nine cross members, created from 2x3 inch rough finish wood were added into the floor, which were spaced roughly 14 inches apart. Whenever a piece of floor steel was available, that was where the cross member went in. Between these extra bits were added between them to stitch them all together.

In the picture above you can see a length of wood down the left side, which was added as a temporary measure to hold the whole frame together as all of the extra stitching pieces were added. The zig zag formation was added to avoid allow the extra ends of the cross members to be trimmed off where needed to make space for the wood. At the very front of the frame, and at the very end, perfect triangles can be seen as no obstructions were in place preventing them from being joined.

What To Do With A Rusted Trailer - How Not To Throw It Away

Once all the wood had been removed, we were then left with a rusted metal frame. By rust I mean rust. Not that it had holes in it, that would be pretty unsafe, but it did have a good film of rust that could pose as paint if you looked at it from the right angle.

Something had to be done about the rust...

I first attempted to use a brass bristle brush, which is put into an electric drill. After a good few combs across the surface and very little of the rust removed (more just of the paint removed). I knew it was time to move into the bigger guns.

My personal motto when it comes to DIY has always been "when in doubt, get the angle grinder out" and in this case it was no exception. With a grinder, a collection of grinding disks, mask, eye protection (no way I ever want to go blind from my own stupidity as getting metal filings in me eyes) and I got down to it.

The cycle can be seen as:

• Grind
• Grind more
• Grind even more
• Have a cup of tea
• Grind more

One this was done, I would then clean up the area with a rag to get as much of the surface dust off as possible and get it ready for a bit of paint.

Their was one night however, where due to rain I left some of the metal bare. Anyone with metal working experience would know that:

Bare Metal + time = Rust

So once again, the cycle needed to be repeated to get the last layer of rust off and it was time to get down to it with some red oxide paint (i've been told will keep the rust from getting to out of control). Nice thick paint, that takes the metal very well.

A strong contrast can be seen between the old rusted bits which have not been grinded and the new grinded+painted sections.

 The picture below, shows the whole metal frame really looking well. The left and right horizontal metal frame sections were actually galvanized, so no major work was needed on them.

The one thing you may have seen is that the wheel are off the trailer.

Where did the wheels go?

As a sort of anti theft device, we took the four wheels off. I have not had much experience with old wheels on axels, as most of my time is spend with newer cars. Those wheels did NOT want to come off without a fight.

The frame was propped up on blocks, and the crowbar was once again brought out to show its service to the cause. After about an hour of oiling, with my favorite WD-40 and a lot of smacking and bending, they did eventually come off.


Who knows what is next!

Where Do We Start? Self Build / Self Built DIY Camper Trailer - The Journey So Far.

Building a DIY Campervan

Where do we begin?. It all started a number of years ago, the idea of getting a camper van and getting onto the road and seeing what the world had to offer. Quite quickly, anyone with a limited budget will see that the idea of getting hold of a camper is not that easy of a feat!

Everyone wants a 79 westfalia camper, they look great. The main problem with this is that they are very very old. With age, comes rust.. The idea of getting a camper is any great condition was going to be an investment of 5000 - 10000 euro easy, and who knows what the outcome would be.

As a solution to this, I moved towards the idea of buying a VW Transporter, 2004 to be exact. A long wheel base van would provide more than enough space to fit my bed into along with a host of other features that would be needed.

The idea of getting a van onto the road, for someone who doesn't really need a van causes one heck of an issue for insurance. In short they do not want to know about it. Different counties have different rules, but in short the point was clear. If you want a van on the road for non commercial purposes, it would have to be a campervan legally and tax had to be paid, 1005 euro to be exact.

Well then, I had to get this van into a campervan as soon as possible.

The rules of building a campervan, to keep the insurance people happy
A number of different regulations had to be adhered to for the van to be considered a campervan, the main of which were:

• Vent holes in the side of the van to allow any stray gas get outside
• Copper pipes going up to a gas cooker, not rubber
• A guard around the cooker, to stop the back of the seats from melting
• A bed that pops out of the walls somehow
• No tables that can fly around the place. Everything had to be perfectly mounted and not become a hazard in the event of a crash.

All sounded perfect, and generally went to plan. A colour scheme was picked and the painter went ahead and painted the van. A window was cut into the side of the van and everything looked perfect.

And then:

• The turbo for the TDI engine broke
• Bits flew into the engine
• The engine exploded, sending a 40 foot wall of smoke shooting down the road
• Oil was everywhere
• Vicky the van, was dead.

RIP Vicky 2011-2013

After two short years, about 5 camping trips and more time on blocks and in a garage than previously expected, it all lead to the simple conclusion that the van needed to be sold.

On the back of this, a new project needed to be undertaken. This is the short version at least. And so, the future dream of a camper was put on hold until a new plan would come together.

Engines, were out. Trailers were in. 

The cost of running a campervan as much as I loved them, were a little too much. The part about enjoying the camper beside the beach or at a lake side was long gone after a number of deadlines were missed and the idea of going to France was just a botched plan.

In light of this, a trailer was purchased with the idea of building a DIY camper trailer. A trailer as in a metal frame with two axels in very very poor condition, with the idea of building a caravan, (or camper trailer or whichever the term is for campers without an engine in the US).


This blog will cover the project to date so far, showing, from the ground up, all of the steps that were taken. All hurdles will be described as they come into sight.

Until next time,
Kyle.