First thing I would do is put a pole barn over it and maybe an Arizona room. Put the wood stove in the Az room. Some sort of septic system would be nice. A holding tank for water collected off the roof. A 12VDC RV pump will easily move water and run a RO filter system, plus it could powered by a small photovoltaic system that could also power LED lightning and maybe some food refrigeration.

 

Hmmm... with the pole barn and the Arizona room, I'm so close to having built the cabin that I'm not sure I'd wanna bother with the RV at that point. Good thoughts, though. I'm still mullin' stuff over.

 

I like your idea and have considered that same thing for some time. I've also considered a Tiny House because it's simply an RV without wheel and maybe built a little better. However, this is the stove I have been researching for several years as I considered the idea. Maybe your experience/research has shown something else but I like this one. I think it'd heat a pretty good space with minimal fuel. The only problem I can see is the need to cut the wood a little smaller, which means more work. Good luck with your plan.

 

this is the stove I have been researching for several years as I considered the idea.

Interesting little stove. Probably the most interesting part is that it says it can burn coal.

 

I have seen where folks have put a wood stove in a 'converted' RV - like a school bus.

For me? Nope. 'Modern' RVs will burn like gasoline-soaked paper.....no sense in lighting the match.

RV Fire Safety: We Set an RV on Fire To Learn More - RV Love

7 Most Common Causes of RV Fires and How to Prevent Them - Mortons on the Move

and should you decide to go to wood nurning
Small, Efficient, Modern Wood Burning Stoves – Cubic Mini Wood Stoves
cost - about $500 plus the cost of the flue and roof collar.

 

'Modern' RVs will burn like gasoline-soaked paper.....no sense in lighting the match.

That's a good point. I hadn't been thinking a lot about that but you're right, an RV will light up and be a pile of embers before the fire department would even get here. (And we only live about 5 minutes from the local company.)

The environments I've had woodstoves in before have not been nearly so combustible, as in sitting on a concrete floor with concrete walls surrounding, that kind of thing. The stray spark didn't have anything much to light there. Can't say that about the RV.

Hmmm. It's making the built from scratch look more appealing.

 

I personally would not go with a tiny wood stove. I would go with a full sized stove designed to heat a small house. I would look for one second hand on marketplace or Craigslist.

I have had lots of shacks with tiny wood stove in them. From the size of a cinder block to the size of a 5 gallon bucket.
Tiny wood stoves are make poor heaters. Because they are small your wood has to be small, Small wood has lots of surface area so they tend to burn very hot and very fast. So with tiny stoves you are going though cycles of too cold, way to hot and back to too cold every 10 to 30 minutes. And if you ignore it for too long you are constantly having to light new fires.

With a larger wood stove you can put in bigger chunks of wood and set the dampers to give you a nice long burn and a heat output that matches your needs. Also a larger stove will be more forgiving of burning less than ideally dry wood.

No matter what you do don't skimp on heat shielding for the floor and walls and around the chimney.

 

I personally would not go with a tiny wood stove.

I have had lots of shacks with tiny wood stove in them. From the size of a cinder block to the size of a 5 gallon bucket.
Tiny wood stoves are make poor heaters. Because they are small your wood has to be small, Small wood has lots of surface area so they tend to burn very hot and very fast. So with tiny stoves you are going though cycles of too cold, way to hot and back to too cold every 10 to 30 minutes. And if you ignore it for too long you are constantly having to light new fires.

Good points. I've not had tiny stoves before but that does make sense... small stove, small amount of wood / fuel, short-lived fire.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

I vote live in the RV, sell the truck and build the off-grid dream cabin.

 

live in the RV, sell the truck and build the off-grid dream cabin

We don't really need to live in the RV since we already have a house right here. It's possible to set it up as "guest quarters" fairly easily in several spots around the place. The spot I have in mind is only possible to get it in or out during a very dry time of the year, probably June, July and August being the easiest.

What got me to thinking about the cabin instead of the RV was something I had built many years ago. I wanted a shed to use for a workshop. We had Amish places all around that built such things and I remember of having them build me two sheds to put together like they put together a simple modular home today. It was really cheap, I kinda remember something like $2,300 delivered for the whole thing, I think the halves were maybe 8' wide and 32' long (going from memory) and when put together, it was a dandy workshop, and mostly open inside. I often dreamed about what I could have done with that little building if I'd finished it out and actually made a small home out of it. It could have been very livable, and more space than the RV I have out by the barn right now. That was 600+ miles from here and 40 years ago. I've since built several sheds, none of them that big, but really, it wouldn't be difficult. Building codes around here are close to non-existent anyway and for a "shed", no one cares at all. It would also be much easier to add on a little, perhaps porches or even an extension of some kind to add another room. It's kind of a blank slate.

 

Yes you absolutely can. Just use firebrick and insulation and a double flue, etc..

I once had a small wood stove on a sailboat. It was (obviously) bolted down. Had fire brick underneath with a stainless surround. The access door had a special bolt so it wouldn't accidentally come open if the boat got "knocked down."

They actually make bulkhead mount stoves for boats and RV's. See pic below. But probably $$$$$.

I loved our stove. It was a "dry" heat and kept the cabin toasty down as low a 3 degrees (once). We burned a sac of charcoal a day in the teens. Or we burned small wood sticks or pieces of 2x4's. The whole stove was only about 18" so it was a fast burn.

 

But probably $$$$$.

Ain't nothin' cheap anymore.

I can imagine you have some interesting stories to tell about your days of boat living. Thanks for sharing.

 

I have one in my trailer. It mounts to the wall, burns through the night with a load of oak, fairly easy install. I'm happy with it.

 

If you don't weld, have a fab shop build a small stove out of say, 12" pipe with legs. 4" flue should be sufficient.
As for the gray water, just attach a 20'? or so hose to the drain, and angle it downhill and away from everything. Watering nature is what that's called. Wink wink. Lol

 

Watering nature is what that's called. Wink wink. Lol

Message received, loud and clear.

 

This works for me.
But I keep my RVing in places where lowest temps are in the mid twenties a few mornings during the winter.
I feed it thick, but short , logs and only run it while I'm in the RV.
It doesn't burn while I sleep, wool blankets do me fine.

 

This works for me.
But I keep my RVing in places where lowest temps are in the mid twenties a few mornings during the winter.
I feed it thick, but short , logs and only run it while I'm in the RV.
It doesn't burn while I sleep, wool blankets do me fine.
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Are you able to move the rv without taking the stovepipe down? I considered going thru a window but I really wanted a straight pipe so I did the unthinkable and cut a hole in the roof. So far so good. And I can travel with it like that, although I have to cover the end of the pipe.

 

As I like small RVs, a wood stove is out of the question. It just takes too much space, for the stove itself and the free space you must keep all around it. You must also store wood...
How's the insulation on your RV? There's a lot to gain here.

 

As I like small RVs, a wood stove is out of the question. It just takes too much space, for the stove itself and the free space you must keep all around it. You must also store wood...
How's the insulation on your RV? There's a lot to gain here.

It is a small space. It's a bigger RV than many but it's still quite a small space.

Insulation in the RV isn't great. It's a glorified cardboard box. Well, maybe a little better than that but the walls are 2" thick. I'm not sure how thick the roof is but there are enough leaks in things like roof vents, roof AC, RV windows, slide seals, all of that stuff, that heating it has always been a challenge when it's down around zero, which is pretty much the lower end of what it gets around here. (Doesn't usually stay there all that long but it does get down there.) I do remember living in it during cold spells like that, which wasn't a lot of fun.

While I like having the RV as a "prep", I'm really leaning more towards wanting a "cabin" instead, one that I can put a real woodstove into and expect it to be appropriate to the space.

 

My buddies and I recently "winterized" our RVs out at my in-laws farm. They were 3 season before that. Two of them tested thiers last winter so the rest of us had planned to test ours this winter too, bug its been morre like early Spring here all winter. I just decided to have mine looked at by professionals this Spring when I have it towed to the RV place to fix everything anyway.

 

I lived in my 5th wheel a couple years on my land while building the house. I first built a post frame (pole barn) shop, then added a high bay on one side, with an access door matching the RV.

I used a pair of 100 lb propane tanks for the RV, but had a wood stove in the shop as well.

The holding tanks of the RV could be dumped into a small septic tank and leach line behind the building.

 

Have been lookin' over the ol' RV. It's pretty tired. Not sure if it's even worth trying to save. It's got good axles and a nice set of wheels. Other than that, it's not in good shape. Found that the roof has been leaking pretty badly. Can I fix it? Probably. Will I fix it? Probably not. It would probably be 1/4 the work to just build a cabin. Don't know yet. Depends on some other things happening in life... which doesn't always happen according to plan...

 

You could just do what Hicks did up there. Start by building a roof that shields your RV from the elements. That way you can continue living in there while you finish the build. In the end you'll have a livable space with a pretty big garage for "projects".

 

I would strip out the appliances and tanks. They have re-sale value or can be used in the cabin. Just insulate and vapor guard it. May want to seal the roof too again the sun. We had to do that when we re-shingled the outbuildings. Worth every penny.

 

I would strip out the appliances and tanks. They have re-sale value or can be used in the cabin.

I thought about that. Might be worthwhile. The refrigerator isn't anything special, small and a power hog (the propane side of it hasn't worked right for a long time), but most of the rest of the kitchen, the stove, the microwave, the sink, that stuff is just fine. Also, some of the bathroom stuff might be worthwhile as well, maybe even the toilet. Definitely the shower unit. Nothing wrong with the water heater, either. Only 5 gallons, but nothing wrong with that. We got used to short showers. Water pump was upgraded and easy to take. Those things are small but very usable. In a small cabin, they'd take up a lot less space than a typical household whatever. Not sure if the little propane furnace would be worthwhile or not. Gray, black and drinking water tanks, yes. All that stuff would cost a lot to just buy.

Dunno, still thinkin' about that.

One other little something that I have is an F350 crew cab dually that I had used to pull it. It needs some work itself but mostly just maintenance kind of stuff. I have no reason for such a large truck without the RV so I think that would definitely have a market for it. Gettin' kinda tired of it being here not used much anyway.