Do any of you have a full-size oven in your bus?

[Anthrobus]

Recently I remodeled my house and I put this Kick-Ass Samsung oven in with a built-in bread proofer and dehydrator. Since we're selling our home and moving into a bus full-time I don't think that I can actually live without this oven. I was thinking about buying a second one and putting it in the bus. I'm big on cooking so I'm already planning on having the kitchen be the main feature of the bus. And thanks to Cottage food laws, my kitchen could be a possible source of income.

So my question is have any of you put in a full gas range oven and what were the challenges?

[brokedown]

I've seen a few buses with full size appliances, generally speaking I call them huge wastes of space and energy.. but everyone's needs are different, if cooking is a primary focus or a source of income you're going to make difference choices than someone who likes to make coffee and scramble some eggs and sausage. Large format propane stove/ovens aren't hard to find if you've got the room to put them and the fuel to run them.

Most of us use this smaller stove/oven: https://amzn.to/2HLAkB7

[Drew Bru]

We went with a 20", apartment size, gas range. Converting it to propane was straightforward, and installing it was just like in a home. Currently we strap it in before we move, but we'll likely add some way to fasten it to the floor and wall to use in conjunction with the strap. Brackets of some sort, I imagine. One thing we hadn't anticipated is just how much hotter propane burns....it's difficult to get a simmer.

[Johnny Mullet]

I also have an apartment sized oven in my bus........

[david.dgeorge07]

X3 for the 20” apartment size. Love it! Just the right size for a bus and still way more full featured than most of us actually need most of the time!



Second shot is steel angle that is one of the ways it is held in place.

[Drew Bru]

Originally Posted by david.dgeorge07

X3 for the 20” apartment size. Love it! Just the right size for a bus and still way more full featured than most of us actually need most of the time!

Attachment 28345Attachment 28346

Second shot is steel angle that is one of the ways it is held in place.

Same stove we've got. I'm gonna steal your angle iron idea

[cadillackid]

the big fancy new ranges with computer control and such are pretty precision... im not sure bouncuing around in a bus would be the best for one of those.. the simple apartment style ranges, arent convection, dont require perfectly sealed doors to regulate temperature and moisture for bread proofing and the like.. I know the Double oven convection range i got at home had strict instructions for levelling, placement, and checking the door seals and door alignments.. I think those apartment style simple ranges people are using are the perfect fit.. gives you 4 burners, and still have an oven.. doesnt take up a lot of space, and because they are purely mechanical, they dont even require much power.. just enough for the igniter.. and you can ignite the burners with a match if you didnt have your 120 volts turned on..
-Christopher

[Tango]

I am SO jealous. I don't even have a stove/range of any kind in my apartment/man cave! Just a microwave and a toaster oven! But...I will add something like a 2-burner to the bus though.

[BlackJohn]

Does the great outdoors count as a big oven?

I get by fine cooking outside or just use my woodstove for slow cooking or warming.
Not a fan of the humidity given off cooking inside or the various odors in such a small space.
Used that saved space for something more useful to me.



John

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

I and my family still loves a meal over a campfire .
A full oven in the bus takes a lot of space when you have many other options. But include Mother Nature as a resource.
We have a propane stove top from magic chef and a microwave when plugged in but have no problem with cooking on a campfire.
But then again my wife and I met tent camping and our 18-19 year old children know less than tent camping through scouting with my wife and I.
Never had to worry about a full sized oven/range whether electric or gas cause we always cook main meals outside on the fire pit?
My coffee in the am is a different story?
I want my percolator percking when I go rejuvenate a fire the next morning?
Sometimes it's on the gas stovetop and sometimes it's on one of my several styles of camp stoves ?
Once my percolator coffee is done when camping everyone eats what is heated buy a fire pit. Not an oven on the bus.
You love to cook?
I can't say there isn't some good stuff that comes out of an electric oven? For me and my family if It aint on a grill or smoked for hours? They look at me.
My children are 18-19 now my wife is 47 and loves to cook.
My Dutch oven stuff is good but her campfire stuff is better .
No whatever videos? Don't matter till you do it yourself.

[family wagon]

The two biggest challenges I see with a gas oven in a skoolie are heat and humidity. In order to burn gas inside the oven cavity there has to be fresh oxygen going in and hot combustion gases coming out. Those gases are coming into the bus. When it's already hot in the summer, that makes the interior even hotter. Those gases are not only hot, they're also full of water vapor. That vapor can make the heat even more unpleasant in the summer, it takes extra effort to condense out if you're using air conditioning, and it can make condensation problems in cooler weather.

Two years ago I bought an over-the-range convection microwave oven for my home kitchen. We use it for baking at least once a week, not to mention the dozens of times a day it gets used in microwave mode. The kitchen also has a relatively nice full-size 30 inch electric convection oven. We use that only for things that are too large to bake in the convection microwave (turkey, more than 2 baking sheets or casserole pans at a time, etc). That happens about five times a year.

We liked the convection microwave so much I bought another of the same model to put in the bus. Unfortunately our interior finish is yet a long way off, so that unit is still in the box and I can't report any experience with it on the road.

The comment about "cottage food laws" and possible income suggest that you may really need a full-size oven. Maybe more than one? It might be worth considering whether gas or electricity will be the best fuel for baking in the tiny space a bus provides. An electric oven is fully sealed and insulated, so minimizes the heat and humidity problems I mentioned about gas ovens.