Wood Cook Stove? (Full Size)

[BigBlue]

Lately we've been looking into our heating solution and while the small wood stoves look great we've been tossing around the idea of just getting an old vintage Wood Cook Stove that would have an Oven compartment as well. The one's that would fit through our doors look to be in the 400 pound range.

Has anyone put something like this in their bus?

Good idea? Bad idea?

Any advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated. My biggest concern is weight.

But I love the idea of the Wood Cook stove heating the house as well has having plenty of surface for cooking but we're noobs so we have no idea if that would even work out.

Have a great day!

[Iceni John]

I would not want to add a fifth of a ton of extra weight to my bus without it having a very tangible benefit. That's also so much extra fuel needed to drive it all over the country. Besides, from where will you get suitable firewood, and where will it be stored? A wood stove in winter would be nice, but imagine cooking in a hot summer with it!

Nice idea for a house in Alaska, but maybe not the best for a mobile vehicle in all seasons and temperatures.

John

[BigBlue]

Thanks for your input!

Hmm the fuel cost with extra weight is definitely something that I haven't thought about. But I wonder if those who have electric ovens deal with about the same weight maybe?

The one we're looking into is a Wood/Electric stove which I was thinking would have the perfect options for summer cooking and if the electric part of it doesn't work I was just planning on using the instant pot or a little countertop electric burner.

Ultimately we're trying to avoid propane and stay with electric or more renewable resources. Our bus has large under storage compartments where we plan to keep our wood for the wood stove heating. We also tend to notice tons of "Free Wood" online in ads or even just in our local area, for how little wood we'd need to heat the house we're thinking it'd be sustainable enough and we'd plan to plant a tree once a month to displace our wood use.

[PNW_Steve]

I read an account of a gent who put a compact wood stove in his bus.

He carried a cordless circular saw with him. When he needed wood he would look on the local, wherever he happened to be, Craigslist for free pallets.

[BigBlue]

That's a wonderful idea! Thanks for chiming in! Looks like a circular cordless saw will be on the list!

Also I was thinking. . . 400 pounds sounds like a lot, but 4 middle school kids would weight out to be more than that and would most likely have no effect if sitting on just the left side of the bus. Considering we took out around 1,000 pounds of seats out and probably 300 at least on the ceiling panels I'm wondering if weight even matters at this point.

We're looking at the duality of the Wood Cook stove as a really valuable piece of the home. Being able to fully make use of that fire heating the house and not use extra resources to cook sounds like a dream come true.

I just really want to make sure this isn't a ridiculous idea when it comes to weight.

(Also, we're not a Mini-Skoolie I just can't find where to edit that. We currently weigh under 10,500 pounds last time we were weighed.)

[johnbloem1974]

Originally Posted by BigBlue

(Also, we're not a Mini-Skoolie I just can't find where to edit that. We currently weigh under 10,500 pounds last time we were weighed.)

The words under your name are representative of your post count. As you post more, your "description" will change....

John


Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[BigBlue]

LOL oooh that makes more sense! Thank you!

[Twigg]

Originally Posted by BigBlue

Also I was thinking. . . 400 pounds sounds like a lot, but 4 middle school kids would weight out to be more than that and would most likely have no effect if sitting on just the left side of the bus. Considering we took out around 1,000 pounds of seats out and probably 300 at least on the ceiling panels I'm wondering if weight even matters at this point.

I have a 40' Thomas.

I weighed it recently at the point where everything was stripped out that is going to be stripped out.

So, for context ... The vinyl on the floor weighs over 300 lbs.

The empty weight of the bus is 18700 lbs, and the GVWR is 33 000 lbs.

I don't think adding 400 lb will hurt it, but do try to balance where the heavy items go ... For example, a 100-gallon fresh-water tank would weigh 600 lbs when full, so put it on the other side.

Four Trojan house batteries would come in around 280 lbs .... etc.

[BigBlue]

Thank you so much for your input on weight!! We'll absolutely try to even out the weight to our best ability!

Great idea about the water tank being on the opposite side of the wood cook stove!

[Alan N]

A wood stove in the bus is a good idea in my opinion. It is on my bus to do list.
I would recommend a modern cookstove over a vintage one however.

This is what we have in the house. It would definitely keep your bus warm!
Whatever kind of stove you choose make sure you Securely bolt it down!

[BigBlue]

That thing looks super nice! I imagine they're a bit more expensive than the older ones, but most likely more efficient as well!

Great tip on bolting it down! Thank you!

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by Twigg

I have a 40' Thomas.

I weighed it recently at the point where everything was stripped out that is going to be stripped out.

So, for context ... The vinyl on the floor weighs over 300 lbs.

The empty weight of the bus is 18700 lbs, and the GVWR is 33 000 lbs.

I don't think adding 400 lb will hurt it, but do try to balance where the heavy items go ... For example, a 100-gallon fresh-water tank would weigh 600 lbs when full, so put it on the other side.

Four Trojan house batteries would come in around 280 lbs .... etc.

You mentioned this in another thread before I stripped my floor out. I thought your numbers seemed a bit higher than I would expect.

Then I pulled my flooring and plywood out and hauled it to the dump.

Linoleum +plywood +a few pieces of metal trim=900lbs

I was somewhat surprised.

[adic27]

I always wondered about how one would control the temperature of a wood burning stove...??

[Twigg]

Originally Posted by PNW_Steve

You mentioned this in another thread before I stripped my floor out. I thought your numbers seemed a bit higher than I would expect.

Then I pulled my flooring and plywood out and hauled it to the dump.

Linoleum +plywood +a few pieces of metal trim=900lbs

I was somewhat surprised.

The weight sneaks up on you. There is about a ton just in my seats.

[Miles O Roads]

The problem I see is space around required. You will proballly need 2' or more all the way around it. So one of these will quickly take up alot real estate.

[BigBlue]

2' on each side seems like a lot! So I guess it would have to be a medium/smaller sized cook stove, but I doubt we'd be able to keep 2' on each side :/

I'm not too sure about the temperature control, I think it has something to do with the flue, some sort of air opening control to let more air in.

I was thinking we'd be able to manage 1 foot maximum on each side, but if we have to have 2 feet then there's no way we'd be able to fit a Wood stove.

[Twigg]

With proper shielding, the clearances can usually be reduced to a few inches from any flammable materials.

[BigBlue]

Thank you for your input! I will have to look into proper heat shielding before we decide on placement! I think we're going to make this thing happen!

[dbhost]

I would not want to rely on a biofuel cook stove. What would you do say in the summer to cook?

A small wood stove wtih a heating surface say like a Cubic Grizzly, where you can do some cooking would be great in the winter, you can make coffee / hot water for tea while keeping your regular stove free for meal prep.

[BigBlue]

My plan for the summer is to have a small electric counter top burner. I figure if there's too much sun for wood cooking then there's plenty of electricity from solar to run a little burner.

And when there's not enough sun from solar in the winter the stove would be on anyhow so I figure I'd rather get a bigger cooktop than one of those tiny little overpriced ovens. The only way I'd get the Cubic mini is with the Roaster on top which all together comes out to $800 in order to have that "oven" chamber on top as an attachment.

We really like to use our oven currently and see the Wood Cook Stove as a great way still have an oven (mostly in the winter).

I think it makes sense, but I haven't lived it yet so I don't really know lol!

(Also we live in the PNW where wood is everywhere!)