Installing a wood burning stove

[Dan-O]

I'm not really completely sure myself but I know someone that does. Check this website out... if you haven't already:

http://www.mobilehomestead.com/index.html

Michael and Mille have been doing this for a while... and I'm sure that whatever isn't in the detailed pages, you will surely get a helpful hint if you drop him a line. I think the info that you are looking for will be in their last project pages "the Latch Drom"

Hope that helps.

[soused moose]

This is a timely’ question….
Our new Jotul Woodstove I ordered for our Trailer project should get here today….

PJ….The important Bit on woodstoves to remember is …all woodstoves have ‘clearances’ that need to be taken into account.
As long as you make sure you don’t have the sides, front, and back of the stove too close to something that can burn you’ll be OK. You need to make sure the Pipe isn’t close to anything that can burn also.
Read the wood stove manual and you’ll find the stoves clearances that you’ll need to work with in your design. ( if you bought the stove used…GOOGLE the model and you should find the manual on-line somewhere…)

Unfortunately I don’t have any pics of how I installed our medium sized air-tight woodstove in our last school bus conversion “HOME� ….but anyways here a page with a bit of info that might help out… I tried to explain a bit about how we dealt with the install on this page.

http://www.mobilehomestead.com/projects/woodstove1.htm

Michael

[soused moose]

On our last bus Home….
http://www.mobilehomestead.com/buses2/home/home1.htm

I had to have the stove pipe raise up enough to clear my roof extension ….so the stove would ‘draw’.
But on a typical school bus setup …all you need is about a foot to a foot and a half of pipe exposed to make the stove work well.
What you’re looking for here is to have the pipe raise up enough to clear anything you have up on your roof …vents ,air conditioner etc.

Since you’ll be using hefty insulated pipe for the section that goes through the buses roof …you’ll metal screw a pipe cap to that and that should be just fine for dealing with winds.
If it makes you nervous…you can buy a collar and leg do-hicky that attaches to the pipe and then you screw the legs down for added wind protection.

PJ…go to this site and look at the pics of the buses and house trucks and you’ll be able to check out a bunch folks rigs that are all mostly using wood heat.

http://www.housetrucks.com/

Michael

[Ryan Grimm]

I remember seing one rig with a wood stove, they made the chimney foldable.

Basically, they cut the chimney off about 6 inches from the roof. They attached a flange and a hinge to the flange, and then did the same with a section of chimney about three feet long.

That way, they folded up the chimney and used a wing nut and bolt to keep it upright when stationary; when on the road, they folded it down to the REAR and used the same wingnut/bolt to hold it down.

Simple, elegant, takes 2 minutes and a stepladder, or rungs up the side, or roof access to the deck you've built, right?
You could even use cabinet hardware (latches, etc.) to hold it in the up/down positions. Makes for speedier setups/takedowns.

[chillmobil]

Hi,

Sorry for my late response, I haven't checked in in a while. First off, the woodstove idea is the best possible source of heat for a vehicle. As I mentioned to others before. We had 4 guys in a 23' camper, in the winter, skiing powder all day long with snow down our trousers and we would hang all of our gear (pants, jackets, mittens, etc.) near the woodstove and in the morning everything was crackling dry, without a trace of condensation in the windows and without one mA of power draw.

We used an insulated section of pipe to go through the roof. they can be purchased in 8" or 12" sections. This penetrated the roof and ended up about 4" about our roof line. We then had a 4' length of removable chimney that would be stored on the roof near our kayaks when we were driving. Upon reaching destination, one dude would get the fire ready (paper, kindling, etc.) while one would climb on the roof, remove the Tupperware container that covered the hole and insert the chimney into the hole where it would stay come hell or high water. Simple, elegant, not noticeable.

Cheers,
Chillmobil