[Rattiac]

Yes ,Thanks for reminding me.  I was gonna get a fire/Co  detector before the trip. I'll be putting one in soon.

I won't be running it all night long , mainly just before bed and in the morning cause we have a nice thick winter sleeping bag and always keep the window cracked open.
We did try out the pellets one morning. About a  1/4 cup, lasted about a half hour.

We did run that lil electric heater the first night all night.

[sixball]

On a deer hunting trip with an old friend many years ago he was telling tales of working on a Ranch near Austin, Nevada in the early 30s. He and his bunk mate were wintering in an old cabin on the ranch. He said you could throw a cat through the cracks in the walls. They took turns starting the morning fire in a stove they could reach from their cots using tar paper they gleaned from abandoned houses in Austin. They would light the fire and not get from under their blankets until the lids on the stove were glowing red and the frozen water in the coffee pot was boiling. I asked why they didn't tack the tar paper over the cracks. He look puzzled and shrugged and just said "cowboys"

[Rattiac]

Haha,ha  good stuff.
Speaking of hunting.
While we were leaving the lake with the hunters,  down the road we saw a heard of deer on private property and near our camp the deer went into the state park to avoid the hunters.
 Woke up to the sound of shotguns both mornings.
 

[sixball]

Deer can read or at least recognize private property & state/national park sighs. They also have some understanding of seasons. 

[Rattiac]

Yesterday I loaded up the truck and went camping.  Kinda spontaneous. Needed to do some fishing before everything froze.
 Nice campground with power and you can actually drive your truck onto the beach.
Decided to just use the wood stove for heat. At first I couldn't keep it lit but finally stayed lit.
Ran it for about 3hrs and got it pretty hot using small stips of wood and 1/2 cup of pellets.
I was surprised though at how much heat im losing.
Started too late to get the fire going. It was about 30° when I fired it up.
Slept good with our winter bag in.  Woke up to 19° outside and thick fog this morning . 30° inside the trailer. Fired up the stove and made breakfast then went fishing.

I feel it could have done better.  I think im losing heat through the roof vent.  So I ordered a insulated piece to block that off.
Maybe I'll also insulate the windows as well.

Also when I disassembled the pipes I noticed the deck plate had some small burns/melt inside of it .
I saw they made these in stainless.  Should be on order soon.

Once those 2 things are taken care of,  It'll be ready for another test.

The truck did great through the Nephi area. Has a few hills and it's always windy. Usually slows me down in the jeep but it kept at 65mph no problem.
Boy that exhaust gets loud above 3,000rpms though. Im OK with that. 😎

[sixball]

Working the bugs out. Like all wood stoves you probably lose a lot of heat out the pipe. A damper might help. I can not believe how much heat goes out the pipe on my "modern efficient" gas wood stove lookalikes.

[EDNY]

Wonder if you could fabricate a chimney pipe with small expansion tank above the heater so the exhaust (heat) is allowed to radiate inside the camper before exiting?  Kinda like those 55 gallon kits..exhaust enters on one end, heats the upper barrel, then exits on the other end after the heat radiates?

[Rattiac]

Nice. I'll be adding a damper soon.
 I've been seeing these at home depot all summer and now that I need one,  out of stock.  Ordered online, sent to store. 
Lots of debate on the subject I see.  Manual damper vs. barometric damper,  etc. 

[sixball]

Back in the hippy/homesteader days of the 1960s there was The Whole Earth Catalog. It was full of goods and "helpful" information for the "back to the earthers" Sorta' the grandparents of the "Burners" from the Burning Man farce. Any way The catalog had lots of information on wood heat. Ashley stoves were the best. They were basically a double walled sheet metal stove with a bimetal front damper for regulation. I still use one I rebuilt in the early 70s to heat my shop sometimes. It is top load only. Once the fire is started you can actually add green wood to the top of the stack. The controller draws outside (the stove) air from near the top and directs it to the bottom of the fire box.  My newer Vermont Castings stoves while very pretty did not heat as well & they were much dirtier to operate. A couple of my friends had barrel stoves one was a double. I think Northers tool sell kits. You supply the barrels. My better Ashley has is top & front load. All of the control mechanism is on the front door. One of these doors would be great on a double barrel stove. None of this would fit in your trailer.

There was also a company that sold a star shaped collar made of bent steel straps that fit around the stovepipe. The theory  was that the collar took heat from the pipe and radiated it into the room, more surface more heat. I don't know how well they worked and I'm sure they work better with single wall pile and a fan. In our early very little electricity days I made an adapter using this concept for my wife's hair dryer. I disconnected the heat element in an old hair dryer and just ran the fan connected to a box on the stovepipe.  It worked. Heating is the most inefficient use of electricity especially if you ar running your house on a car battery.  Sorry for the length.

[Rattiac]

New stainless deck plate,  damper and rv vent insulator on the way.
I was even thinking of another eco fan strapped to the top of the elbow to help push warm air forward.

[sixball]

Heat rises so the warmest air is above where we are in a room. It would seem that drawing the warm air down could work best but that may not be so. If you push the cool air up it will mix with the warm air and come down along the walls so there is less felt draft. This makes for a more even temp through the space.

[Rattiac]

I think I need to flip that heat shield inside out, so the reflective part faces the pipe.

[sixball]

That may be but where would the reflected heat go?

[Rattiac]

Well the velcro is sewn inside and had a tiny burn but it should help flipping it. 

The parts have arrived.  Damper is installed in the pipe and going to mount the new stainless deck plate tonight. 
Might get some snow this week.  Time for a backyard campout this weekend. 

[Rattiac]

Just had our first snow  last night and temps are supposed to plummet tonight.
Can't wait.  ❄😎
I collected 2 bigger soup cans and drilled 1/8" holes all over to fill with pellets for a quick swap when needed.