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Any ideas/suggestions as to retrofitting a propane heater in a 14RB? Want to do some winter camping and our small but efficient ceramic heater doesn't cut it.

Make ?

Costs ?

Feasability?

Thanks,

Mike

Post edited 4:29 am – October 28, 2012 by punkozuna

In addition to a 1500 watt space heater with fan, we've bought a 700 watt oil filled space heater. Both run without tripping a breaker and so far have kept us warm into the low 30s.

Also, a catalytic heater than run propane might be worth condsidering. Here's a link that shows several different heaters.

http://www.nextag.com/catalyti…..res-html#!

One of the 6000btu units might be big enough if you aren't doing severe cold weather camping. The Olympian brand comes in up to 8000 BTU.

Here's a short article someone wrote about using theirs in an RV. They have the advantage of not using electricity – good for power outages or dry camping.

http://vagabonders-supreme.net…..ympian.htm

Post edited 5:53 pm – October 29, 2012 by ron_sue

i was wondering about this.  our rig is just one year apart from yours so i would assume that there was not that much change. i did not know the furnace was and "option".  we  have a thermostat mounted near the bathroom door frame that controls the furnace under the couch. (brown grill about 1 foot square)  these have electronic ignitions so all you have to do is turn on the gas and set the thermostat. (it runs off dc so have the battery charged or be hooked to shore power. )  i believe the fan starts immediately followed by clicking sounds (igniter) until the burner lights.   if its been a while since it has been lit it may need to purge the air from its system, but it does that on its on by repeating its attempts to light every minute or so.  if you don't have this, then maybe you have the wiring and the gas line already there.   its my understanding that the 14rk is all electric with a hot plate and a dorm fridge but yours should have a gas stove top, gas water heater and a two way fridge (gas and ac).  the furnace will run you out but is a little loud for us so  we use a remote controlled ceramic heater mostly.

one more thing, make sure the adustment slide is all the way to off when you are done. (it should click) or it could come on when it gets real cold.

Mike, it's under the fridge in the 190.  It sounds like ron_sue has a lot of great input in that he has the same unit as you only with the furnace.  Maybe he could snap some pics of the installation for you?  As far as I can see, most trailers below a certain square footage come with a 16K BTU furnace, so some it will blow you out of while others it will work to heat it.

ron_sue mentioned the noise, which is definitely a factor.  The blower is somewhat loud, even though it only draws 3.1 amps.  He also mentioned the t-stat, which I've had the same experience with.  If you don't push it all the way to "off", the heat kicks on in the middle of the night when the temps hit the mid-high 30's.

For dry camping I run the heat for 30-60 minutes around bedtime, then shut it off.  When I wake up in the morning, I run it again to take the chill off.  This way you don't drain that 20lb tank like some have talked about.  You could even leave the t-stat set way down and just let it kick in a couple of times through the night.  Maybe some want it 70* all night, but that's sure to suck up the propane.

Mike M.

We just returned from a 3 night dry camping trip and used gas furnace in our 16bh. I set the thermostat at around 63 degrees at night and we had temperatures in the high 30's.  It worked well and as far as I could tell didn't use much propane at all.  No issue with battery drain either.  With these small trailers it really doesn't have to run that much, I'm sure the total running time overnight was well under an hour.

As someone mentioned the downside is the noisy fan. I would say the thermostat has about the same sensitivity as a house thermostat.

Doug