1 Bored Clerk's Garage Built Camper

I also need to sack up and drill some big ass holes in the camper.


One down here so I can mount this inlet. This will be mounted the other way around in the camper. This is just showing the size and approximate location. This will pull cooler air from the floor of the camper by the door.


This vent will mount up higher on the wall of the camper pointing toward the bed. I understand that hot air rises and that this should be mounted lower but I don't want to be up against it with a sleeping bag or whatever.

This should create a nice circular flow of air. Recycling the air should also reduce the amount of energy needed to heat the air since I'm not pulling from outside.

I will likely mount the thermostat below the hot air outlet by several inches. Not a lot of good places for it.

 

Think about how much propane you really need. How long are you going out? How cold will it be - how long will the heater be running?

I see a lot of teardrops with 20# tanks on the side. When we go out for 2 weeks, I might use 5 refilled 1# propane bottles. (Cooking only).

Obviously bring enough. A lot of people tend to bring way too much - that's a lot of excess weight to drag around.

 

Yeah, I'm going to start with 2 5lb I think. I just don't know how the heater is going to perform. How much propane I'll use to be at whatever temp I deem reasonable in single digit temps is all mystery right now. I'm sure I could build both rock rails to hold 2 5lb tanks (2 on each side of the truck) but not actually add the other one or two unless I find out I have to

 

I don't know what your longest planned trip would be, but a night in a tent with the smallest Mr. Heater on low takes me about three 1lb tanks.

 

Wow - I didn't realize heaters consumed that much propane.

Hopefully the camper is better insulated than your tent!

 

I'm willing to bet large sums of money that the camper is MUCH better insulated. I wish I could remember what temps I was in. I'm also trying to remember if I cut it off at all overnight, but can't. It was really more like 2.5 lb of propane. But extra can't hurt. Just being fan-forced is way better than a Mr. Heater so his consumption would probably be less.

 

The buddy heaters really suck through fuel. The Propex heating this camper is going to be significantly more efficient.

 

Yea, the mixture of the camper being significantly better insulated than a tent and the fact that a proper heater is more efficient than a Mr. Buddy means it’s not going to take 3.5lbs of propane a night.

Not even 1lb in my experience.

 

7 nights in a pop up camper, part hard side, part insulated tent. 20 pound bottle ran the heater every night at lowest thermostat setting of 50 degrees. Plus a nice warm up to 70 + in the morning and before bed, plus cooking on the stove. Still had a little left after 7 nights.
If you're just using it for heat, two 5 pound bottles in your full hard side should be fine, or pretty close to that.

 

Good Intel! Thanks. Getting propane every couple of days wouldn't be an issue for my typical trips. And I would probably be in that 50-60 degree range at max when camping alone. I don't need much to feel pretty comfy.

 

I wanted a 90 degree elbow that mated the ProPex 60mm ducting to the wall vent outlet which is 77mm. Couldn't find what I wanted so I'm going to have one printed. A quick 5 minutes in CAD and here we are.

 

I've always heard the cad printed stuff doesn't hold up to heat to well.

 

FDM parts especially. Some of the nylon parts aren't bad. But I'll be using heat treated (bake in oven after printing) carbon fiber PLA. Which will have a heat resistance up to about 100 C (212 F). Plus, this elbow will be about 2.5' away from the metal heater body outlet. I'm hoping it works well. I found a note on Expedition Portal where someone measured an air temp of 104 F from the vent. So this should stand up to that with a decent margin. I have seen small engine intake manifolds printed out of a similar material that have held up well to a lot of use so I'm hopeful this cheaper material will work for me.

 

Messed around a bit today.


Bolted in the heater for good (hopefully).

Sealed up the openings with some red rtv sealant. I can always revisit this if necessary. It's easy to get to. The hoses that attach to these have silicone boots that you slide all the way up so that helps seal a bit too.



Figured out the location for the air return vent too. I'm going to wait to cut these holes until I can hook up the heater and verify everything works properly. Just in case.

I also ordered another length of "stealth" ducting so I can place the hot air port where I want. I'll need a straight connector between them. Maybe I can find one I like or I'll just have one printed. Speaking of which, I may have my printed elbow back tomorrow.

It also appears that I can put a single 10lb propane tank on the passenger side in front of the rear wheel. So I ordered the tank and the powertank bracket. I'll get that all dialed in when I build new sliders.

AND I got a little Wiley and just wanted to knock out something quick and simple.

I cut up some aluminum channel I've had laying around for about 20 years.

Slapped on some quick fists I've had for a while.

And bolted it all up to the camper. I'm not sure how I feel about these quick fists. I don't have any real experience with them...they seem sketchy. I threw some zip ties around the shovel as insurance for now. Not sure how I feel about this in general but this is why I put these rails here so I might as well use them. The brackets aren't my best work so let's just not look too closely at those. I could add a second tool if I wanted but not sure I need to. If I end up liking this, I'll get the brackets powdercoated at the same time I take other parts in.

 

For lighter things like that shovel they should be fine for a number of years, especially in a shaded location. For something heavier like a high lift I'd personally want the strap on top rather than carrying the weight that mount position entails.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I see them in use on all kinds of rigs around town. They must be somewhat reasonable. I'm going to roll as is for a bit and see if I like this setup at all...and if there's anything else I'd like to add to this space before I finalize it.

 

I used quick fists for yeeeaarrrrs to hold a shovel to the side of the bed rack on my Tundra. Even with all the rough forest roads, 80 mph freeway speeds, beach trips etc, they never failed and the shovel was always handy for emergency digging.

 

Please post a pic of the mounted camper

 

more pictures from far out

 

There are many in this thread. But I get wanting the most up to date and not going through 100+ pages to find them. I don't have any interesting ones but I can certainly take a janky one in my driveway though.