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It's that time of year again. Time to wake up with frost on my sleeping bag. I've learned a few things by now. My conclusions are as follows:
Lot's of ways to stay warm, but a viable option is the Lil' Buddy heater. They make it in two sizes, small for $80 and big for $130. I tried both. The small one will keep you warm with some van insulation, but it's at it's limit. The big one will make more heat than you can stand! The small one runs on a single 1lb propane bottle ($3.47 Wally World) and runs 6 hours on low and 3 hours on high. The big Buddy heater uses two bottles, so 12 hours on low and 6 on medium, 3 on high I assume. The Big Buddy also has a built in fan that runs on 4 D cells or a wall wart. I assume you could run it off the van's battery if you felt like it.
The fan is a big deal, because no matter what you do it will be toasty by the roof but colder by the floor. Even the cheapie Wally world $10 2D cell desk fan does the job, and the batteries last forever.
So here's the trick with propane bottles: you can keep buying them if you like, or you can can plumb the heaters to an external 20lb barbeque tank ($16 to refill at Walmart, $44 to buy). Theoretically, you aren't supposed to run a 20lb tank inside the van for fear of blowing up, but I know a guy who does. But there is a BETTER WAY!! Buy the big tank, and refill the 1lb bottles with it. Turns out with an $8 coupler you can do this, and you can actually put in slightly more than 1lb. Search youtube for how-tos. Easy.
Insulation: You can get as fancy as you want, but literally ANYTHING on the ceiling and walls makes a huge difference. I have styrofoam panels (Lowe's) on the ceilings, and nothing on the walls, but I have discovered a way to use old sleeping bags as curtains that make a huge difference. The smaller the space you are in, the easier it is to keep warm. I hang one junker sleeping bag from the ceiling about midship, and I hang a blanket off the attic shelf as a curtain. I plan to upgrade the front one, because having a wall would make the dash heat more effective on super cold drives.
What else? Use a cot to sleep off the floor. Use a $30 walmart mummy bag and pjs and you'll be fine. Mummy bags are cumbersome but they work. The trick isn't sleeping in the cold, it's waking up in ambient temps. Nothing, NOTHING is worse than getting out of a warm sleeping bag in 5 degrees and fumbling to start the van, then waiting for it to get warm. The Buddy Heaters sit on the floor, and you just reach over and fire them up. I suppose you could cook breakfast on them too if you like. A coffee pot adapter would be nice.
Lot's of ways to stay warm, but a viable option is the Lil' Buddy heater. They make it in two sizes, small for $80 and big for $130. I tried both. The small one will keep you warm with some van insulation, but it's at it's limit. The big one will make more heat than you can stand! The small one runs on a single 1lb propane bottle ($3.47 Wally World) and runs 6 hours on low and 3 hours on high. The big Buddy heater uses two bottles, so 12 hours on low and 6 on medium, 3 on high I assume. The Big Buddy also has a built in fan that runs on 4 D cells or a wall wart. I assume you could run it off the van's battery if you felt like it.
The fan is a big deal, because no matter what you do it will be toasty by the roof but colder by the floor. Even the cheapie Wally world $10 2D cell desk fan does the job, and the batteries last forever.
So here's the trick with propane bottles: you can keep buying them if you like, or you can can plumb the heaters to an external 20lb barbeque tank ($16 to refill at Walmart, $44 to buy). Theoretically, you aren't supposed to run a 20lb tank inside the van for fear of blowing up, but I know a guy who does. But there is a BETTER WAY!! Buy the big tank, and refill the 1lb bottles with it. Turns out with an $8 coupler you can do this, and you can actually put in slightly more than 1lb. Search youtube for how-tos. Easy.
Insulation: You can get as fancy as you want, but literally ANYTHING on the ceiling and walls makes a huge difference. I have styrofoam panels (Lowe's) on the ceilings, and nothing on the walls, but I have discovered a way to use old sleeping bags as curtains that make a huge difference. The smaller the space you are in, the easier it is to keep warm. I hang one junker sleeping bag from the ceiling about midship, and I hang a blanket off the attic shelf as a curtain. I plan to upgrade the front one, because having a wall would make the dash heat more effective on super cold drives.
What else? Use a cot to sleep off the floor. Use a $30 walmart mummy bag and pjs and you'll be fine. Mummy bags are cumbersome but they work. The trick isn't sleeping in the cold, it's waking up in ambient temps. Nothing, NOTHING is worse than getting out of a warm sleeping bag in 5 degrees and fumbling to start the van, then waiting for it to get warm. The Buddy Heaters sit on the floor, and you just reach over and fire them up. I suppose you could cook breakfast on them too if you like. A coffee pot adapter would be nice.
