Heating a trapping cabin in winter

[Hoopi]

Hi: Looking for some advice and experience. How do most trappers heat their back country cabins in winter? Wood airtight heater, propane heater?

I have a 12 by 20 insulated cabin on skids and would like to use it in the winter for weekend use mostly.

Thanks for your advice!

Hoopi

[Brian Bildson]

I use a propane construction heater ( Princess Auto special ) when I first arrive to bring the cabin up to heat and then use wood heat while in camp.

[dugh]

My wife doesn't read this so here goes.
Wood stove and a menopausal wife .
Get the wife to go to bed about 30 minutes before you and presto.
Actually we try to get there early enough to start a fire and then go check near the cabin, go back add wood and check a little further.
Doug

[209x50]

Originally Posted by dugh

My wife doesn't read this so here goes.
Wood stove and a menopausal wife .
Get the wife to go to bed about 30 minutes before you and presto.
Actually we try to get there early enough to start a fire and then go check near the cabin, go back add wood and check a little further.
Doug

LOL! I feel your pain.
Just wood and a fan. We get in and start the fire heat up the frigging Honda until it will start and then get the fan going. I leave and check the north loop. By the time I get back (2 - 3 AM) Sandi is sleeping and the cabin is warm.

[6tmile]

i have a H45 diesel heater that I have used for my skinning shed that I am gonna put up for sale soon. Also have a propane heater that will go also. If any fellow trappers are wanting these pm me before I put them up on the buy n sell.

[Big Grey Wolf]

Our log cabins only take about 1/2 hour to heat up nicely, just good wood fire in heater with dry wood. Floor and ceiling need some insulation.

[expedition]

Originally Posted by Brian Bildson

I use a propane construction heater ( Princess Auto special ) when I first arrive to bring the cabin up to heat and then use wood heat while in camp.

caution on the construction heater they emit carbon monoxide!

[KegRiver]

We, my family members and neighbors, used home made heaters or 24 inch air-tight heaters in our cabins.

We all had log cabins. Mostly smaller cabins, 10x12 was a common size.

No insulated 2x4 and plywood structures on any line I've been on. Most were too remote for that. Packing in construction materials was not practical and trees were close and free.

The best heater I have ever seen was one my big brother built from an old seeder grain box. Like this one,




He cut three feet off one end of the original grain box. made an end, with door for the cut end, welded a draft control from an old cook stove on one side just above the bottom and welded one section of cook stove top, with lids to the top and welded flat metal to the bottom to seal the seed outlets. Then he welded on pipe legs and a plate steel chimney collar.

I don't know if it was the shape, the placement of the draft or what, but that heater/cookstove was the best heater I have ever used.

It went with the cabin when I let the line go. Not sure what has happened to it since.

[Hoopi]

Hi: Thanks for the feedback.

Hoopi

[Big Grey Wolf]

A larger air tight heater will heat up any cabin and last through the night. Most poorly insulated homestead homes were heated with them in -50oC weather.

[expedition]

Originally Posted by Big Grey Wolf

A larger air tight heater will heat up any cabin and last through the night. Most poorly insulated homestead homes were heated with them in -50oC weather.

and a very good price point

[Brian Bildson]

construction heaters are designed for enclosed spaces and I only use them to bring cabin up to temp real fast. I'd never sleep with one going and you couldn't handle the heat if it was on for 30 minutes.

Much much faster heat than you'll ever get with just wood and most importantly accelerates the warming of the walls and floors, which keep sucking the heat out of your room for hours when just using wood.

I've heated my cabins with just wood for over 30 years and will continue on for the rest of my life but these units add a little luxury to the camp.

[D4l3k]

Wood stove and seasoned split birch is the best heat for our area

Gets our 24 ft Atco rig trailer cabin from -10 to +40 in less then an hour

When it's bed time, we thro on a 10 or 12 inch log and it keeps it going until morning