Sleeping in the Bus for the First Time in the Winter
19January 19, 2015 by Mike Oscar Hotel
I’m pretty excited about this post. If you’ve been reading, you know that we finally installed the wood stove in the bus a week ago. I had originally planned to go this weekend and do a solo trip sleeping in the bus, but the Mrs. insisted that she come along as well. She is great company. I’m not saying that to say it; she doesn’t read the blog. 😉
We spent the day Sunday hiking with the children. When we got home, we fed them and dressed them for bed, leaving them in the care of my mother-in-law. The Mrs. and I left the house at 6:30 pm and arrived at the land a little after 8:00 pm. We parked on the road and hiked across the patchy snow with our black utility sled in tow. I brought in all of our wood from and wasn’t sure we would have enough for the entire night. In this picture, you can see that my pack basket was entirely full, as well as the cardboard box beside it.
After getting into the bus, I started the fire. The draw of the stove was pulling a little strangely, making a chuf-chuf-chuf sound until the stove was hot and there was a good bed of coals. I think we might need more pipe. Not sure. The Mrs. enjoyed a frosty beverage while asking me questions about stove draw. My consistent answer? I don’t know!
Within an hour, the entire bus was warm. Not, like, luke warm, but down-to-my-t-shirt warm. We put the kettle on the stove and had tea in no time at all. For the record, we were also equipped with fire suppression equipment, a carbon monoxide detector, and a smoke detector. You can never be too safe.
We went to bed at 11:00 pm. At 2:00 am, I woke up to a chilly bus. I got up and investigated and the fire was out. I had much kindling on hand and lit another fire. Within 45 minutes, the bus was toasty again. It takes a long time to heat a big metal can.
I woke up again at 5:00 and again at 7:00 and added wood both times. The stove, for reference, is about half the size of a five gallon bucket. It doesn’t hold much wood and tends to burn through what it does hold rather quickly. At our high altitude, the poor fire is nearly starved for air. I think the stove is the perfect size, space wise, but may come up a little short on the duration of burn.
The Mrs. remarked that it was the warmest night we’ve ever had on the bus, even in July. I agreed. Wood heat gives us options and a warmth that propane just can’t provide. I can’t wait to burn dried cow poop. It should make chimney cleaning a super fun job.
What’s next? We’ve talked about consolidating our sleeping area with a heavy curtain in an effort to retain heat. We’re also discussing hardwood. For those of you familiar with Colorado, you will understand my dilemma. Hardwood, for the most part, does not grow in Colorado. We have plenty of aspen and pine, but no real hardwood. I’m going to look into getting a truck load of hardwood, but at $225 a cord, it may be awhile before I make the purchase. I’m also going to look into oak pallets and see if I can find a free resource for them and if they are safe to burn.
We woke the next morning happy and warm. This is the view from my bed.
The colors were better in real life!
We’re progressing. We discussed several other projects for the bus during the evening, and I’ll write about those in another post.
I’m not an axe murderer, I swear.
Pax Domini Sit Semper Vobiscum,
Mark Oliver Howes
The Tiny Homesteaders 
Awesome! It is great to see things set up! In North Carolina, we have so much pine!!!! Not the same as hardwood, for sure
I get a little tired of pine and other evergreens. They just don’t last in the stove!
Exactly. You ever think of wood pellets?
No electricity. Can you burn pellets in a regular stove?
I am not 100% sure. I know some wood stoves burn pellets too… Some don’t though
I’ve thought about putting a little coal in there, but I don’t think the old stove could handle the heat!
I guess my question regarding the stove is this: while the stove is the right size for the bus, would one a little larger make for a better sleeping night with better wood retention??? I guess since you don’t have a ready supply of hardwood that might be a moot point…if you had hardwood the fire might definitely last longer…if you had larger pieces of hardwood it might hold longer as well…like that idea of putting up curtains to close off the sleeping area…still think if you are able to insulate the roof and close off the windows with heavy curtains that might also make for a more restful sleep…keep up the good work, however, as your story inspires me to think outside of the box in things that I am planning…blessings…
I want to try hardwood before changing out the stove, but it is an option, as is further insulation. Now that the stove is in, we’ve got the whole year to work on projects!
Now this is what I call adventure!
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet! 🙂
I’ve had the chuffing too, when it happens on start up I thought it might be due to a cold pipe and a cold column of air in it struggling to push out. I find that hitting it with my propane torch to warm it up a bit before I light the stove keeps that from happening. I have also had it do it when I damp it down suddenly from a rip roaring start, like its trying to get more air. I do tend to keep the vents on it wide open and it runs full-tilt-boogey most every time I run it.
As far as hardwood that is a tough one. Pallet wood, at least the stuff I have gathered from machine and tool companies tend to be hard wood usually of Asian or South American origin and can be quite hard and sometimes gives off some different smells when you burn it and most of it is dimensionally quite small, so burn time is not much more than a big chunk of birch. By Screwing several pieces of 2×4 together side by side you can effectively make thicker chunks. If you can cut, prep and run a load in with the truck when you have access in the summer it might stretch the sleep time at nigh to about 3 hours between refills.
That’s what I’m shooting for. The stove is incredibly small, so pallet wood will work pretty well. I’ll take your advice on putting them together. The chuffing did stop as soon as the pipe was warm, but I’m still concerned about the draw. Going to try a 2 foot extension on it just for the sake of it.
And, on a funny note, I was using the term “full-tilt-boogey” all last night when talking about the stove!
ha , must be a Maine thing LOL
If the chuffing happened early on it is definitely a cold pipe. Bring your plumber’s torch with you and heat the pipe up for a minute or two so you can get a good draw on it. The torch also makes starting the stove a breeze.
Great Tiny House post! I love your blog as well!
❤
Emory
helloscarlettblog.com
P.S. I'm now a follower. 🙂
Haha! It’s really more of a tiny vacation cottage, but whatever works! 🙂
I was really excited to read your progress and your update didn’t fail to hold my interest. It is lovely to share this adventure with you. I always loved winter camping. What a great getaway for you and your Mrs.
I have a new appreciation for winter camping. Especially now that I don’t have to freeze my tail off!
I think your idea of cordoning off a sleeping area at night will definitely help retain more heat. I’m sure a big part of the heat loss also comes from all of those windows. I’m sure it is a challenge to insulate a bus and the light/view from all those windows is grand, but those thin paned bus windows let out a lot of heat (or should I say let in a lot of cold…I know, I spent years riding on them in Nebraska winters).