RJHunter
01-02-2021, 01:16 PM
My family likes to get out camping as often as possible…which isn’t often enough. Fly in, jet boat, hike in and car camping in all seasons to get us out of our comfort zone and experiencing adventures. We started off using a travel trailer when the kids were young but moved to tenting or sleeping in the back of the truck as soon as the kids were able to take care of themselves a little. We also owned a wall tent at one point which was awesome but was a bit large for packing into the backcountry. I’m sure we will change shelters again at some point but our pop tents and tipi seem to do the trick for now.
This fall we took our jet boat down the river to camp and look for deer and elk. The weather was mild but did dip below zero at night and it was a little cool in the 8 person, 3 season pop tent. I brought a Mr. Heater Buddy Heater to take the edge off and used it to warm up a little when crawling into bed at night and waking up in the morning. I use a carbon monoxide detector and have not seen an issue with the buddy heater but don’t run it while sleeping. I don’t want to chance starting a fire, carbon monoxide or deal with the condensation created. We use quality sleeping bags and don’t really need a heater but it sure is nice to get out of the sleeping bag when its warm. The tipi stove is great however it’s small and needs wood added often so it will be cool at night while sleeping. It’s actually a lot warmer sleeping in a small 4 season pop tent than a tipi since you are warming less air space. I decided to try and find a better heater for warming the tents, tipi and truck canopy through the night while sleeping to make it more enjoyable for all when possible. I wasn’t looking for a backpacking solution but something that could be used when camping near the boat, truck, UTV etc.
https://i.imgur.com/yfEeZlM.jpg
The diesel air heater looked to me to be the best option for what I was looking for and I really like the look of the Planar Portable unit. https://planarheaters.com/product/portable-diesel-air-heater-planar-2d-12/. I’m sure this is a quality unit and great for heating whatever you need but the cost ($1700) is a bit steep for me so I decided to look for more of a DIY solution. That’s when I came across all sorts of YouTube videos showing cheap Chinese diesel air heater builds. You basically buy a kit online from ebay, amazon etc and it comes with the heater, fuel tank and most of the other parts you will need to build a heater. Costs are $200-$300 and you need to find some sort of mount location in whatever you want. I wanted the unit to be portable so build it into a case. There are many good online videos and I think John McK 47 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLxP_AwzCecuipKsLK1uAvQ has the best in depth info on these heaters and how to mount them. He also goes over trouble shooting and what to expect when buying these units. I strongly suggest watching his videos before purchasing.
I don’t have any original ideas on this and my knowledge is limited to what I’ve learned from watching YouTube but I think the build worked out great and I’m very impressed with how functional this unit is especially for the price. There are lots of builds online so I'm not going to go into details of the build but I thought I would share some info for anyone on here that may be interested in building their own tent heater. I built our 5KW unit with my son who used it as a school project. It was fun learning for both of us. Everything arrived in good condition and no issues with any parts.
My wife and I took our 4 kids out winter camping and ice fishing out on a lake last weekend and ran the heater for the first time. It was a complete success. I intended to setup the tipi and woodstove for hanging out and the pop tent for sleeping in but underestimated how many ice anchors would be needed to secure the tipi and ran out. We ended up sleeping in the tipi on a tarp to stay above the melting water. We don’t have any cots but the sleeping pads and tarp seemed to insulate good enough. Once the woodstove burned out, we used the diesel air heater alone to warm the tipi through the night. It was around -10 degrees outside; I don’t know what the temp was inside but we were all warm enough to get a good night sleep and easy to get up and dressed in the morning.
Here are some of the Pros/Cons for the unit that we learned on this first trip.
Pros
We ran the heater for 22 hours in total and only burned 10L of diesel. The temp was set between medium and high so you could burn a little more if needed or much less on low.
Easy to fire up and ran without any issues
Portable
Easy to control fuel flow speed
Low noise, like sound from an RV furnace.
No concern with fire
All exhaust is outside the tent
No carbon monoxide. I still use a monitor.
Warm dry heat which helps reduce condensation and can easily dry gear.
Remote Control allows you to turn the unit on/off and control the temp from your sleeping bag.
Low power draw 2-3 amps.
Cons
Deep Cycle battery is heavy and should have a case to prevent gear from contacting it and potentially shorting out the terminals and getting any battery acid on gear. You could run off a smaller battery depending on how long you need for run time. I think a battery case should be used for portable units for safety.
Not a con for the heater but heat and ice = water which can make things interesting.
I hope that helps if anyone is looking at these units. I think they are well worth the money and pack a ton of features into a more budget friendly option. I’m sure the more expensive authentic units are better quality but this will do for what I need.
No fish this time but everyone had fun and had somewhere to go and warm up.
https://i.imgur.com/hUc6EiU.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/BYA2iNM.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/VPMzWSZ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/uE6NuaR.jpg
This fall we took our jet boat down the river to camp and look for deer and elk. The weather was mild but did dip below zero at night and it was a little cool in the 8 person, 3 season pop tent. I brought a Mr. Heater Buddy Heater to take the edge off and used it to warm up a little when crawling into bed at night and waking up in the morning. I use a carbon monoxide detector and have not seen an issue with the buddy heater but don’t run it while sleeping. I don’t want to chance starting a fire, carbon monoxide or deal with the condensation created. We use quality sleeping bags and don’t really need a heater but it sure is nice to get out of the sleeping bag when its warm. The tipi stove is great however it’s small and needs wood added often so it will be cool at night while sleeping. It’s actually a lot warmer sleeping in a small 4 season pop tent than a tipi since you are warming less air space. I decided to try and find a better heater for warming the tents, tipi and truck canopy through the night while sleeping to make it more enjoyable for all when possible. I wasn’t looking for a backpacking solution but something that could be used when camping near the boat, truck, UTV etc.
https://i.imgur.com/yfEeZlM.jpg
The diesel air heater looked to me to be the best option for what I was looking for and I really like the look of the Planar Portable unit. https://planarheaters.com/product/portable-diesel-air-heater-planar-2d-12/. I’m sure this is a quality unit and great for heating whatever you need but the cost ($1700) is a bit steep for me so I decided to look for more of a DIY solution. That’s when I came across all sorts of YouTube videos showing cheap Chinese diesel air heater builds. You basically buy a kit online from ebay, amazon etc and it comes with the heater, fuel tank and most of the other parts you will need to build a heater. Costs are $200-$300 and you need to find some sort of mount location in whatever you want. I wanted the unit to be portable so build it into a case. There are many good online videos and I think John McK 47 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLxP_AwzCecuipKsLK1uAvQ has the best in depth info on these heaters and how to mount them. He also goes over trouble shooting and what to expect when buying these units. I strongly suggest watching his videos before purchasing.
I don’t have any original ideas on this and my knowledge is limited to what I’ve learned from watching YouTube but I think the build worked out great and I’m very impressed with how functional this unit is especially for the price. There are lots of builds online so I'm not going to go into details of the build but I thought I would share some info for anyone on here that may be interested in building their own tent heater. I built our 5KW unit with my son who used it as a school project. It was fun learning for both of us. Everything arrived in good condition and no issues with any parts.
My wife and I took our 4 kids out winter camping and ice fishing out on a lake last weekend and ran the heater for the first time. It was a complete success. I intended to setup the tipi and woodstove for hanging out and the pop tent for sleeping in but underestimated how many ice anchors would be needed to secure the tipi and ran out. We ended up sleeping in the tipi on a tarp to stay above the melting water. We don’t have any cots but the sleeping pads and tarp seemed to insulate good enough. Once the woodstove burned out, we used the diesel air heater alone to warm the tipi through the night. It was around -10 degrees outside; I don’t know what the temp was inside but we were all warm enough to get a good night sleep and easy to get up and dressed in the morning.
Here are some of the Pros/Cons for the unit that we learned on this first trip.
Pros
We ran the heater for 22 hours in total and only burned 10L of diesel. The temp was set between medium and high so you could burn a little more if needed or much less on low.
Easy to fire up and ran without any issues
Portable
Easy to control fuel flow speed
Low noise, like sound from an RV furnace.
No concern with fire
All exhaust is outside the tent
No carbon monoxide. I still use a monitor.
Warm dry heat which helps reduce condensation and can easily dry gear.
Remote Control allows you to turn the unit on/off and control the temp from your sleeping bag.
Low power draw 2-3 amps.
Cons
Deep Cycle battery is heavy and should have a case to prevent gear from contacting it and potentially shorting out the terminals and getting any battery acid on gear. You could run off a smaller battery depending on how long you need for run time. I think a battery case should be used for portable units for safety.
Not a con for the heater but heat and ice = water which can make things interesting.
I hope that helps if anyone is looking at these units. I think they are well worth the money and pack a ton of features into a more budget friendly option. I’m sure the more expensive authentic units are better quality but this will do for what I need.
No fish this time but everyone had fun and had somewhere to go and warm up.
https://i.imgur.com/hUc6EiU.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/BYA2iNM.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/VPMzWSZ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/uE6NuaR.jpg