theboondork's RV blog

Brilliant idea ? Or the quickest way to blow myself to smithereens ?

9/24/2021

Clicking the pics will show Fall is on the way to Colorado.

It took my camera with me as I was walking around the neighborhood this morning to try and capture a feeling of Fall as it slowly creeps into Denver. The leaves are just starting to change at this altitude on some of the trees, so they're not pretty yet. But it won't be long now and the Leaf Peepers will be filling up the little mountain towns on weekends trying to find the prettiest view of the changing leaves.

It was in the low 60s this morning as I walked around so I had to wear a long sleeve shirt over my T-shirt, but it's supposed to get up to the mid-70s today so I won't be wearing the long sleeved shirt for long.

I'm not too fond of the factory furnaces in any RV I've ever owned. Their incredibly noisy and wastes propane like the stuff was free. I've dealt with it in the past because I didn't know there was a better way, but now that I've used a radiant propane heater for the last six years or so, they're better in every way, so I want to try using my Mr. Heater, Little Buddy radiant heater in the bronco.

I bought the Little Buddy heater a couple of years ago when I took my summer mini-vacations into the mountains in a tent. And even though it wasn't much fun dealing with a tent, the Little Buddy Heater kept me and the tent plenty warm.

But the little Buddy Heater uses the 1 pound propane bottles that you get at Walmart for two or three dollars apiece which is not only a very expensive way to buy propane, it also doesn't last very long when you're trying to keep an RV warm.

So what I'm thinking of doing is getting an adapter that hooks up to the Little Buddy, so I don't have to use 1 pound cylinders anymore. Instead, I can use the standard 5-gallon barbecue-type tanks and either use a separate tank just for the Little Buddy or tap into a copper propane line that runs to the stove so the Little Buddy can run off the same propane tank that the rest of the bronco is running on.

I'm not sure what I want to do yet if anything. But I sure would hate to listen to that bronco furnace roaring all winter.

Theboondork

4 Comments

Judith

9/24/2021 07:50:30 pm

I love my little 5 lb propane tank for my little grill. Those bigger ones just got beyond my ability in my old age. And I've got plenty of room to store the big ones. Just not strong enough to deal with them without taking the rest of the day off. Sounds like a good idea to convert. I am sure you can figure that out. Those little ones, whether disposable or not, just seem like a bad idea.
Hey, this is my first comment that actually has to do with the rv'ing thing. Ha.
It was 48 here yesterday morning, Lovely. Kept the house open all day.

Tom

9/24/2021 08:37:37 pm

Yes the bigger propane tanks have definitely gotten heavier over the years. The problem I have with the bronco tank is even though it's only a 5 gallon tank, I have to lift it shoulder high to put it into the bronco, and even though the tank is easy to carry around lifting it almost up to my head is a little bit difficult. And since it's only 5 gallons I'm probably going to have to do it more often than changing the 10 gallon tanks in the Arctic Fox.

If you hang around RV blogs long enough you will probably pick up a lot more RV knowledge. Most of my RVing knowledge came from having to fix the things all the time. There's nothing that will teach you about RVs quicker than having to diagnose their problems and repair them. Because paying someone else to do it is either too expensive, there too busy, or you can do a better job yourself.

I too love the cool temperatures of Fall, and with the leaves changing, it's always been my favorite time of year.

Tom

Linda

9/25/2021 01:40:46 pm

The furnace in my van was one designed to heat a semi-truck cab. No noise and plenty big enough for the small space. It was built into a cupboard and ran off my diesel fuel tank.

9/25/2021 03:04:19 pm

Wow! That sounds pretty slick Linda, especially the part about running on diesel fuel, since I have plenty of that always available, and it's a lot less explosive than the other gases RVs use. I'm going to poke around on the Internet and get some more information on diesel powered heaters.

Thanks for that Linda, you really had that boondocking thing down pat.

Tom

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Brilliant idea ? Or the quickest way to blow myself to smithereens ?

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