Successful cold weather camping trip...

[Prybry]

I use my Dogde pickup and Bethany Pickupper camper for winter camping while I support the race officals with 2 meter Ham radio. see first photo... Note the 25ft mast with 2M/440 antenna and the Yellow "bubble bee" camper parked next to me is the Check point Coordinator for the entire 350 mile event. We trade off radio support dutys during the 5 days. The "Sawbill" Check point served as the finish for the mid distance race and the north bound and south bound rest stop for the Marathon racers. During the race we are sharing info with the main race headquarters in Duluth MN.

My two biggest issues on past Bear Grease trips has been economical heating and heat retention with essentially a pop-up camper top.
The first problem was using the LP forced air furnace… while it worked great and maintained a 70 degree temperature (as long as the door was closed!) The problem is that it used two forms of energy, neither of which I carry a lot of reserve. The 20 lb LP tank lasts about 36 hours with the heater running. The furnace also uses 12vdc power to run the fan. It draws about 5 Amp/hr from a battery with only 175 hr reserve, so about the same 36 hours before I needed to bring out a generator to recharge.

This year I added a kerosene radiant heater good for 10,000 btu… the best part is that it runs with no DC power requirements and lasts 15 hours on a single gallon tank of fuel. I carried (2) 5 gallon jugs of kerosene and only filled twice a day. So for 4 days of camping I maintained a 75 degree interior for $36 in kerosene. The only issue was that the heater has no thermostat so I was adjusting the open window to control the temp. at a comfortable level. Outside temps dropped to 0 F on two nights... daytime temps in the teen's.

As for heat retention, I came up with the idea of using thermal moving blankets on the roof and sides of the pop out wings. This worked great. I did experience some freezing of the blankets to the side walls due to moisture build up, but only where the outer frame pinched the two materials together. I’m sure that the blankets reduced the heat loss through the canvas.

Here are some pictures of the camper setup to support the racers as the main form of communications. The Ham radio is only reliable system as cell towers are too far away to be usable.

The second photo shows the moving blankets drapped inside the side canvas "wings" to retain heat. The hooks on the straps act like clamps on the frame pipes.
The third photo shows the kerosene heater and my stove making hot water for tea... note the open window and FT817 radio in the center. My typical work table is stowed in this photo.
The forth photo shows one of the dog teams leaving the check point.

Enjoy....!

 

[ober27]

It was fun to see the Sawbill check point here on Expo. I've watched the race several times from there, although it's been a few years since I've followed the Beargrease.
Great information on the Kerosene heater. We are planning on building a camper in the near future, and have been looking into alternative sources of heat for the reasons you mentioned. I'm curious about odor. My experience with kerosene space heaters is limited, the one kerosene heater I own gives off a lot of smoke/smell upon start up and shut down. While running it seems fine, but I use it in a much larger area then a camper.
Great post, and thank you for your work with the Beargrease.

Darin

 

[Prybry]

Yes, I also had some smell at start up but I generally had the door open while I was setting up the camper so the smell wasn't noticed much.
If you run the heater outside on high to break it in during the very first tank of fuel, a lot of the smell goes away on future starts.
One thing I did do was to burn the tank nearly empty before packing up to move the camper, as I was afraid of having kerosene splash out of the heater while bouncing down the road. My heater has a oil level guage that makes this easier.
I also took the tank outside to refill it and wiped it down good before taking it back in the camper.
I also have a CO detector in my camper, and would not recommend running one in the close space of a camper without one. Although my camper is pretty leaky so air flow isn't too much of an issue. I did crack windows on both ends of the camper just to contol the temp.

 

[tanglefoot]

Great setup! At first I was wondering what kind of marathon goes on in those conditions. Ah...dog sleds. The 817 seems like an excellent field radio. How do you like it on HF? Have you used it with the built in battery pack? What kind of battery life do you get?

 

[Prybry]

FT 817 is the perfect feild radio...

I own both the 817 and its big brother the 897
The 817 is always my first choice for field work due to its size and flexablity.
I have a 'go' kit for both radios but the 817 is so much smaller that I throw it in on nearly every trip.
For beargrease we are working with 2meter repeaters so the 5 watts and mast antenna get the job done.
For HF work I carry a Par10/20/40 wire antenna that has given me contacts all over North America, for longer contacts the 5watts is pretty limiting, of course since I'm a voice only operator I'm limited, CW would certainly get you further out there.
I try to plug my 817 in to a 12 volt source when ever possible, mainly since the radio won't transmitt at full power without it. I use the battery mainly for listening. I have a big aftermarket battery which gives me 8 to 10 hours of light talk time.

My 897 is my base rig but I do load it up for field day since the 100 watts will reach out and touch so many more contacts.

 

[Northern Explorer]

Good to hear it all worked out.