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I've been doing some research into kerosene heaters, just familiarizing myself with them knowing I'll eventually need one. I've found that there are used one I could get, and I've looked at various YouTube videos showing people changing the wick. My question is how often in practice do those of you who use these types of heaters have to change the wick?

Also, are there relatively small kerosene heaters for van sized living spaces? Apparently these tend to put out a fair amount of heat.

Thanks

I went and looked at a 1990 Chevy G20 SportVan tonight that popped up on our local paper classified section. It was in pretty good shape and you're right, it didn't have near the level of the plastic smell. It was basically a mini-motorhome and only had two owners over its life. Both seemed to have taken care of it pretty well, but I realized that all its amenities (shower, water tanks, etc..) actually took space away that I might be able to use in a more creative way. Being able to stand up inside was really nice and its something I'm seeing as an increasingly valuable thing to look for.

So my search goes on.

I just got back from looking at an extended length 96 Dodge van. It was a commuter van so it had windows. The downside was that it had a strong smell of hot plastics off-gassing because it was sitting in the sun. I'm guessing getting rid of the seats in it would help, and removing the old carpet would also help, but it's not the first van I've looked at with strong chemical smells. I just don't know how I would deal with that.

My plan is to do stealth parking in the city and for sure that's harder with an RV, but I know where I live people do do it (mostly class C's from what I can see). So I'm also looking for a smaller used RV. I'm going to look at a late 70s Chevy that someone has heavily remodeled.

I watched a video a couple of hours ago about a battery isolator setup and I'll have to watch a few more, but this seems like a very logical thing. I still might opt to go with a single solar panel to help if I'm not driving, but I'm not at that phase yet. I've also been looking at generator options, I know the Honda 2000 is very popular, but expensive and there seem to be some viable and cheaper alternatives to small inverter generators.

I'll have to look at the junk yard angle for used batteries.

Again, thank you for taking time to answer with good advice.

Awesome, thanks again. I'm encouraged about the kerosene heat option. I live in Utah where things do get quite cold during the winter, but am planning on going down to somewhat warmer winter locations in Arizona and New Mexico.

I've been doing a lot of research into the solar thing, and yes I now understand that the batteries are the central part of all of this. My goal is to create at least 400 amp hours of batteries and I'm not opposed to buying new high quality AGM's. The idea of charging them via a connection to the engine is something I have heard of before and I'm going to do more research into it. In fact about 3 weeks ago I went and looked at a used RV (from the late 80s) that has been kept in immaculate condition by an older fellow who is an electrician by trade. He spent almost 2 hours with me going over every system in it, but in particular showed me the solar setup (380 watts solar) that he tied into 4 house batteries and also to the 2 engine batteries (so they acted as a single bank if I remember correctly). So while he drove the engine would charge all 6 batteries, in addition to the solar. So he basically never would run out of power between the two charging sources. He also had the generator tied in as a backup.

Anyway, I appreciate your feedback, no doubt I'll have more questions.

Thanks so much for your reply. I had actually been down to a solar company a day or so ago and they were trying to sell me a near $2500 solar setup and something just didn't feel right. I will need more than just a basic power need as I have two computers, but still what they recommended seemed extreme to me.

I had no idea about the propane heaters so I'm especially grateful for that bit of advice. I looked over on Amazon.com for kerosene heaters. One person complained about the smell from them, is this something you've experienced? How much do they burn? Are there smaller units appropriate for van sized spaces?

Thanks!

Hi folks, I'm new here having discovered this forum today. I'm considering doing a van conversion and have been reading through the various posts here. I'm really glad I found this forum because much of the advice I'm reading seems more grounded than elsewhere. So many of the videos doing conversions seem to get more and more elaborate and I was getting nervous about how over the top some of the conversions have gotten.

I had been looking at windowless cargo vans, but was concerned about that not being right for some reason. Reading posts I see that my gut sense may have been right about them.

I had also been thinking about a big complex (and expensive) solar setup that I'm now reconsidering in lieu of a generator.

So if I read this correctly, some older vehicles are actually better because they're mechanically simpler and thus more reliable? Here's an example of something I stumbled on today and was wondering if this is the kind of thing that has potential for a simple conversion? https://www.ksl.com/auto/listing/3999381?ad_cid=12#

Thanks.