installing a stove in a caravan

Installing a wood burning stove in a caravan.

We had an old caravan slowly dying in the corner so decided to breath new warmth and life into it by installing our small wood burning stove – the Hobbit stove – inside the caravan.

The 1964 Cambridge Car Cruiser

How to install a small wood burning stove into a caravan.

The caravan – an old 1964 5- Berth Cambridge Car Cruiser.

The position of the old gas heater gave us the obvious position for the wood stove. It would mean losing the small wardrobe but with so much other storage space available in this caravan this was not a problem. Removing the wardrobe would also hopefully open the van up a little.

After removing the wardrobe we had to design the stove hearth around the wheel arch which was now exposed. It seemed a good idea to use this wheel arch level as the height for the actual hearth itself. It would give us a fuel store area beneath the hearth which in the restricted space of a caravan was a good idea.

I found an old piece of hard board which I will use to cut a hearth base. On which I will stick some old floor tiles from a previous project in the house. The hearth needs to be a minimum of 12mm thick if your stove does not exceed 100 degrees to the hearth. This means that other than the flue kit and stove, I have avoided spending any more money.

To shield the area around the stove we are attaching 25 mm vermiculite board with a 15 mm air gap behind it.

The Hobbit stove was then positioned on the hearth in the final location and orientation to allow the flue position to be marked on the ceiling and a hole cut out. The combustible material, plywood in this case, should be cut back 50 mm from the 175 mm diameter twin wall insulated flue pipe.

The combustible cupboard will need to be shielded using vermiculite board. This should be fitted as indicated above, with an air gap of between 15mm between the board and combustible surface.

You can see this on the image. I drilled a series of holes around this outer hole mark and then punched it free. The rough edge of this hole will eventually be concealed by the trim plate.

The wall band support can then be positioned and as in this case a wooden baton can be used to position the support. The wall band extension kits are available in the flue sundries area, if a simple baton cannot be affixed.

Using the trim plate you can mark the hole position on the roof of the caravan. The hole in the outer metal layer can be a close fit to the twin wall flue pipe, so that it can be sealed using heat proof silicone from the outside. This will act as another barrier in addition to the silicone flashing and storm collar.

The flue height is under 3m so I would suggest using the anti-down draft cowl rather than a normal rain cap to avoid possible downdraft issues on turbulent days. This cowl has been specified in this caravan flue kit.