what sort of heating do you use???

G'day gonebushSA, I have 3 kids and don't trust any kind of camping heater inside the tent, so we just throw on the trakkies, wincheater and beanie, with a good quality sleeping bag u should survive those extra cold nights.
cheers, Lance

Coleman make a gas heater (all-in-one unit) that is quite effective. Pesty has one, as do a few other EO members.

You need to be aware of the potential to asphyxiated from the fumes/exhaust of a gas heater. However, I believe the Coleman unit is much safer than a standard gas heater system.

We have one that just screws onto the top of the 4kg bottle, but haven't used it for years.

We have a 6 y/o son who sleeps in the middle of the king-size bed of the Ultimate. He goes to bed before Annette & I and he is nice and warm .....like a hot water bottle...hahaha

Some people use a gennie and a electric blanket!!!! may as well stay at home. haha

You guys are getting old, try some horizontal folk dancing.

Cheers

As we are only 2 adults with no kids we occasionally use the screw on type like Roachie has. Had a look and a test of the Kovea's at the outdoors shop last week, and if we didn't already have our little setup now, we'd buy one. Very surprised how much heat they throw out! We only use ours minimally eg, I put it on for about 1.5 hrs in the morning in extreme cold conditions while making a brew, but mostly its been used when camping where we cant have a fire.If we had young infants, we simply wouldn't use one.

Put some sand in the bottom of a metal bucket then fill with hot coals leaving enough room for a layer of more sand to cover the coals. Stand it on a metal frame such as one that you put a saucepan on over a fire.

It will produce good heat for a couple of hours - just don't knock it over.

i bought some cans of kovea gas for less than $2 each last week.
kovea heater cost $130 in sale at army & navy store.
don't leave gas appliances connected in tent under any circumstances, takes 2 secs to remove cannister.
i have tripled my brownie points.

Gonebush SA,

We also enjoy our camp fires but the problem is the early mornings when the temp inside the van is around 2 degrees or less. We are having a diesel heater fitted to our Trakmaster van later this year. Both Webasto and Dometic make these and they are very efficient. Unit is about the size of a shoe box with a 20 litre tank used to hold the diesel. We have seen one in action on our last trip and they are the bees knees.....

Regards
rnr!MPG:22!

We used our Cobb, last trip away. The mornings were ok as the sun was up before we got out of be but the nights a bit cool after the sund went down. Just burnt off about 10 heat beads in the Cobb and then when glowing and no fire brought into the annex of the camper and put under the table. When they burnt down just put a few more in and burnt off outside of the tent. When we had both units as we were camping with other people and they were all in our annex as it was set up as the eating area and playing poker after tea area we used both units and it became a bit hot with both and 7 bodies around the table.
A versitle piece of camping equipment.
Robyn

If the Kovea heaters use the same disposable bottles as the cheap stoves, then isn't that a problem in itself?
In our experience the bottles steadfastly refuse to deliver gas in cold conditions.

gone bush .........all above answers are great ...but me thinks.you need to turn on the charm before bed time ...and throw a leg over asap to get you warm...(ducks for cover from your ..swimbo)))))

Hi Gonebush

Used a few different heating setups - all of which have been of marginal value as they just don't put out enough heat.

We do find our little sun heater of some use though mainly because it is easy to work with , its no trouble to just turn it on and get a small amount of no-fuss heat.
It sort of like Coleman unit but rated at twice the output.

Until recently Coleman was rated for indoor use , but law changed and it is not now. The little sun is also not meant for enclosed space mainly because of risk on carbon monoxide gas however they work well and will warm up a van quite well.

As per posts above , you should use the 70/30 cannisters which are almost impossible to get in Melbourne , and we find the cheaper 80/20 ok but they reduce the heat output further.

These units claim 1.7kw however they don't in practice put out as much heat as a 1kw radiator we have at home.

While you do have to sit over them they can provide a feeling of warmth and make kids feel better. You can cook toast with them , probably better than on an open fire .

Recently we were using ours outdoors were it was hard to have a fire , and people were sanding around in the cold. As wind was low it was keeping 1 or 2 people "off cold" but then some more turned up and we used a previous trick.
We simply put two of those wire mesh toasters over a twin burner gas stove and turned heat up so that the toaster elements glowed - while not as manageable as little sun it put out twice the heat.

Robin Miller

hi, we went down to Adelaide today after countless phonecalls we finally found 1 store (Boots camping, South rd., Edwardstown, SA) that has the Kovea heaters- every where else sold out. we had a look and a feel and all seemed well and bought one. the normal price was $165, which we thought a bit dear after we heard from other stores that they sell for $130ish but after a bit of haggling, and with the help of friendly staff we got it for $150 which included a pack of 4 gas cans. they seem to through out more heat than we thought, and no you don't need to run the Kovea gas cans in it, any type will do.
we are off tomorrow (hooray!!), so if you are interested to find out how the heater handled the job i will put a reply on this page in around 11 days time.
thanks to all for you help gonebush SA.