Bongo Fury

I have two camping trips due in the Bongo, both involving sites without hookups. As the weather has turned cold and looks like getting rapidly worse I m looking for some way to get some heat into the Bongo. I am a born Southerner ie wimp, but my excuse is a bad back that gets worse when cold.

I have a suncamp heater that fits onto a 907 gas bottle that I bought for use in an awning. I have never used it due to fears about carbon monoxide. I would never use it in the Bongo in any case. There been far too many deaths at local campsites over the last few years. Under what conditions if any would this be safe?

Since I have a conversion with a double hob I already have a Fire Angel carbon monoxide alarm.

Can anyone recommend anything suitable?

Taking The Fanny Wagon to Arran and Islay next weekend for a week and was wondering exactly the same thing. We thought about hot water bottles, but they're not easy to light your fag on.

There are only two real options, an Eberspacer Diesel heater or a slightly cheaper and quieter Propex Gas heater. I have the latter in my Bongo but only use it to warm the place up when no hookup is available and never leave it on through the night. A really toasty winter grade sleeping bag is the job for that.

I am going to need this set up for Red Squirrel Camp meet in Glencoe on 6th October when not sitting round the camp fire as there are no hookups on this campsite. I can show you how my heater works if you are going to be at the meet.

Tony

Hi
I agree with Tony Mountain Goat There's absolutely no need for heating if you have the right sleeping bag....you can kip in a van at goodness knows how many degrees below freezing as long as you have the right one...and October isn't that chilly! Also agree about not using a heater running on fuel whilst sleeping.
Cheers
Helen

propex gas heater is this the type you get with the wee gas canister you get about three hrs useage?

no the propex heater is a fitted system conects to a bigger gas bottle

http://www.justkampers.com/shop/propex- ... 19842.html

No! This is a Propex Gas Heater.



I use it with a 4½ 1bs Calor gas bottle in a slightly enlarged gas cupboard. Needs to be changed to a smaller Camping gas Bottle if you go to Europe where Calor Gas is very hard to find.

Being an former tent camper who has slept on the Scottish mountain tops I rarely use it. My other half who says that she is always cold insisted on it. Now she wants me to sell the Bongo and buy a medium sized motor home as she says that she is cold in the Bongo with the aft up.

Tony

A gas heater is perfectly safe if you make sure that there is adequate ventilation - Carbon Monoxide is only formed when there is insufficient oxygen to form Carbon Dioxide.
Most awnings have vents built in, so it is usually sufficient to just not fully close the door, leaving a few inches of the zip undone at the bottom - the heated air then rises and exits through the vents whilst, at the same time, drawing fresh air in through the open door. I never used mine in the Bongo, because there just wasn't enough room for safety - I just used my cooker to heat the inside, with the smiley roof vent undone and a window slightly open. I also made sure that I had a Carbon Monoxide detector.
Most of the deaths seem to have been due to barbecues, mainly the disposable ones, which, by their very design, do not allow a throughflow of oxygen, resulting in the production of Carbon Monoxide.

I just stuck a link to a Carbon Monoxide detector in bargins

longhaul8 wrote:I just stuck a link to a Carbon Monoxide detector in bargins

Check out Tesco, they often have them reduced.

helen&tony wrote:Hi
I agree with Tony Mountain Goat There's absolutely no need for heating if you have the right sleeping bag....you can kip in a van at goodness knows how many degrees below freezing as long as you have the right one...and October isn't that chilly! Also agree about not using a heater running on fuel whilst sleeping.
Cheers
Helen

I'm with Helen and Tony, there is no need for heating if you have the right sleeping bag ........ until you get out of it in the morning.

Mary, until we had our Webasto heater fitted, I found that by boiling the kettle to fill the hot water bottles, and to make a drink, the chill had been taken off sufficiently for the hottles to take over. We also had a funny little thing to put over a gas ring, http://www.towsure.com/product/Mini_Hea ... able_Stove. Goodness knows how safe they are, but it only needed to be on for about fifteen minutes and the Bongo was unbearably hot.

I quite like the look of that - cheap too. Does anyone have any views about how safe this would be? (I have a 2 burner hob with a glass cover)?

Am wild camping in a couple of weeks (in someone's drive) - so this might be just the job. I agree that a good sleeping bag is warm enough - but if you are just hanging out in the van - esp. w/ the AFT & inner roof up - it can get really cold.

alimey wrote:I quite like the look of that - cheap too. Does anyone have any views about how safe this would be? (I have a 2 burner hob with a glass cover)?

Am wild camping in a couple of weeks (in someone's drive) - so this might be just the job. I agree that a good sleeping bag is warm enough - but if you are just hanging out in the van - esp. w/ the AFT & inner roof up - it can get really cold.

See my post above It's perfectly safe if you have adequate ventilation.

alimey wrote:I quite like the look of that - cheap too. Does anyone have any views about how safe this would be? (I have a 2 burner hob with a glass cover)?

Am wild camping in a couple of weeks (in someone's drive) - so this might be just the job. I agree that a good sleeping bag is warm enough - but if you are just hanging out in the van - esp. w/ the AFT & inner roof up - it can get really cold.

We used ours on and off for at least a year before we got the Webasto. I always leave the front windows open about an inch and a half (we've got wind deflectors), regardless of whether the gas is on or not, and to be honest, for the amount of heat it kicks out it doesn't need to be on for more than 20 minutes or so before it gets too hot. If it's very cold out, I either put the roof down completely, or at the very least shut it off from downstairs. I can't be doing with heating unoccupied spaces!!!!!! However, I am a bit old school, and will happily sit with a blanket round me and hat and gloves on if I'm getting cold. The heating is more for making sure we're warm before we go to bed, and warm when we surface in the morning.

I'm not a fan of overnight heating at all. Not necessarily because it could kill you if it is gas based, but because in a small space like a Bongo (or even a slightly bigger space like a caravan) you end up waking with a thumping headache and a dry mouth. Even at home, the heating is off overnight.


PS Mary, I've just had another thought. Is your caravan better equipped for cold autumn/winter nights than your Bongo?!

New Forest Terrier wrote:I have two camping trips due in the Bongo, both involving sites without hookups. As the weather has turned cold and looks like getting rapidly worse I m looking for some way to get some heat into the Bongo. I am a born Southerner ie wimp, but my excuse is a bad back that gets worse when cold.

I have a suncamp heater that fits onto a 907 gas bottle that I bought for use in an awning. I have never used it due to fears about carbon monoxide. I would never use it in the Bongo in any case. There been far too many deaths at local campsites over the last few years. Under what conditions if any would this be safe?

Since I have a conversion with a double hob I already have a Fire Angel carbon monoxide alarm.

Can anyone recommend anything suitable?

Hi there,
after 20 odd years of owning VW campervans and sometimes spending up to 3 months climbing in the Alps in it, I'd recommend sacking a heater system and invest a decent amount of dosh in a top of the range doss bag.

This winter I'm hopefully going to be camping in the Bongo in Scotland for winter climbing and I intend to use my old RAB Exped bag I used for 3 Himalayan trips. A decent thermarest and this bag, and I'm toasty!

I've been down to minus 40 in it in Alaska and although you can feel the cold a wee bit, saved my skin a few times. The only time I've had a heater, it was an Eberspacher under the seat thing, great bit of kit but I found it tempremental.

Hope you get a good nights kip :0)
All the best, Den