• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Truck camping: What do you use for heat at night as the seasons gets later?

Another trick you can do is boil or heat up some water and dump it into a canteen or water bottle. Place the heated water bottle in the bottom of your sleeping bag 5-10 minutes before retiring for the night. Just careful if you use a nalgene. It can handle boiled water but the water won’t be potable afterwards and will taste like plastic.


Sent from d_mobile
 
Sleeping bags are rated properly, but they’re not rated taking into account your body compressing the insulation under it. I would change my bed design if I were you. Make a frame that holds robik or a nylon that will more than support your weight then attach an underguilt below the fabric. You will NOT get cold then.

I’ve slept in a nylon hammock in some really cold weather with an underquilt and top quilt that made with 5oz Apex II insulation and never gotten cold.
 
Lots of good advice already, the mummy bag inside another sleeping bag works well for me. Mine is a 0 degree, but not good anywhere near 0 by itself. If it's really cold I'll throw a comforter on top of the two bags. Heavy thermals and beanie cap. This is pretty good down to zero. The hot water bottle trick is an additional convenience if you have the means and the time.
 
Buddy Heater. Also, a fleece liner bag inside a 0 degree bag does wonders. I know some people recommend layering or wearing PJs, but honestly, I think stripping down to boxers works the best. This lets your body heat radiate out and heat the whole bag up. The only downside is crawling out in the morning, so throw some layers at the bottom of your bag and slip on before you get out.
 
x2 on the Nalgene filled with boiling water. We did this on a winter backpacking trip where it got down to 7 degrees and I stayed comfortable in my mummy bag.
 
Get yourself a top quality sleeping bag and a Buddy heater to fire up in the morning to take the chill off, before you get out of the bag. That way you'll be warm and safe.



 
Last edited:
I have used and still occasionally use 2" thick covered foam wrestling or workout mat as a cold and vapor barrier then I put down my Slimberjack 80"×42" self inflating sleeping pad and as suggested place my Qualafill semi-mummy bag rated to 0*F inside a large Qualfill rectangular sleeping bag rated to 20* wear HVY/WT Smartwool socks USGI ECW polypropylene LJ'S under 100% synthetic warmup bottoms and top and wear a very heavy weight polypropylene cap
Slept many many a night in low teen temps and was always toasty warm
That is until that dreaded alam went off
 
I'll try to find the video I watched to post, but the guy went over many options. He included combustion in the truck bed including tent heaters and the My Buddy. The safest option to provide continual warm seemed like a small generator outside the truck running an electric heater inside the truck. I've watched a few where they advocate multiple CO and oxygen alarms inside the truck if you run any combustion in it.

There's also a diesel engine/heater that pumps hot air out of it and into the truck and the heater is outside the truck. It seemed sketchy like you are pumping exhaust (even though I know you aren't).

I didn't read anyone mention adhesive chemical body warmers. You could do the water bottle trick and also slap 3 or 4 body warmers inside your sleeping bag as back up. You can get them for 50 cents a pop at walmart.
 
Last edited:
Where I live if u sleeping in a truck topper u are dealing with sweat so I'm a little ignorant on cold weather camping so I spitball this idea and also kinda asking cause I'm curious......

Would it be worth the effort to go to the hardware store and get a stack of that pink/blue insulation board and cut to fit panels to insulate the inside of the topper? Some velcro to hold it temporarily during use and easy removal... I just don't know if it would be worth the effort
 
Just brainstorming here but if I was trying to DIY a carbon-monoxide free solution I'd be looking at a way to store maybe 5 gallons of water, and circulate it with a bilge pump or something through one of those propane camp water heaters. I think on the low end they run about $140-150. I'd design a sleeping platform with a web of pex in it and I think between the small holding tank and the coil you could make a small space pretty cozy. Bonus would be hot water for cooking/cleaning.
 
Just brainstorming here but if I was trying to DIY a carbon-monoxide free solution I'd be looking at a way to store maybe 5 gallons of water, and circulate it with a bilge pump or something through one of those propane camp water heaters. I think on the low end they run about $140-150. I'd design a sleeping platform with a web of pex in it and I think between the small holding tank and the coil you could make a small space pretty cozy. Bonus would be hot water for cooking/cleaning.
I spotted a small hunting camper a few years ago that the guy was doing something like this with a wood burning stove outside, it looked slick, I heat my house and garage with an outside wood boiler so I grasp the concept, I wonder if the heat alone would keep the water moving without a small pump, I know when my power goes out here and the circulator pumps quit the water still moves a little to some extent, I’m no plumber so I could be wrong.
 
Just brainstorming here but if I was trying to DIY a carbon-monoxide free solution I'd be looking at a way to store maybe 5 gallons of water, and circulate it with a bilge pump or something through one of those propane camp water heaters. I think on the low end they run about $140-150. I'd design a sleeping platform with a web of pex in it and I think between the small holding tank and the coil you could make a small space pretty cozy. Bonus would be hot water for cooking/cleaning.
Btu’s are btu’s.....a water heater is not near as efficient as direct heating because you lose btu’s by exhausting combustion air to the outside. An infrared heater like the buddy is 100% efficient because all of the thermal energy is being utilized in the thermal envelope. If you are curious about co blow a cigarette on a co detector and watch it go crazy. Propane heaters have been used indoors for a long time. co is produced from improper combustion. Buddy heaters are a viable solution, but I always recommend using redundant co detectors. You would probably register a higher co ppm from a vehicle idling outside your camper for a minute than you would register from running a buddy heater for 24 hrs. Double up on co detectors and let the buddy heater eat. The worst part about camping in the cold is trying to break the chill in the morning. If you are afraid of the buddy heater buy a propane space heater rated for indoors and hook it up to a 30# propane tank.
 
It would be cool if they had an electric heater on a timer. You could set it to kick on once per hour to take the chill off and then continuously for 30 minutes right before you wake up. One complaint I've heard is that the propane and other heaters are all or nothing and even at low settings they get to hot after a while in the enclosed space.
 
I am 53 years old and I have slept in temperatures well below 10 degrees over the years. My suggestion is to get a sleeping bag rated for -20 and throw a wool blanket over you. I have never been cold with this set up even when ice fishing in -28 in Vermont. The trick is to sleep in as little clothes as possible and shove them in your sleeping bag so when you get up and put them on you stay warm.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Pnuma makes heated vests and pants that run from a battery. You get a battery with each, buy two extra batteries and leave on low or medium setting!! They work wonders!! Shawn
 
Hammock, under quilt, top quilt.

Anything else y’all struggling’ with?
 
I camp in my cargo trailer conversion. I use a buddy heater. I have a co alarm. It will go off if I don’t crack a window. I have the double panel big buddy heater. I only need one panel on low to warm the whole 8x20 cargo trailer with a cracked window. If truck camping, I’m sure it will get real warm. Opens a window more to regulate the temp and be co safe.
 
Back
Top