Installing a Tiny Wood Stove in a Vintage Airstream
Nothing is cozier than a tiny wood stove in a tiny house on wheels!
Disclosure: This blog contains affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, may earn us a small commission. We only recommend brands we trust and all opinions expressed here are our own.
Nothing quite compares to the roaring tiny fire, in a tiny wood stove, in a tiny house (on wheels for us).
After careful consideration and tons of planning, we decided to install a Dwarf 3kw wood stove from the folks at Tiny Wood Stove into our 1973 Airstream restoration. We specifically chose a rear-exit stove so we can use the entire top surface to cook on.
At the time of writing this post, we’ve had it installed for over 2 months and we absolutely love it. We’ve been cooking almost every meal on it, and enjoying the warmth and coziness of our new tiny house on wheels.
These are the steps we took to plan and install our Tiny Wood Stove:
TLDR: Watch our YouTube video here!
Planning:
Choosing the proper wood stove:
The interior of our airstream is approximately 152 square feet, roughly 19’ x 8’. We wanted to have the stove close to the middle so it heats the space evenly. We opted for the Dwarf 3k Wood stove. There were many factors we had to consider for the placement:
-Location of the structural ribs of the airstream - we couldn’t move or modify those since they are a structural part of the airstream’s shell
-Weight distribution of our overall trailer - the Dwarf 3k weighs about 80 lbs, and is offset on the opposite side by our 12V fridge that weighs 64 lbs when empty
-Placement of an existing hole - the original kitchen vent fan conveniently had a hole almost exactly where we needed to install the hole for the stove pipe
-Proximity of our roof components - we have solar panels, a skylight, and an AC on top of our roof, so we needed to make sure that we were far enough away from those items.
-The curved pitch of our roof - airstreams are super curvy, and having a significant pitch could result in a hole too large for the silicone pipe boot
-Vibes and aesthetics - to be honest, the look of the wood stove was a huge selling point for us. We love coming inside from the cold, wet, New England winter to be met with the warmth of this tiny wood stove
Our planning for the Tiny Wood Stove installation began almost a year before we actually installed it!
Proper heat clearances:
This is undoubtedly the most important consideration when installing a wood stove. All sides of the stove and the stove pipe give off a ton of heat and if there are any combustable materials nearby, they could catch fire.
These are the clearances specified by Tiny Wood Stove:
Distances to Combustibles Without Shielding
18” from back of the stove
16” from sides of the stove
36" from the top of the stove to the ceiling
18” from single-wall pipe
2" from insulated pipe
In a tiny space like our airstream, losing all of that space around the stove would make the install not worth it. After all, we do need space to put our stuff! We opted to install an air-cooled heat shield made out of .032 aluminum (this is the same material as our walls) and 1” spacers.
With this air-cooled heat shield, we effectively reduced our heat clearances by 2/3rds:
Distances to Combustibles With an Air-Cooled Heat Shield on the wall or pipe (2/3 reduction)
6” from back of stove
5.33” from sides of stove
18" from the top of the stove to the ceiling
6” from single-wall pipe
The hearth and the heat shield are both made of .032 aluminum sheet metal.
Building a hearth: The hearth needs to be made of at least 1/2” non-combustible material and a fireproof cover on top. We used cement board for the fireproof material and the same .032 aluminum for the surface. We also added a large tile on the floor in front in case an ember falls out of the stove (this WILL happen).
Underneath the stove we built in storage for wood, tools, kindling, and our other gear.
Assembling the stove:
Putting the stove together was easy by following the instructions that came with the user manual. I had some issues getting the door handle on, so I had to add a couple washers to the handle to get it to latch properly.
PRO TIP: If you are installing this in a vehicle, remove the leveling bolts from the feet BEFORE YOU INSTALL THE ENTIRE STOVE! (I learned this the hard way).
There’s only one part of the stove that requires any sealant, and that’s where the stove exit flange meets the stovepipe. We used the stove cement provided with our install kit for this. All the other connections call for pipe clamps.
To cure the stove cement and the factory stove paint, we needed to attach at least 40” of flue and do a 2-hour outside burn. Both the paint and stove cement cure at the same time through heat.
The goal of hour one is to get the stove temp up to and sustained at 450°F for an hour
The goal of hour two is to get the stove temp up to and sustained at 600°F for an hour
If the stove gets too hot too fast, it will shock the paint.
We let the stove burn for 3 hours and cool overnight.
Meghan bundled up preparing for an outdoor burn
Installing the stove:
We had the original vent hole as our reference, but still needed to find the exact spot to cut the hole for the chimney.
Tiny Wood Stove recommended a cool trick to shine a flashlight through the bottom of the pipe to show an oval where the opening needs to go. We tried this (it worked really well!), used a laser level, tape measure, and plumb bob to find the exact center of the hole.
I drilled a small pilot hole from inside out, and double checked that we’d have enough space for this location.
Then we cut the hole using a 5” hole saw to start, and snips to get more precise. A nibbler would have done a much faster job.
We attached the double insulated pipe through the hole first, and slid the silicone roof boot over it. We secured the roof boot with rivets and sealant.
Then we attached the single pipe from the stove to the bottom of the double insulated pipe with pipe clamps.
Pro tip: If you are installing in a vehicle, you need to anchor the stove to your hearth. We used bolts for ours and through bolted through the hearth.
After all this we fully inspected all the connections, and lit our first fire!
Meghan doing some fine precision cutting for the exit hole on our wood stove flue pipe.
Since we are a rolling tiny home, we do have the removable chimney kit. When we hit the road, we’ll remove the upper 20” of pipe and install our driving cap. Setup and assembly is quick and easily done with our portable ladder and a screwdriver.
We have absolutely been vibing with this stove and we have zero regrets installing it. There is an undeniably relaxation that comes with enjoying a hot bevvie with your loved on cuddled up on the couch in front of the fire. We’ve used it non-stop for over a month now, and it’s become our primary heat source and cooking surface. We’ll be posting future reviews and some delicious stove top recipes so be sure to check us out on YouTube!
