The 3 Best Propane and Diesel Heaters for Your Rig

A very cold and wet camping experience a few weeks ago reminded me of the importance of a good heater in your rig. Upon arriving at camp, I discovered that one of my water jugs had leaked about two gallons of water onto the truck bed’s BedRug liner. Shortly after that, it started raining, which turned to snow a few hours later. The precipitation didn’t let up for two days. It was the first winter storm of the season, and the humidity and cold temperatures made it impossible to dry out the moisture in the BedRug, not to mention all my wet clothing and gear. Like an idiot, I’d left my portable diesel heater at home, thinking it wouldn’t be cold enough over the weekend to need it. I was seriously mistaken.

In my view, the whole point of a built-out adventure rig of any kind—be it a van, travel trailer, or truck camper—is to keep you more comfortable than a simple ground tent would. A huge part of that is providing a warm and dry space to be during inclement weather, which is where heat comes into play.

Sure, a good sleeping bag is really all you need to stay warm and survive cold nights, but we aren’t talking about survival here. We’re talking about thriving, and extending your camping season well past what you’d likely suffer through in a tent. I’ve been testing various budget-friendly heaters in my truck camper over the last year in an attempt to find a safe, reliable solution that’ll keep me warm all winter long.

There are a few main types of heaters: electric, propane, and diesel or gasoline. (You can read more about the pros and cons of each one below, if you’re interested.) To determine the best options, I tried four of the most popular models on the market. The electric heater—a small Honeywell-brand space heater called the Heat Bud—isn’t reviewed here because it simply didn’t heat my camper effectively. It also pulled too many watts from my Goal Zero Yeti 1500X to make the meager heat worth it. All in all, I wouldn’t recommend a small electric heater for your van or truck camper. The propane and diesel heaters I tested, however, are certainly worth considering. Here’s how the rest of the test shook out.

The Results 

• Best Value: Mr. Heater Little Buddy ($65)
• Best Propane: Camco Olympian Wave 3 Catalytic Safety Heater ($360)
• Best Diesel: Vevor 5KW All In One Diesel Heater ($116)
• Types of Heaters
• A Note on Safety
• Takeaways

Mr. Heater Little Buddy

$64 on Amazon  $100 at Mr. Heater

People have been using Mr. Heater’s Little Buddy (and its more common, bigger brother, the Buddy) portable heater to heat tents, campers and more for decades. They run on one-pound propane cylinders, are simple to use, and put out a good amount of heat for their size. The Little Buddy puts out 3800 BTUs. (For comparison’s sake, the electric heater I tested—the Honeywell Heat Bud—puts out just 853 BTUs.) It can run for 5.6 hours on a one-pound propane cylinder and heats up to 95 square feet. The larger Buddy puts out up to 9000 BTUs—more than twice as much heat—and will heat up to 225 square feet. The Buddy chews through fuel, though: it will burn for just 2.4 hours on a one-pound cylinder of propane when running on high.

While Mr. Heater says these are safe for indoor use, I personally have never felt comfortable running them overnight. Such propane heaters don’t have any way to vent exhaust, so all the byproducts of combustion, including carbon monoxide (CO), fill up the space they’re heating. That means you have to open windows to ensure your rig is properly ventilated—not ideal if it’s frigid outside and you’re trying to keep heat in. These heaters have built-in Oxygen Depletion Sensors, so in theory they’re supposed to shut off if there’s not enough oxygen in the space. They also have an exposed flame, so you have to be careful to make sure there are no flammable materials nearby (although they do have built-in tip-over protection that shuts down the heater if it tips over).

In my experience, the Little Buddy did not put out enough heat to warm the camper sufficiently in temperatures below 40 degrees, and was better suited to keeping me warm while I was sitting around before hopping into bed. The Buddy’s 9000-BTU output was a better match for the Tune M1’s size, but the safety concerns and the 2.4-hour runtime meant I only ever used it while putting clothes on in the morning or just before bed. To me, that’s not sufficient, especially if you’ll spend hours inside your camper, either riding out bad weather or just killing time before bed. Winter nights are long, after all. I also found that these heaters do, in fact, add a lot of moisture to the air; I wound up with condensation on the walls of the camper after using both.

CAMCO Olympian Wave-3 Catalytic Safety Heater

$487 at CAMCO  $360 on Amazon

The Wave-3 sounded like a nice compromise between the Heat Bud and Buddy heater: it ran on propane, but could allegedly be run safely for long periods of time. While this heater is not a forced-air furnace with an exhaust vent, it’s supposed to be much safer to use indoors than say, a Buddy (although it does still require ventilation in the space). That’s thanks to a chemical coating on the heating element that supposedly retains harmful gasses. It’s particularly interesting because it can be hard-mounted in a camper or used as a portable heater with the optional leg stand.

It puts out up to 3000 BTUs, is rated to heat up to 130 square feet, has a safety shut-off valve, doesn’t require electricity since there’s no fan, and uses very little propane. I loved that it was totally silent, and I was also able to hook it up to a five-pound refillable propane tank rather than rely on the disposable one-pound bottles. Doing that, I was able to run the heater on high for around 30 hours before running out of fuel.

I still never felt totally comfortable leaving it running overnight while I slept since the exhaust isn’t vented to the outside, but I have run it for six hours while riding out a storm in the camper. I found that it can create condensation on the walls of the camper, but it was less noticeable than with the Buddy.

The biggest downside to the Wave-3 is that because it is a radiant heater rather than a forced-air furnace with a fan, it warms the surfaces (or people) it’s pointed at rather than heating the air itself. While that might sound great, I found that in practice it doesn’t always work—you can feel the warmth from the heater when sitting next to it or getting dressed, but climb up into bed away from where the heater is pointed and it’ll be quite chilly. If you just want to use a heater to take the edge off while hanging out inside your camper, the Wave-3 (or larger Wave-6, depending on how big your rig is) is a great choice, and hard to beat from a price, efficiency, and size perspective. If, however, you want to heat the entire space in your rig and be able to hang out inside without a jacket on, keep reading.

Vevor 12V 5KW Integrated Diesel Heater

$116 on Amazon

Diesel heaters have become tremendously popular for winter camping over the last five years or so. Brands like Webasto and Espar have been popular in van builds for some time, and I first used a Planar diesel heater to heat a teardrop trailer I owned several years ago. I had great luck with that heater, and it was a little too powerful—it could cook us out of the tiny teardrop.

Chinese-made versions of Espar- and Planar-style heaters available on Amazon used to be riddled with problems, and people complained about them breaking all the time. However, they’ve gotten significantly better over the last few years and you can find them for much cheaper than the name brands. I decided to try a Vevor 5KW model, which seems to be the most well-regarded one of the bunch.

The Vevor is an integrated heater, meaning the fuel tank, heater, and all the components are housed together in a box. It came mostly assembled, and all I had to do was crimp two wires to connect it to this 12v plug, connect an exhaust and an air intake hose to the unit, fill it with diesel, and turn it on.

The beauty of this being a portable unit is that you don’t have to do a complicated installation inside your rig—just plug it into your 12v power source, set it outside the camper, run the hose in and you’ve got heat. That’s particularly nice because you don’t have to worry about exhaust leaking inside the camper, or the noise of the fuel pump or fan.

I first used this heater on a late-season Barbary Sheep hunt last January. Temps were in the teens overnight, and a buddy and I stayed warm in the Tune despite having to jerry-rig an entry port for the heat hose to enter and not having the camper’s insulation pack (basically an insulated cover that helps seal in heat) installed at that time. From that first use, I’ve been sold. I’ve found that when running on high, it’ll easily keep the Tune 40 degrees warmer than the ambient temperature. On a recent night that dropped into the 30’s here in Santa Fe, I let the heater run all night on high and it kept the inside above 80 degrees. None of the other heaters I tested could come close to maintaining those temperatures.

The Vevor packs enough punch for the coldest nights I’ve camped in. It’s also incredibly efficient. It uses about a gallon of fuel per night, and only pulls 40 amps once it’s running, so my Goal Zero Yeti 1500x can power it for about 40 hours. That leaves plenty of battery left to run other things in the camper like lights, the fridge, and a vent fan.

The biggest downside to a diesel heater is the fact that, unless you drive a diesel rig, you need to carry an additional fuel source with you. I don’t mind, and the dry heat this thing puts out is worth the extra hassle there—I haven’t experienced any condensation inside the camper when using this heater. One thing you have to watch out for is the cap on the fuel tank—it’s vented, so if you fill the tank and then the heater is rocking around in the back of your truck, some fuel will spill out. I typically fix the issue by putting a piece of tape over the hole or a latex glove under the cap until it’s time to run.

I haven’t had any issues with the Vevor heater over the six months I’ve been using it. Some folks claim Vevors need to be cleaned more frequently than the more expensive units, and that some of the parts like small gaskets and fuel lines aren’t particularly durable. At $116, though, you could buy 12 of these units for the price of one Planar, so I’ll take my chances.

Types of Heaters

First, a quick primer on heaters. The types most commonly found in campers and RVs run off one of three fuel sources: propane, diesel or gasoline, and electricity.

Propane

Propane furnaces have been a mainstay in the RV industry for years. Recently, however, propane-fueled heat has gotten a bad reputation for producing a lot of condensation, but that’s only true of non-vented propane heaters (more on that below). Most quality propane furnaces installed in travel trailers or vans have an exhaust pipe that vents all the byproducts of combustion—including moisture (and carbon monoxide)—away from the living space. All that to say, a quality, vented propane furnace like a Propex or Truma does not produce “wet heat,” and is a great solution for anyone who already uses propane for other camping needs, like cooking. I’ve also found that they work well at high elevations, which can’t always be said for diesel heaters.

Diesel

Diesel heaters have become incredibly popular in recent years due to their size, low cost, ease of use, and in some cases, portability. They’re known for being incredibly efficient, and for producing a ton of “dry heat.” Gasoline-powered versions of these heaters also exist, which mean you can tap into your vehicle’s fuel tank whether you drive a vehicle with a gas or diesel-powered engine. If you don’t drive a diesel-powered vehicle, choosing a diesel heater means you’ll need an auxiliary fuel tank and will be forced to carry around an additional fuel with you. Some diesel heaters also struggle at high altitudes.

Electric

Electric heaters, like space heaters you’d use in your home or office, or heating modes found on many RV AC units, are common. I’ve found these only work for taking the chill off of a cold morning, and don’t provide enough heat to stay comfortable in really cold conditions. Unsurprisingly, they also require a lot of electricity to run, which means you have to be connected to shore power, run a generator, or have a massive, expensive battery bank in your rig.

A Note on Safety

First, it should be noted that each of these solutions could work for your rig depending on how well insulated it is. I’ve been testing these in my Tune M1, which has very little insulation, but if you’ve got a composite camper with a crazy high R-Value, you could likely get away with a less powerful heater.

It should also be noted that anytime you’re using a heater of any kind in a camper, you should have a working carbon monoxide (CO) detector—and a propane detector if you’re using a propane heater—as well as a fire extinguisher. Both these detectors will alert you if gas levels get too high inside your rig, and could save your life if something goes wrong. You can’t be too careful with this stuff.

Anytime I’m winter camping, I also always bring a zero-degree sleeping bag as a backup in case the heater fails.

Takeaways

If you plan to use your rig to chase snow this winter, have a late-season hunt coming up, or just want to extend your camping season, you’re going to want a good heater. If you’ve got a power source and don’t mind bringing along some diesel fuel with you, I highly recommend the Vevor 12V 5KW Integrated Diesel Heater. If you want something totally silent that doesn’t require power and are ok with the additional ventilation requirements, the CAMCO Olympian Wave-3 Catalytic Safety Heater is a big step up over a Buddy-style ceramic heater and, in my view, worth the extra money.