Heating Your Airstream Argosy with a Cubic Mini

We have to admit, we were a little nervous with the decision to put a wood burning stove in our Airstream Argosy. It’s not normally done in moving RV’s. After all, the goal was to make our Argosy as eco friendly as possible without the need for so much propane. We also are avid backpackers and always looking to “multi-use” gear, including RV gear. The other reason was in colder or wetter environments, propane heat tends to cause condensation in your RV and that is something we did NOT want. The dry heat of a wood burning stove eliminated that.

The first step was to see if was even allowed.  We read a good article on RVLIFE.com and how many RV’ers have installed one.  We then researched on RV Forums there was much debate on it. Seemed to be a thumbs down, but there was a lot of mention that a Pellet Stove would be better.  We also looked at the National Fire Protection Association’s Standards for Wood Burning Stoves in a RV. We also looked at Ordinances and Regulations for Wood-Burning

We out weight the Pro’s and Con’s and determined that the Con’s weighed heavily on the safety part and the Pro’s seemed to be more on effective heat in small places.

With all the research we noticed a trend among the Marine Lifestyle and how they were using a wood burning stoves quite a bit. So if they were using it, why couldn’t we?

That is when the Cubic Mini Wood Burning Stove found us. It was made in Canada and they had two sizes. The Cub, and the Grizzly.  The Grizzly only weighed 35 lbs and could heat 200-400 sq. ft. Since our Argosy is a little under 200 sq ft we thought this may just be what we are looking for. Plus, when we saw a video of someone installing it in their Airstream. But what really sold us was the fact if you remove the rail you have a cooking area of 6 1/2″ from the flue to the edge of the plate and 13″ side to side. We were sold. Now we have a piece of gear in our Argosy that in cold months we could boil water and have heat at the same time without ever turning on propane. 

The true test of course was that; would it do what we needed it to and was it going to be functional and pass inspections of any kind. We did notice the one thing that could “burn” us, was the transportation of wood from State to State. But we found a solution to that also. It turns out that the Cubic Mini Stoves (made in Canada) are really Pellet Stoves according to the size and capacity of United States Standards. The Cubic Mini’s have a 3 inch Flu size which by all U.S standards are Pellet Stoves. In Canada of course, they are called “Wood Burning Stoves”.

Speaking of Flue size. (AND THIS IS IMPORTANT) There is a single wall 3 inch pipe for wood burning stoves, and a 3 inch double wall. You need to go with the double wall. This will prevent creole from collecting in your pipe and it’s much safer. We went with the Durevent Double Wall Pipe.  (1) 12 inch, (1) 24 inch, (2) Duravent Pellet Stove Vent Elbow 45 Degree Insulated 3 ” Dia. Double Wall All these pipes are made for pellet stoves. Again, Pellet stoves are named that in the U.S because of size. Canada does not do this. So in essence the Cubic Mini in the U.S is a a Pellet Stove and thus sanctioned by Fire Code Standards and are allowed in Mobile Homes.

Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel. We’ll answer all questions there.

Here is the Video of the Installation: Many questions answered on the video.

Other Items we used to complete installation:
Rutland 500°RTV High Heat Silicone (Black) 10.3 Oz Cartridge
DEKTITE PIPE FLASHING BOOT: #7 RED High Temp Silicone Flexible Pipe Flashing Dektite
Simpson Duravent Pellet Vent Wall Thimble Insulated 3 ” Double Wall Steel (I made my own)
Century Drill and Tool 05074 5-Inch Shark Hole Saw