The way I understand it,  heat strips run off you Air Conditioner and can only be used while pluged into shore power.  While a furnace can use LP gas and just enough power from the battery to run the furnace blower.  Am I right so far?  If you were primitive camping in a small 6ft LQ could you plug in a small ceramic heater and heat the LQ for a couple nights?  Can you put a furnace in a 6ft LQ?   I am trying to figure out if I want a furnace in my 6ft LQ which I have not ordered yet.   Thanks for your advice people.

A heat strip requires you to be pluged into a 30 amp service and is only good till the outside temp reaches 45 or warmer . Heat strips are good chill chasers in warmer areas or if you only camp in the summer in colder areas.

A furnace is usually the best way to go in colder areas and if you camp alot where you dont have anywhere to plug your camper in to a 110 service. As long as you have somewhere to mount a furnace , LP tanks and at least 1 battery you can have a furnace installed for the same price as a AC with a heat strip.

There is also catalytic heaters that also work without any power .Just mount the heater to a wall and make sure you have plenty of ventalation and a CO detector befor using one.

I would recommend a furnace if you are primitive camping. For one a heat strip doesn't do much more than knock the chill out of the air and requires 110v power. A ceramic heater will most likely require 110v. Adding a furnace will be the best money you've spent on your new trailer especially if you are primitive camping alot.

To answer your question about a ceramic heater, it does require 110v (shore or generator) power.  Pretty much the only way to safely heat your LQ w/o shore power or a generator is a propane-fired furnace.  As others have pointed out, the only power required of a propane-fired furnace is battery power to run the blower. 

For primitive camping a furnace is your best, safest bet.  I camped last weekend and both nights it was below freezing.  My furnace in the LQ ran and I was warm.  Without it, my camping up north here would end much sooner than late October.

Drawback of furnace....the blower needs a battery.  I have 2.  As cold as it gets here the batteries would run down after one or two cold nights. The furnace blower really sucks the batteries dry in cold weather.  My solution was to put in 60 watts of solar panels on my roof, which recharges my batteries during the day even in cold temps.  Only needs daylight, not sun.  The other solution would be a generator to recharge the batteries, but of course, if you like primitive camping, you don't want to listen to a generator running half the day (or night), no matter how quiet it is.

You can do the same thing less expensively than continuously running the furnace, by using a $20 ceramic heater. Make sure that regardless of the heat source, you open any and all cabinets that will allow the heat near the pipes. Some piping is inside the floor which will still remain cold and can freeze. If it gets very cold, you may have to blow out the pipes between uses.

Gard

A couple of comments....

I second plugging in a ceramic heater at home when you have the trailer parked in the driveway between camping uses.  Why burn propane just to keep the pipes from freezing?  And yes, open all cabinet doors to be sure the heat gets where the pipes are.

And I very much second the use of solar panels.  While building our house, we dry camped for 3 months (long story) and had solar panels on the roof of the 5th wheel which recharged the batteries daily.  Live in Western WA where we rarely saw a truly sunny day (fall/winter timeframe) and just daylight will recharge your batteries.  If you dry camp alot you would probably really appreciate solar panels to recharge your batteries.