Winter camping

[danrn]

So, we sold our home and will be living in our RW over the winter. Never stayed in a camper during the winter before, so I want to ensure I am covering all bases. I know to use my gas heater for temps below freezing to keep it warm where the water pipes are. I will insulated and plug in my water and sewer lines. I also plan to skirt my RW with insulated material to help keep it warm under neath. Has anyone put an electric heater under neath? If so what kind of heater? I read to put an electrical light in the compartment where the water is hooked up. Also read to keep your fresh water full. I guess in the event your water hose does freeze you can use that water as back up.
Anything else I should do?
Thanks

[mhs4771]

Check with the local Propane Supplier and see if they would hook you up with a bigger Propane tank, like maybe one or two 100 pound tanks. Otherwise you may end up running out for Propane every few days, depending on how warm you keep the RW and what the outside temps are.

[Tomkidder]

Originally Posted by danrn

So, we sold our home and will be living in our RW over the winter. Never stayed in a camper during the winter before, so I want to ensure I am covering all bases. I know to use my gas heater for temps below freezing to keep it warm where the water pipes are. I will insulated and plug in my water and sewer lines. I also plan to skirt my RW with insulated material to help keep it warm under neath. Has anyone put an electric heater under neath? If so what kind of heater? I read to put an electrical light in the compartment where the water is hooked up. Also read to keep your fresh water full. I guess in the event your water hose does freeze you can use that water as back up.
Anything else I should do?
Thanks

If you are going to be there for any amount of time loosely place some straw and D-con under the unit just prior to the skirt this will help. I have the same issues we never know where we will be. As stated in another post we are here in Maine until mid January home for 10 days then off to Ketchikan for 3-4 months

[danrn]

Originally Posted by mhs4771

Check with the local Propane Supplier and see if they would hook you up with a bigger Propane tank, like maybe one or two 100 pound tanks. Otherwise you may end up running out for Propane every few days, depending on how warm you keep the RW and what the outside temps are.

Good point.

[mesg]

Originally Posted by danrn

So, we sold our home and will be living in our RW over the winter. Never stayed in a camper during the winter before, so I want to ensure I am covering all bases. I know to use my gas heater for temps below freezing to keep it warm where the water pipes are. I will insulated and plug in my water and sewer lines. I also plan to skirt my RW with insulated material to help keep it warm under neath. Has anyone put an electric heater under neath? If so what kind of heater? I read to put an electrical light in the compartment where the water is hooked up. Also read to keep your fresh water full. I guess in the event your water hose does freeze you can use that water as back up.
Anything else I should do?
Thanks

skirting the unit will help.. but before you do this, you might want to spend a few bucks.. and 20 or so hours of labour (while it`s still warm outside, and drop the enclosed underbelly.

all your water lines, tanks, drains etc are enclosed in this space and it is NOT INSULATED!!!
My current project is to do exactly this.. insulated what should have been done at the factory!!

I have currently encased all the water lines in household foam strips, 2 layers, one standard 1/2 id and a secondary 2.5 inch piece... expensive yes.. almost 4 hundred bucks for the water lines alone. Reason for this is to add a cushion.. so to speak for temp changes in the lines themselves.

next i will fill the cavity around the fresh water and holding tanks with R9/Inch spray foam.. then, after fabricating a holding area around the tank valves to keep the foam from seizing my dump valves, and using a 4 inch abs drain pipe, (cut in half) cover the slide cylinders before i fill the rest..

To do outside the frame rails. just spray 6-8 inch deep layers , my intent is to cover this with 7mil rigid poly sheets, to keep the road exposure to a minimum,

Final piece of insulating will be the crawl space and genny area, If you drop the screwed in ceiling in those ares you will not find any insulation.

Cavity fill spray foam kits, R9.. 480 bucks.. lowes, home d, ace.. or your local building supply depot, (in the usa)

dont forget to get either gel foam or cushion type foam to make push in insulation for all your roof vents and shower skylite....they bleed heat like#$%^&*

fyi at -20DC we burn through 2 40 pound tanks every 7-8 days.. ima oldish and like it warm..

[mesg]

as an addendum.. after spending an hour cleaning up an exploded bottle of wine....sniff sniff.. we store of hooch in the over head cabinet on the nose..(we have a fl unit). i under took a search and destroy mission as to why. my spouse has complained about the heat in the outer cabinets before... shes not fond of warm rum.. go figure...and since ALL the trim is falling off the living room area.. i got out the battery gun and pry bars.. moved the couch out, and removed to cabinet.. 1 hours work.. (2 beer job). next was to remove the center piece of wall board.. under that was a patch work of bubble wrap insulation and a whack of red tape holding all the small pieces together. To my not so surprise...discovery.. the cheap r12!!!! (yes it was marked R12) single layer insulation!!!! was all at the bottom of the nose cap.. the top 3-3.5 feet of the wall had no insulation.. r21??? I DON`T THINK SO!!!! (current spec on their web site, my brochure states 2 layers of R14 and 1 vertical layer of 7 foil).. so... after i rewire for led lights.., i will be filling the front and rear caps.. with spray foam..!!! just another item you might wish to consider looking at as others have stated they have heat build up and lost in their front cap areas..
I will tackle the rear cap b4fore the snow flies, and once the resident knitter leaves for the day..lmao.. she wasn`t happy at first sight of the interior today...but fully understands now..

[markw]

If you fully insulate the belly, there isn't much point in insulating the water lines themselves. If the belly is heated. If it isn't, then the lines need heat trace under the pipe insulation.

Mark

[ted 95]

What part of the country are you planning om doing this? It makes a big difference if you put a light under the coach or a 5k heater with a blower..
IMO..
Propane...minimum of a 100# tank to keep up the pressure for as it gets colder the pressure in the tanks drop
Water Tanks..never let water to accumulate in your tanks just in case you loose power and they do freeze
under coach..build some kind of wall say 6' above the "J" / radius panel to the ground. With 2" styrofoam. Cover both sides to make it fire proof.
heating..use atleast 2 - 1500 watt heaters below to keep everything from freezing
Gen..make sure you have one in case of a power outage.
freezer ice line...blow it out and close it off under the sink.
windows..there is a type of plastic seal. like seran wrap. that you can cover the windows to make them semi dual pane. it cuts down the drafts.
exterior waterlines...wrap in electric heating cables you can get at a hardware supplire.

good luck...my winter camping will be done in Juno Beack, FL

[Loving Life]

Thanks for all the great ideas. We have to spend much of the winter in Colorado because of George's rotator cuff surgery. We checked into 100# propane tanks, they would not set one up for less than a year.

One other year we used an electric heater under the RW. We had Styrofoam skirting and then the heater under to keep pipes from freezing. We used an energy efficient electric with a thermostat and it shut off if it fell over. It worked well, although I was a little nervous about a fire--since we have heard horror stories.

[ted 95]

as long as you cover both sides of the foam with a 1/4 plywood it will stop it from flaming. you need to get someone to set you up a 100 or larger tank especially for the pressure. n other suggestion is try to use electric heating as it is dryer than gas heating. you need to control the humidity as you can grow mold quickly

[5th_Time]

I bought (2) 100gal propane tanks at Home Depot and had them filled from my reg tank filler in prep for power failures.

They have the same valves as the 40's so no special plumbing.

[travelin' texans]

I rented 100# tank at an equipment rental store & paid monthly, rented full & returned full.