Winter Help

[gridiron]

I live in Florida, however I have to be in Indiana with my 38' RW for a family medical concern for the month of December. With all the expertise with this forum I need some sound advise on what I should do, purchase and look for when I stay for a month in cold Indiana? I have found a camp site that will be open. All suggestions are welcome.

[bull_chips]

I've been looking at one of the new heated water hoses. However, is the Indiana campground even going to have their water/sewer system operational? In Michigan, the campgrounds shut off their systems in November, even if the campground is open. Then it's haul water time!

Fred

[bull_chips]

http://www.redwoodowners.com/forums/...ead.php?t=2340

Check out this link, it has exactly what you need.

[hoosierguy]

Originally Posted by gridiron

I live in Florida, however I have to be in Indiana with my' RW for a family medical concern for the month of December. With all the expertise with this forum I need some sound advise on what I should do, purchase and look for when I stay for a month in cold Indiana? I have found a camp site that will be open. All suggestions are welcome.

I have lived in Indiana virtually my entire life although I have traveled extensively. The coldest that I have seen in northeast Indiana was approximately 30 years ago when we had -24F degrees at Christmas. About 6 years ago, I was mowing the lawn in early December with temperatures in the 60F degree range. The point is that you can get about anything. Most years, and for the past 20 years, you can expect temperatures ranging from 20F to 40F degrees.

I would recommend planning to use heat tape and insulation on your water supply lines and keep the supply faucet heated and insulated. I don't think you need to worry too much about your drain if you have sufficient drain angle.

Good luck and think warm.

[johnboytoo]

I got one of the thick heated hoses just in case North Texas goes thru Global Cooling

[hoosierguy]

Originally Posted by johnboytoo

I got one of the thick heated hoses just in case North Texas goes thru Global Cooling

Last winter in the Florida panhandle near Destin, our water supply froze one night when the temperature dropped to 19F because I hadn't paid close attention to the weather forecast. My solution, "go further south young man". It was really my wife's suggestion.

[Railcat]

I've stayed in -5 degree weather in a Keystone Cougar, here is what I think you should do for the Redwood. This is my opinion for just staying a month.

New style Pirit Heated water hose a must! Heat tape on faucet buried at least 9 inches below ground level.
Leave tanks open when hooked to sewer, drain fresh water tank, winterize water lines to get antifreeze into outside shower hookups, low point drains and ice maker water line (do not drain antifreeze out of these three areas) turn shutoff valve off on ice maker. Pour a gallon of antifreeze into fresh water tank. Depending on how cold it gets you may want to purchase a 100lb propane tank to hook in. If it gets cold you'll probably go thru a 40lb tank a week if not more. Electric heaters are nice but use in moderation they will not heat your underbelly where all your water lines are. Vent pillows in the vents will help keep some heat in also. In my opinion for staying just a month ground skirting and insulating the windows is to much of a hassle.

[JerryL]

There is also another thread about wintering IN your RW.

[lwg]

Originally Posted by Railcat

I've stayed in -5 degree weather in a Keystone Cougar, here is what I think you should do for the Redwood. This is my opinion for just staying a month.

New style Pirit Heated water hose a must! Heat tape on faucet buried at least 9 inches below ground level.
Leave tanks open when hooked to sewer, drain fresh water tank, winterize water lines to get antifreeze into outside shower hookups, low point drains and ice maker water line (do not drain antifreeze out of these three areas) turn shutoff valve off on ice maker. Pour a gallon of antifreeze into fresh water tank. Depending on how cold it gets you may want to purchase a 100lb propane tank to hook in. If it gets cold you'll probably go thru a 40lb tank a week if not more. Electric heaters are nice but use in moderation they will not heat your underbelly where all your water lines are. Vent pillows in the vents will help keep some heat in also. In my opinion for staying just a month ground skirting and insulating the windows is to much of a hassle.

Curious as to why you recommend leaving the gray tanks open? I would think the odds of a 45 gallon tank freezing solid are pretty low. And in the case of the Redwood the black tanks are physically below the gray tanks so it's likely to freeze first. My thinking is the heat energy contained in a large body of water will make it less likely to freeze than a small body or puddle.

I absolutely wouldn't recommend leaving both gray tanks open with a valve on the outlet like I typically do in the warmer months. That 4" PVC pipe that's exposed underneath will freeze very quickly in that situation.

[Railcat]

I know you wouldn't think they would freeze but they do and they will quick in cold weather. I was staying in a campground when I high end diesel pusher strolled in and got caught in a winter storm and couldn't leave. His tanks froze in two days solid, had to use propane heaters under the coach took over 24 hours to thaw them out it wasn't fun. I'm not sure what valve your talking about but no you don't want anything but a sewer hose connected to the drain. Take long showers and your hose will clean out well. The only real problem is the black tank getting solids built up that's another story to fix this.

[JerryL]

Originally Posted by lwg

Curious as to why you recommend leaving the gray tanks open? I would think the odds of a 45 gallon tank freezing solid are pretty low. And in the case of the Redwood the black tanks are physically below the gray tanks so it's likely to freeze first. My thinking is the heat energy contained in a large body of water will make it less likely to freeze than a small body or puddle.

I absolutely wouldn't recommend leaving both gray tanks open with a valve on the outlet like I typically do in the warmer months. That 4" PVC pipe that's exposed underneath will freeze very quickly in that situation.

Never, never leave the black tank open, no matter the weather, warm or cold. It needs to be let get to around full, to have the head pressure force to push the solids out. And right, in cold weather, don't put an extra valve on the outlet. But, the greys can be left open, as long as there is no valve on the outlet.

[Railcat]

I haven't wintered in the Redwood yet but I'm skeptical that temperatures in the teens for lows and 30's for highs that they won't freeze. It would be really nice if they wouldn't, if you were going to try and use the dump valves you would want to skirt the unit and even put tank heater pads on. I had heater pads installed on mine but haven't had to use them yet.

[JerryL]

Originally Posted by Railcat

I haven't wintered in the Redwood yet but I'm skeptical that temperatures in the teens for lows and 30's for highs that they won't freeze. It would be really nice if they wouldn't, if you were going to try and use the dump valves you would want to skirt the unit and even put tank heater pads on. I had heater pads installed on mine but haven't had to use them yet.

I have wintered, in pretty cold weather, below zero for pretty long periods, in several different brands, and have NEVER skirted. The dump valves work fine, as long as you use the furnace to blow warm air underneath, where everything is located, and above the covering of the the underbelly. I winter in these units year after year.

[atom ant]

OK Todd,
Here is another invention. Come up with a hot water coil system with coils that either go through the tanks or around the tanks carrying hot water from the HW tank. No more reliance on the furnace - all above could be electric heat. Figure running electric on the HW tank and no reliance on propane at all.

[bull_chips]

Add some mash-I think they would call it a "still" !!

[Dave&Ginny]

Originally Posted by atom ant

OK Todd,
Here is another invention. Come up with a hot water coil system with coils that either go through the tanks or around the tanks carrying hot water from the HW tank. No more reliance on the furnace - all above could be electric heat. Figure running electric on the HW tank and no reliance on propane at all.

That could work with some real thought going into the details.

I would like to see the Aqua Hot system out of the motor homes. It's my understanding that they don't use much diesel fuel and I believe folks have had pretty good luck with them.

[ksaltman]

Ok kind of the inverse but a Tesla will redirect the cabin A/C to cool the batteries when they start to get too hot. The inverse using the hot water heater could be useful in this situation.

[johnboytoo]

How about just a 200 watt light bulb ?!?

http://www.redwoodrvowners .com/redwo...1413405812/7#7

[piper guy]

Dave - Aqua Hot has a propane version too. Believe it is an option on upper level DRV. I know the Continental Coaches that Andy and I looked at in Indiana at the Rally had AquaHot systems.

[atom ant]

Originally Posted by Dave&Ginny

That could work with some real thought going into the details.

I would like to see the Aqua Hot system out of the motor homes. It's my understanding that they don't use much diesel fuel and I believe folks have had pretty good luck with them.

Aqua-Hot has quite a story here in CO. Discovery ID did a run on it recently. Not sure the owner was a very nice guy.

http://www.rvbusiness.com/2009/01/aq...slain-in-home/

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14414541