Prolonged Cold Weather Use Observations...

[ATCguy]

Although it was't my intention to be in cold weather when I came to AZ this year... for the past 3 weeks I've stayed in the rig with daily highs in the 50s, and lows around 30. These are just a few observations I've had, in no particular order:

* The slide outs… especially the one on the main room... could REALLY benefit from some type of insulation. When I sit down on the couch at night, I can just FEEL the cold radiating off of the walls. I can only imagine the same happens during the heat of the summer, though it’s not as noticeable. Not sure how this could be accomplished, as the walls, by necessity, must be remain thin.

* Similarly, the sliding glass door between the LR & the garage radiates cold also. I combatted that by installing a curtain rod above it in the LR, and hanging an insulated blackout curtain... which works far better that the thin one Dutchmen gave us on the garage side. Of course, closing up the back ramp door and not using the patio helps too.

* The furnace does a great job of heating & raising the temp in the main room & bath... but I've found using small electric ceramic disc heaters during the day to maintain temp is far more efficient. (more on that below)

However, since the furnace also heats the basement, and with temps regularly dropping below freezing at night... I would run the furnace at night with the thermostat set at 55, just to keep the water lines in the basement warm. I would then move my electric disc heater into the bedroom with the door closed to not affect the thermostat in the LR.

Using my furnace this way... and then bumping the thermostat up to 70 in the morning to take the chill off... I found that I could get about a week's worth of use out of a single full tank of propane.

* Something I didn't notice about my double refrigerator/freezer last season... but the left side of the freezer is definitely colder than the right. Pints of ice cream in the left side are frozen solid, while pints on the right remain soft, regardless of whether there are other items in with them or not. Strange.

* Another thing different is that overall water pressure in the rig is definitely better than last year. I noticed this right off at the very first stop from NC to AZ. Although I had blown out the water lines once last year with my air compressor... I guess when I did it back in November it must have dislodged some type if trash in the lines, because I've got near residential pressure now. So I've got that going for me... which is nice.

* Adding a quart of that CAT anti-stiction fluid into the hydraulic leveling system definitely works & eliminates the frequent ‘popping’ & creaking of the levelers.

[azdryheat]

We were camping at Catalina State Park, near Tucson, last week for New Years and found that our furnace fan is really loud. I'm going to see if there's a way to quiet the noise. We were envious of the motorhomes parked around us that used pure electric heat and were quiet. Would love to see an electric heat option on our trailers.

We used two oil based electric heaters and the fireplace to warm the main cabin and garage to cut down on propane use, although we took extra propane with us. And you're right that our trailers don't have enough insulation but that's just the nature of the beast. They may claim big insulation numbers to sell trailers but that's a joke. We kept warm but the heaters had to be working all the time.

It snowed on us so I had to climb on the roof to get the snow off the slides when it came time to leave. Not going to get toppers as snow is a very rare occurrence for us to camp in.

Still, it was a worthwhile camping experience.

[wino]

I've done a lot of cold weather rv living. During elk season in northern nv, we routinely see temps near zero. A couple of little tricks I do are, foam insulation around the slides, 2" thick stuff from Home Depot. A buddy of mine bought some high dollar foam insulation, cut to fit and numbered it so he can put back in the same spot, and uses velcro strips to hold in place. I just duct tape mine. With the water if you leave the faucet drip, I mean 1 drip every 20 to 30 seconds, will usually keep the line from freezing unless way below zero. If boondocking, we drip it in a pail and dump back in fresh tank, or use for coffee to not waste it. Another trick, instead of paying a Benjamin for a heated hose, go to Home Depot and buy 3/4" pex tubing, hose ends, proper length of heat tape, foam pipe insulation, and duct tape together for an economical heated hose. My last one was under 60 bucks, and will way outlast a heated hose. We lived in our's last winter in SLC, Ut, November till April, with temps down to 25 below and never had a problem. If your toilet dump is right above the drain on the black tank, we leave it open and flush 2 or 3 times, full pots of water. Then when it warms up, flush good with the sani-flush system. I know this will freak out alot of people, but I've never had a problem with frozen dump valves or clogging up the black tank, etc. P.S., we only do this in sustained below freezing weather, when temps are above freezing for the most part, we use the black system as intended.