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Old 11-23-2020, 05:53 PM   #1
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Heating half bath in Voltage 4000

Just wondering what other Toyhauler people are doing in cold weather camping to keep half bath warm and from freezing up when gets real cold
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Old 11-23-2020, 07:24 PM   #2
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You can put an electric heater in there to warm it up but if the plumbing is like mine it may freeze anyway.
My plumbing runs under the floor and comes up into the bathroom in the wall. No heat in the floor or that wall. I have opened the wall and wrapped the pipes but that doesn't take into account the pipes in the floor, where the heat is but an engineer's wet dream.
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Old 11-23-2020, 07:40 PM   #3
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thx
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Old 11-30-2020, 03:51 PM   #4
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I have a Voltage 3895 (2014) and had to completely replace the bottom (this past summer) coroplast liner due to previous work by the dealer. I was a little shocked by what I found after removing the bottom.


The Voltage literature for those past years claimed a R Value of 40 in the floor. That is a complete lie as non of the Voltages (probably all of them including the newer models today) have any insulation other than the 2" of Styrofoam and the 1" of flooring. That gives you a R Value of about 8. In the upper half of the 5th wheel the only insulation is the 1" plywood flooring. The radiant barrier they tout is completely worthless and is more of a marketing tool if anything.



I ended up completely insulating the floor and the frame using R15 Rockwool Brand insulation available from Lowe's. It is flame retardant (2250 degree flame resistance) and is also water resistant. I pulled the gas tanks and completely insulated underneath the garage too. The new insulation made a huge difference. We can now camp comfortably using a space heater and the fireplace in low 20 degree weather.



The main cause of your water pipes freezing is due to the open gaps in the frame where the electrical and hydraulic lines pass though to the outside of the RV. The openings are big enough to let plenty of heat out and cold air in. Without doing what I did to insulate everything, you can get some Black/Gray spray foam at Lowe's and or use black buytl rubber to seal up those holes in the frame. That will at least help keep some of the heat in from the tank heaters.


The second thing you can do is install a Seaflow 12V blower fan in and around where the hot water heater and furnace are. Drill a 3 inch hole in the flooring which goes into the basement. The blower is flange mounted and can be set up with a speed controller. I would then put a space heater in the basement which will provide the blower with sufficient hot air to keep the area in between the frame from freezing. The SeaFlow blowers are available on Amazon.


Unfortunately, these RV's don't go to the degree I would if any of us were building them. The amount of excess wire under there was amazing. Any cost of insulation could have been recouped by the copper savings in wire alone. Just my two cents.
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