Fulltiming in Real Winter Conditions, Challenges and Lessons So Far

[Country Campers]

Well at least your having fun with it. If you are coming thru Pa. stop and say hello.

Brian

[chemist308]

That 312 looks beautiful with the snow! I'm in a Reflection 337RLS and just did the EZ Snap skirt last Saturday. Not a moment too soon, as the cold snap hit immediately after. Skirt made a huge difference, but if I ever drop the coin on something with a drop frame, I'll spend the money on a pro installed system. +1 on the space heater and furnace--combo is working well so far. What concerns me are the ice cycles hanging down the gutters and attached to the slides...

[Lizardqing]

That 312 looks beautiful with the snow! I'm in a Reflection 337RLS and just did the EZ Snap skirt last Saturday. Not a moment too soon, as the cold snap hit immediately after. Skirt made a huge difference, but if I ever drop the coin on something with a drop frame, I'll spend the money on a pro installed system. +1 on the space heater and furnace--combo is working well so far. What concerns me are the ice cycles hanging down the gutters and attached to the slides...

We haven’t been stationary long enough to consider skirting yet. Hopefully where we will be for a until March won’t be requiring that either. I did get a kick out of the forecast here in Mississippi where we are tonight though:



After the last week and a half we have had, I’m not sure their idea of hard freeze is going to be intimidating me too much!

[Nuffsaid]

Isn't cold weather camping fun? I have learned some hard lessons along the way and every time I am in cold weather (teens and lower) I keep learning. On my 2001 Holiday Rambler Alumiscape 30RKD I quickly learned that if the furnace wasn't running to keep the underbelly warm, the water lines would freeze. I put heat tape on the water lines and insulated them and that helped some, along with using the furnace. The next big issue I had with that trailer was condensation on the trim around the slide outs effectively created an ice weld to the weather stripping. Retracting the slides required cutting the foam insulation away from the aluminum trim. On that trailer I cut pieces of 2 inch blue rigid insulation and fit them into the frame rails to help insulated the belly. Some improvement. When the temps get to -10 and the generator oil is too thick to let the engine turn over to charge the batteries, it sucks, LOL.

With our new Solitude, we have never had a freeze up yet. We use the furnace and the fire place, but could use more heat. I recently spray foamed the frame rails and I think this is a good help on keeping the plumbing from freezing. So far so good. The big windows we have let a lot of cold in. I have cut foil faced bubble wrap and it creates a draft at the bottom of the window where cold air follows the foil downwards making anything below the windows very cold. Slide out floors are cool as is the floor under the rear couch and the metal strip from the solid stairs that extends into the interior is also a heat sink of cold. The solution to me would be like a wall tent in hunting camp. A larger heat source would overcome the heat loss. I might try crimping on a ball valve on the overflow on the fresh water tank to prevent the siphoning effect.