Four season full timing in a fiver.

millerwd wrote:
I've made inserts for our vents, magic fan and shower skylight in the current class C. They are made out of two inch thick blue rigid foam. You loose a lot of heat from those penetrations. Keeping the current drawn on the over head and the cab draped off also helps a lot.

Not for the shower skylight but I just bought these and they work great.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0024E6QX0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I've made inserts for our vents, magic fan and shower skylight in the current class C. They are made out of two inch thick blue rigid foam. You loose a lot of heat from those penetrations. Keeping the current drawn on the over head and the cab draped off also helps a lot.

We camped year round in our Weekend Warrior, but are not full time. Ours had insulated tanks and belly but the windows were single pane with a reflective coating. Our open garage floor plan could be heated for two nights on one 30 lb cylinder, but the dual batteries had to be charged back up by the generator daily due to heater duty cycle. I'm sure most of our heat loss was through the rear ramp door and windows since they would sweat. Our walls, ceiling and floor were dry and comfortable. I did wrap all exposed pipe in foam which helped the most inside the storage areas and cabinets that did not get as much heat. Pulling in the slide did keep it warmer since the slide walls were not insulated.

Definitely choose dual pane windows and insulated underside if you plan to camp in bellow freezing weather. We always had water in the tanks and avoided using a tap since we did not have a heated supply hose. Only once the dump valves froze and I had to run the generator to thaw them with a hair drier at the dump station.

With a couple of space heaters you can keep a TH very comfortable in very low temps- and not use a ton of propane.

At least the above has been my experience in temps down into the single digits.

Thank you for the replies. The DRV Fullhouse is looking like the type that would meet our mission goals. ;-) We won't be ready to roll until July of 2017. That gives us a lot of time to shop. We'll be looking for the 'due to health" and other distressed sellers and have cash on hand. I've flipped a view cars, pickups and John Deere's over the years.
Now to define the pre 2008 hauler. I want to be able to chain up (cam-lock) this pair if required. Best to be prepared.

Cheers.

jims1 wrote:
$100+.

That's pretty cheap.

With the right RV, you can live in cold or hot temps with ease. Look at the older toy-haulers that were built by the more expensive companies. Many of them are out of business but their products are still available used. Excel built a great hauler, Carriage, Travel Supreme had haulers as well.
Today, Grand Design or Jayco is probably the best you can get with a reasonable budget. DRV has the Fullhouse but they are pricey at $100+. As mentioned above, the garage floors are not insulated but can be with some ingenutity. Spray foam and CoraPlast can be installed under the floor creating an insulated area.

We are looking forward to some winter camping with ours. My better half has set up a thick blanket across the face of the ramp. No separate garage, but is only a 26'. Will take an extra propane tank.

We spent about a month (Dec/Jan) last winter across from a family with four kids who full-time in a large toy hauler. This was in Las Cruces, NM, and the temps got into the mid-20s overnight for about a week around Christmas. The mom was telling me they found it nearly impossible to keep the garage warm enough to use at those temps. They did all their "living" in the front part of the trailer with the garage closed off and still had to supplement with portable electric space heaters and stay bundled up. They were also using about 2 - 3 times the propane we were.

We full-time in ours. Lowest temp last year was -1F. Went through one 30# bottle of propane a day at those temps, but we kept the interior living areas just under 70F. The garage was in the 50's if I remember right. It only has one heat vent for the whole thing.