New to fiver's but have 25 yrs. with a Truck Camper

I have a 25 foot Keystone Hornet that I have been dragging around for the last eight years. I have yet to find a site that I can not fit into. I use a small electric heater ( if hooked into power) to keep the cold off at night and the propane furnace in the mornings if it is still cold. The single battery that runs the fan will only last one night and it is not good practice to drain the battery. I have read and talked to people that have installed a Solar Panel and have had good luck in using it to keep batteries charged. I would be concerned about freezing the water tanks and lines if the storage area was not heated as I have no insolation in the storage area.

aruba Yes I know many companies make a lot of claims about insulation values....I have been looking for a 5er that is known for its insulation such as Arctic Fox if we buy new and dual pane windows with CSA certs.... or at least something built with block foam insulation if we buy used.... Fiberglass insulation was never made to to be in a RV as it will compress and loose its R valve.

Thanks all.... Ya we want to stay with a smaller 5er (30-31' max). I want to be able to get into most older campgrounds (if we stop in our travels) and want a smaller one so off road it will be easy to get where we want as well. We have a friend that drags his 35'+ Montana out to our hunting camp and its HUGE.... to much trouble to get into our area. Also smaller will take less fuel and battery to heat it in cold weather or cool in hot weather. I do plan a solar setup to help with charging... -19 now that's cold Biscuit! Thanks for the info.

We plan to retire and travel...east coast for family and Alaska (in the camper) for us then come back to our mountain property in NV. to build our home and live in the 5er while that happens. Can't wait to get out of CA. Starcraft!

most rv's are not made for cold (or hot). They are not insulated worth a darn. Mine had haphazard placement of insulation in the ceiling (think none in some areas). Furnace takes a lot of power so I would think (know) that battery will be long dead by morning. Most factory convertors will not charge a battery quickly so I use a battery charger to pump them back up.Walls are thin and most have single pane glass so very little R factor there. Tank heaters will take plenty of power, Mostly 12 vdc so a battery bank of 4 or more may be necessary and solar if you don't want to hear a genny run all day. I know your neighbors don't want to. I'd head for temperate climes.

WPRer I just made the same switch 1 1/2 years ago. We went from TC to 5er. I also hunt and fish ECT not as cold as you but I have found that not much changes between the two. Yes you will use a little more of everything. How much will depend on how big of a 5er you get. The extra fuel or battery charging is well worth the comfort. As always Old-Biscuit is spot on with his advice. If you were a experienced camper with your TC you will have a very small learning curve. Welcome to the forum!!!

Some of the newer/bigger 5ers have 40K BTU furnaces.

Thanks for the info. When we camp in cold weather around 3-6 degs with the camper we go through a 30lb bottle every 3 days.... But the camper is small area to heat and we run the thermostat as low as it will go and that's about 45-50 deg. I had not seen any info on heater wattage in any specs so far.
We have a 2000w Yamaha/Smart Tools gen. When we used the camper I would haul our Early Bronco with us and we had a 3800w gen. mounted on the trailer and used that to keep the batts up every day. I know I will have to piggyback 2-2000w together to run 1-AC on hot days camping.
Thanks again.

RV Furnace in a 5vr will be 35,000 btu
They LOVE propane and run exclusively on 12V DC
Either supplied by batteries or via AC Power thru converter.

Rule of thumb..one battery/one night of RV Furnace use then battery would NEED recharged.

Propane......
1# propane is 21,600 btu
30# cylinder------648,000 btu divided by 35,000 equals 18.5 hrs of furnace total run time
(we used a 30# daily when in -19*F temps)

RV Furnace use is necessary in cold weather for 'ducted/heated underbelly'
Space heaters OK for supplemented area heating

12V and 120V tank heaters....
Need AC power or if 12V then need recharging capabilities daily
OK if on electric hookup site.
Boondocking......can limit amount of propane used for furnace but still need generator or larger solar set up for maintaining battery

I plan to look for some answers.... I have questions... Silly stuff such as tank or underbelly heating as we camp boondock style many times and with buying a fiver I want to be able to keep from freezing.... We want to leave our 5'er parked while we explore or hunt and come back to a coach that is not froze up or dead batteries... I have seen there are 120v AND 12v heaters And underbelly heating on 5'ers. Most sales people we have run into can't answer my questions!

Can I run heaters on batteries only or do I have to run a gen to keep batteries up. We have camped at 0 degrees in our camper (hunting) and run our heater on low and have not froze up yet and when we return after several hrs. we run the gen to top up the batteries. This works well in the camper but how do the heaters work in a fiver??
Thanks for any insight on how these systems work in a 5'er.

I loved our camper, but DW hated to make the bed. I lost. But the 5ver is really nice.

Might want to send some time pursuing topics on the 'Fifth-Wheels' section and on the 'Full Time RVing' section

And of course the 'Tow Vehicles' and 'Towing' sections