Class B or C? Especially cold weather...
Couple ready to purchase first rv...Class B or C rv? We want to travel, camp, boondock or go to an RV park. We sea kayak and downhill ski... Plan to travel in winter too and be able to tolerate freezi...
Forum Discussion
Most of this copied from one of my previous posts:
Our Winnie has all of the cold weather options that were factory available in 2010. That said, here's the problem:
We have water lines that run through the galley cabinet, the bathroom cabinet, under the floor across the hallway to under the shower pan, to under the bedroom vanity and under the closet - (just under the closet drawers) to the water heater.
Every single one of these locations - even though they are inside the motorhome, get well below freezing - I know this because we got caught for five days in a surprise snow storm and the temps did not make it out of the low 20's. - we rushed to winterize and lived out of water jugs - I put thermometers in those locations out of curiosity. These areas are closed off to any air circulation - even with the cabinet doors opened, the temps in several of those compartments remained well below 32 degrees for days. The park rangers came around and turned on all of the water faucets (full hookup Texas state park) and most of those still froze solid - (we have some cool pics!). (This was in an area of Texas that sees freezing temps for that long of a stretch once every 100 years or so!!)
As a result, I wired every single one of those areas with sockets for (standard incandescent) light bulbs. Granted, we need shore power for this to work, but we can leave the water system "wet" and functional in a pinch. We seldom dry camp when the temps are generally below freezing, so we would likely be in a location with electricity (or would have to run the Onan).
Also, if you have a Ford chassis, you need to have the engine running when you turn the chassis heat/air off - otherwise, the vents do not close and you will have a major entry point for the cold air (or hot air in the summer). Ford uses the engine vacuum lines to physically close off the system from the outside air.
Our Winnie has all of the cold weather options that were factory available in 2010. That said, here's the problem:
We have water lines that run through the galley cabinet, the bathroom cabinet, under the floor across the hallway to under the shower pan, to under the bedroom vanity and under the closet - (just under the closet drawers) to the water heater.
Every single one of these locations - even though they are inside the motorhome, get well below freezing - I know this because we got caught for five days in a surprise snow storm and the temps did not make it out of the low 20's. - we rushed to winterize and lived out of water jugs - I put thermometers in those locations out of curiosity. These areas are closed off to any air circulation - even with the cabinet doors opened, the temps in several of those compartments remained well below 32 degrees for days. The park rangers came around and turned on all of the water faucets (full hookup Texas state park) and most of those still froze solid - (we have some cool pics!). (This was in an area of Texas that sees freezing temps for that long of a stretch once every 100 years or so!!)
As a result, I wired every single one of those areas with sockets for (standard incandescent) light bulbs. Granted, we need shore power for this to work, but we can leave the water system "wet" and functional in a pinch. We seldom dry camp when the temps are generally below freezing, so we would likely be in a location with electricity (or would have to run the Onan).
Also, if you have a Ford chassis, you need to have the engine running when you turn the chassis heat/air off - otherwise, the vents do not close and you will have a major entry point for the cold air (or hot air in the summer). Ford uses the engine vacuum lines to physically close off the system from the outside air.
