New to RV's and need some advice for winter....

Hi,

I am new to RV's. Let me tell you first about what I am doing and have done then I will get to the actual question regarding winter RV stuff.. I bought a 1998 38' Four Winds WindSport used for $5000. When it was offered, the first question I asked was NOT what is broken rather I asked if anything actually worked! :-)

Amazingly, the unit is in great shape. The only problems initially were the right rear jack was bent due to a driver not raising before moving and the genset not starting probably due to bad fuel after sitting for a few years. That is it for major issues so far.

Of course there have been normal issues, broken drawers, burned out bulbs, missing screws etc as well as caulking and sealing cracking and crumbling. We have spent about $1500 in the last two weeks working on all those little normal things and normal maintenance.

I have also designed and built a completely off grid power system for the unit as well based on solar and dual wind turbines. We produce about 1kw of power on a good day with both. I added 6 deep cell batteries to the unit and we can pretty much run indefinitely now as long as the wind and sun are available. Only things we cannot run for long are the AC units or microwave. With the system I can produce about 15 AMPS through the multiple inverters for about 6 hours if I am running everything at once... which is not normal of course. Of course we can always plug in for AC if need be but since winter is coming, not really an issue now.

We have been running a few lights, heat, frig, computers, TV and satellite and a few other small items now for two days and the system has remained at 100% until a little bit ago when it started to rain.. and there is no wind. Once the battery bank drops to 25%, the genset (using an backup portable right now due to the built in one needing carb cleaning from sitting so long) will automatically start and charge the batteries back up then the genset will power down until needed again.. (I am thinking about turning this into an actual product/Kit people can buy for camping, RV's, etc) All the RV'rs that have seen my setup really want it for their units so we shall see... My actual intent is/was to go completely off grid for my own reasons... I now realize what I put together is something a lot of people might like to use as well.

I have also added a splitter to the propane system that allows me to hook up two additional portable 100 gallon propane tanks. Between 2 electric ceramic heaters and the furnace I should be ok for heat during the winter depending.. I will be keeping the internal tank full as an emergency backup only when using the portable tanks during the winter. Running the electric ceramic heaters has caused the genset to run just a bit more over the last couples days (it has been abnormally cold here the last 3 days) but nothing extreme. The batteries seem to do pretty well with the system. I am seriously thinking about adding 6 more deep cells but have to figure out a couple things first... WHERE to put them and the weight distribution if I do.. But with 6 more, I pretty much can go off grid without any worries at all for long periods of time. BTW the system does feed into the main system to keep the RV batteries up as well as needed and all the switching features are fully functional and not altered in any way.

BTW, all light bulbs have been replaced with LED equivalent and the system draws an amazingly small amount of power compared to what it was now. I am updating and switching out anything like this that can make a difference. I am also going to change out the propane water heater with a 12 VDC on demand water heater system that can supply 3-4 gallons on the fly thus giving another savings of propane use.

I am also thinking about buying a small portable out door wood burner unit you see a lot of people installing for homes. They make small units too and it is very feasible to simply create a vent hook up from the burner into the mobile home for wood heat just like in a regular house. But I will look more into that later... What is cool is it can be mounted on a small trailer and you can pull it wherever you go..

Ok so to my question now that you know what I have done and am doing..

Due to my current situation I will be living in the RV for at least a few more months. Possibly into even January.

Where I need help is on winterizing this thing for winter living. I have already purchased and started installing heater tape for any exposed water pipes. I have a small ceramic block heater that will run on minimal setting to keep the temp above freezing in the back cargo area where the water tank and pump are located.

I need help and suggestions though on protecting the underside against snow, wind etc as well as the windows, which are worthless in keeping cold out. I did find some thick inserts for the ceiling vents but not for other vents like the stove fan, tank vents and so forth.

Any help on this would be appreciated because if we have a winter like last year, it will be a cold one with a lot of snow... And the more I can seal and winterize the less propane and power consumption I will need to have and worry about..

Thanks...