Staying Warm

Sure in the south! Seriously now, where do you want to go? Deep south or WI? Anything is possible with deep pockets, plenty of electricity and propane

donn0128 wrote:
Sure in the south! Seriously now, where do you want to go? Deep south or WI? Anything is possible with deep pockets, plenty of electricity and propane

X2:)

no

I ran the heat in my 31-ft "A" this past weekend because my son was hosting a sleep-over. I fired up both furnaces at around 10AM Saturday morning when it was around 10 degrees F. Temps climbed throughout the day to the low-mid 30s and hung out there through Sunday afternoon. I left the furnaces running the whole time. It was very comfortable, if not too warm inside the RV. The new, 20 lb. cylinder I installed ran out early evening on Sunday (my frame-mounted tank is empty so I use a Sturgi-Stay).

So, like others said it's possible if you are prepared to spend a lot of money on propane. I wouldn't want to stay for more than a couple of days in sub-freezing temps. If my frame-mounted tank were full I wouldn't have any trouble running out, but it would start to get expensive.

Traveling should be relatively easy, as you can use the dash heat rather than or in addition to the furnace. If it's not too cold out, that can often be enough to keep the unit reasonably comfortable while en route. (Cracking a ceiling vent in the back, preferably with a max-air or similar cover, helps to pull the heat through the coach.)

Staying in one place needs the furnace and that does use a good bit of propane, depending of course on the outside temperature.

If you don't have enclosed water tanks/plumbing, having running water will be troublesome if it's below freezing. Enclosed tank bays usually have some provision for heating them, often with a small duct split off of the furnace, and such units usually can be used in sub-freezing temperatures so long as the furnace is used for heating.

DrewE wrote:
If you don't have enclosed water tanks/plumbing, having running water will be troublesome if it's below freezing. Enclosed tank bays usually have some provision for heating them, often with a small duct split off of the furnace, and such units usually can be used in sub-freezing temperatures so long as the furnace is used for heating.

Yes this is key - I neglected to mention that. I did not de-winterize the RV for this particular event. All of my plumbing is "heated" by furnace ducts, so theoretically I could have had running water. But, to your point, the furnace (in my case both) needs to be running to keep the plumbing warm. That and antifreeze in the black and gray tanks.

Or, you could run your generator while driving and use electric ceramic heaters. They work great, put off a lot of heat in the coach and shut off automatically if knocked over. They can also be used if you are hooked up to electric on a stop over or over night.

Hi,

It is entirely possible to be warm in a class C. I've done so down to -37c (-34 f). You need enough battery bank to operate the furnace and enough propane.

I've managed to modify my unit so that it requires about 19000 btu's to stay warm. Window covers made from insulbright fabric are quite useful.

One of the issues of travel is that the furnace gets "fooled" by the dash heat and won't cycle enough to keep the fresh water system thawed. I replace the cold air return grill with dual window fans and that solved the issue for me.

I've made mods to allow me to heat 100% electrically. It does take a peak of 6000 watts to do so. I got around the limitations of the 30 amp shore power cord by adding two auxilary cords. One 20 and one 15 amps.

It behooves you to protect the fridge at low temperatures. It can freeze and fail when operating. The damage is progressive.

All depends on where! Right now I'm in southern AZ and it's about 78 degrees. :)

I supplement our heating requirements with my 'winter silks'. Comfortable, work great and I even wear them when I ride my motorcycle. I'm surprised more people don't talk about them.