Under Carriage Heating

Maybe in the real high end coaches but I have yet to see one that is.
My coach brochure said the tanks were heated also.

Do you know what I found the word 'heated' means?

They took the furnace duct work to the bedroom and divided it in half!!

One half of the duct goes to the bedroom and the other half goes into the bay. Voila! What they call "heated tanks". :R

1. If you choose to use space heaters instead of your furnace=frozen pipes.

2. The bedroom where you sleep where you want to be warm? Is cold because only half the duct is emitting heat into the room.

AND

3. Thermostat is in bedroom so the person sleeping in the bedroom cranks up the heat to stay warm and that in turn makes it 100 degrees in the front of the coach.

Yup. You need to check first just what they mean by heated tanks! :W

We lived in Calgary for a year. We traveled to Jasper in August and woke up one morning to snow. Not sure how long the temperature was below freezing that night, but it doesn't have to be winter up north to get cold for spells.

Hi,

I use my class C year round. Freeze up is an issue. I do have enclosed tanks but they are unheated. I added a 120 volt outlet and put some heating devices.

ChuckHM wrote:
Two dealers have told us the same story, that the higher end class C RVs have under carriage heating. One went as far as to say if we were traveling in cold weather, e.g. Alaska, Canada, there is a good chance our pipes would freeze without it.

Are we getting snowed, or is this real?

I would point out that the weather means more than the level of insulation. Not too many people travel to northern destinations in extreme cold weather. Mind you, there's been freezing temps a long way south the last few years.

Still, if you are a typical RV'er and really only use your unit from May to October it's highly unlikely freezing will be an issue, in which case the money for insulating and heating tanks will have been wasted.

I don't know about "undercarriage" heating ... but our Winnebago motorhome has electrically heated grey water and black water tanks for traveling or camping in cold weather. Our fresh water tanks and all plumbing (except for the big 3 inch grey and black tank draining pipes) is in the heated interior of the motorhome.

I think that instead of electrically heated tanks, many motorhomes have the whole undercarriage around the grey and black water tanks heated. This means that you must have the furnace running long enough and high enough to be getting and keeping the undercarriage warm enough - including maybe even when going down the road in cold weather. Where in our situation when camping we only have to have a switch turned on to keep the tanks from freezing and the propane furnace on long enough and high enough to keep the interior warm enough for our personal comfort. When going down the road in freezing weather, we only need keep the tank heater switch on and the cab heater on.

I suggest you call the manufacturer's Customer Service and ask them.
They should know how their product is built.

ChuckHM wrote:
Two dealers have told us the same story, that the higher end class C RVs have under carriage heating. One went as far as to say if we were traveling in cold weather, e.g. Alaska, Canada, there is a good chance our pipes would freeze without it.

We have been looking at Winnebago and Forest River, both of which we were told have this heating. However, I don't see it mentioned in their brochures.

Are we getting snowed, or is this real?

Thanks for the help.

I know for a fact that Winnebago have the holding tanks heated, in the enclosed basement space. Have no idea about Forest River coaches.

Many of the supposedly high-end Class Cs are NOT with heated, enclosed holding tanks.

For the money, you can't go wrong with the Winnebago brand.