Just booked a new adventure...

Desert Captain wrote:
Test photo post of our rig up at Fool Hollow SP last week:

Cool :C

Test photo post of our rig up at Fool Hollow SP last week:

Remember to roll in your awning at night or if you leave the campsite for an extended amount of time. My wife's uncle didn't do that and it snowed heavily. He is on his 3rd awning now.

Phil,

Keep in mind that we use the coach year round. Typically we are out camping {at the lower elevations but have lots of choices} at least once or twice a month all winter. We live at 3,300' and even see snow a couple of times a winter in a normal year.

I don't have the AC option at our storage yard but it is only a couple of miles down the road so I stop by often. When prepping for a winter trip all I have to do is add a half tank of fresh water, turn the key and go as my batteries always stay fairly topped up and the first hour of driving takes them to fully charged. Besides... keeping the bar stocked just makes good sense. :B

Desert Captain wrote:
Phil, if memory serves the LP tank is 51# which is 13 gallons mas y menos. I've never gotten more than about 9 gallons in it at a fill. Usually fill it twice a year.

I will be winterizing the coach this week as we will be out of town over the Christmas holidays without the coach. Most years winterizing consists of just restocking the bar but this year is looking to be a tad bit cooler.

I'll just gravity drain the water lines, leave the valves open and drive around for 20 minutes which empties the water lines pretty well. Then I just add a quart of the pink antifreeze to the grey and black tanks and put a couple of cups down each of the drains {two sinks and the shower}.

I've used this method off and on for years and never had any issues. We'll likely see temps in the mid-twenties but that is usually only for an hour or two predawn. Any low predicted below 25 will require a little more work but not much. I sure love living in southern Arizona.

:B

Boy ... what little bit you do to winterize even sure seems like a lot for Southern Arizona!

For 12 years now when storing our Class C here at home in central CA at ~1800 ft. altitude, I've done about nothing to winterize it per se. I just keep the covered vents open for ventilation and keep a small electric heater on 24/7 set to around 55 degrees - both of these things are to keep any mold from forming in the interior. Of course the rig is plugged in so that the converter can keep the coach batteries topped up and I have a small battery maintainer plugged (powered through the coach) into the an always-hot 12V dash receptacle in order to keep the chassis battery topped up.

I keep the water, gas, and propane tanks near full all the time just in case the big one should hit - either from a bad Mother Nature or some bad politics. :B

I sure love living along the moderate coast in Central CA and for a break RV'ing out to Southern Arizona for a bit every January.

Phil, if memory serves the LP tank is 51# which is 13 gallons mas y menos. I've never gotten more than about 9 gallons in it at a fill. Usually fill it twice a year.

I will be winterizing the coach this week as we will be out of town over the Christmas holidays without the coach. Most years winterizing consists of just restocking the bar but this year is looking to be a tad bit cooler.

I'll just gravity drain the water lines, leave the valves open and drive around for 20 minutes which empties the water lines pretty well. Then I just add a quart of the pink antifreeze to the grey and black tanks and put a couple of cups down each of the drains {two sinks and the shower}.

I've used this method off and on for years and never had any issues. We'll likely see temps in the mid-twenties but that is usually only for an hour or two predawn. Any low predicted below 25 will require a little more work but not much. I sure love living in southern Arizona.

:B

Happy Birthday. Same age. Wished my wife loved winter camping like I do.

Desert Captain wrote:
Phil, yes Nexus really bumped up the furnace on our coach. Even at 35K BTU, it doesn't burn that much propane as it runs for relatively short intervals {about 5 minutes every 15 or so}. I attribute this to the overall energy efficiency of the coach. I love having the thermostat right next to our rear queen... very handy if you need to bump it up a few degrees in the wee pre-dawn hours. :B

The walls and ceilings are very well insulated, they use a large vacuum bonding machine utilizing Azdell, fiberglass, and foam. Once you get the coach warm, and it does not take long, it holds the heat {or cooler air from the AC in summer} very well. Another bonus is how quiet the interior is. A decent generator running in the next site goes unheard.

The rig came with DC tank heaters that I rarely use but with temps in the mid-thirties with the possibility of mid-twenties I turned them on more for exercise than out of any concerns of freezing. Another nice feature are the remote controlled heated mirrors.

We usually stay at the lower elevations during the colder months but temps down into the 20's are not all that rare during winter in the high Sonoran Desert as we enjoy our coach throughout the year.

:C

Thanks for the update! Are you in the middle of your cold outing now?

I don't know much about Azdell but in our Itasca, Winnebago seems to have also vacuum bonded solid white foam in between the outer fiberglass and whatever material the interior walls are. This foam appears to be nearly 3 inches thick under the roof's fiberglass and 2 inches thick in the walls.

Our furnace is only 25K BTU and of course is a nice over-kill in our 24 footer in the only 30+ degree weather we have so far camped in. LIke your furnace, it only runs around 5 minutes 2-3 times per hour with temps in the 30's. I'm not sure why all the complaints in the forums about an RV furnace sucking battery juice so much. 15 minutes of total run-time every hour is only around a 1.5-2.0 AH battery drain rate. I guess it's the interior volumes of our relatively small rigs that makes this furnace blower low average battery drain possible. Your 35K BTU furnace in only a 24 footer is very nice.

In cold weather we block off the cab from the coach with the snap-on cab curtain that Winne supplied ... plus we also cover the outside of the cab's windows with the common Class C white cover. In addition we use another cold weather Class C trick: Since the Ford cab air controls are vacuum actuated, before we turn off the engine when arriving at the campsite, we make sure that the cab air routing control is set to "OFF". This closes the door in the path that allows fresh air into the cab - which helps eliminate any random cold air sneaking into the cab when camped. I can definitely feel this slight cold air entering from the front cab area if I forget to do this.

I keep our roof vents open slightly in cold weather to maintain some fresh interior air and reduce interior moisture buildup. I don't feel any cold air coming in from the vents because a small amount of interior warm air is continuously escaping outwards through them instead, and because I have vent covers on the roof over them ... which acts to form a pocket of air insulation right above each vent lid. If we used those foam cold air vent covers that some cold weather campers mention, we could not maintain that very important slight air flow ventilation during cold weather camping. We've never used most of them, but I also pack along pre-cut air bubble blankets for each coach window ... just in case. The DW uses one in the window by her head in the rear corner bed and we keep one permanently installed in the forward facing cabover window.

I have rarely turned on our grey/black tank 12 volt tank heaters' switch when drycamping in the cold. I don't think I've ever been aware of them cycling ON, as I have a coach battery ammeter permanently mounted on the cab dash and can monitor the coach battery bank drain. I'm curious as to what current draw it will show whenever both of these tank heaters have cycled ON.

We have the Arctic Package option our our RV, so all interior fresh water system plumbing and components are kept warmed because they're within the under-cabinet coach open spaces right along with the warm furnace ducting pipes going to the various furnace outlets. All outside grey/black plumbing is up high next to the coach floor and their valves are contained within closed outside cabinets - hence not hanging below in the figid air when cold weather camping.

I'm curious as to what size your propane tank is? (Mine is only 18 gallons - equal to about 60 pounds of propane when filled to 80%. I wish Winnebago would have installed a larger one, as there's plenty of room down there for a larger one. :( )

Keep the reports coming. I always read your stuff ... cuz you often travel and camp in interesting ways and places! ;)

Looking forward to my winter weekend in the woods coming up soon with a few guys...no date booked yet, but looking like end of January

Phil, yes Nexus really bumped up the furnace on our coach. Even at 35K BTU, it doesn't burn that much propane as it runs for relatively short intervals {about 5 minutes every 15 or so}. I attribute this to the overall energy efficiency of the coach. I love having the thermostat right next to our rear queen... very handy if you need to bump it up a few degrees in the wee pre-dawn hours. :B

The walls and ceilings are very well insulated, they use a large vacuum bonding machine utilizing Azdell, fiberglass, and foam. Once you get the coach warm, and it does not take long, it holds the heat {or cooler air from the AC in summer} very well. Another bonus is how quiet the interior is. A decent generator running in the next site goes unheard.

The rig came with DC tank heaters that I rarely use but with temps in the mid-thirties with the possibility of mid-twenties I turned them on more for exercise than out of any concerns of freezing. Another nice feature are the remote controlled heated mirrors.

We usually stay at the lower elevations during the colder months but temps down into the 20's are not all that rare during winter in the high Sonoran Desert as we enjoy our coach throughout the year.

:C