Adding enclosed heated underbelly. Can it be done?

Out of all the members of RV.Net, you would be the one with the best skills of getting this done!

From what I hear, the factory installed a thick plastic under the RV and tanks, with insulation in between the floor and sub-floor plastic.

Think of those 'for sale' or Garage sale signs that are about 1/4" thick with ribbed plastic. A sheet of that stuff 102" wide and long as the RV. Of course cut outs for the springs, and such. It is attached to the frame and sidewalls. Just don't apply 2" long #10 screws into the grey and black tanks! LOL.

Good luck,

Fred.

Factory runs a heat duct from furnace down thru sub-floor and into area of tanks so furnace can blow warm air into that area

Then insulation is installed..........usually thinsulate type laid on the coroplast sheets that are used to enclose the underbelly.
Coroplast is like plastic cardboard. Big box hardware/sign shops etc.
Lots of self-tapping screws
Seal up any openings/seams and call it done.

Heat pads are also used for 'heated underbelly'.......either in addition to furnace duct (best method) or in lieu of the duct
Heat pads can be 120V AC or 12V DC and are t-stat controlled.

I added Ultraheat tank pads. Electric throw rugs to heat the floor is probably more efficient than the heated belly.

Golden_HVAC wrote:
Out of all the members of RV.Net, you would be the one with the best skills of getting this done!

From what I hear, the factory installed a thick plastic under the RV and tanks, with insulation in between the floor and sub-floor plastic.

Think of those 'for sale' or Garage sale signs that are about 1/4" thick with ribbed plastic. A sheet of that stuff 102" wide and long as the RV. Of course cut outs for the springs, and such. It is attached to the frame and sidewalls. Just don't apply 2" long #10 screws into the grey and black tanks! LOL.

Good luck,

Fred.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Fred! Yeah I've fixed a thing or two in my day for sure.
At minus 30 my floor is like walking barefoot on a skating rink.
I am familiar with the stuff you describe. Coroplast, I use it for various construction things.
I was thinking of using 3 inch lags into the tanks! That should hold really good! LOL!
Maybe I should check it out further and do some learning.

Of course I could just buy a 4 season Arctic Fox and get it over with too.....

Old Biscuit, it would be nice to find a plan or something on how the factory runs the heat underneath, and just how they locate the insulation and the airspace. More research needed on my part.

Smkettner
I've researched those pads you describe when I was FT in minus 34 temperatures. Great stuff and I could do my black and grey for about 750. I'm ok with that.
I like a warm floor though, especially when I wander out to the potty at O-Dark Thirty and have bare feet.
Now you're in Ca, what's a cold night for you? A chilly 60 degrees? Lol!:B

The factory doesn't do anything special
Flexible ducting is just attached to furnace discharge plenum, cut a hole in sub-floor the run end of duct down by tanks.








UltraHeat Products

I'll be doing my tank area next Spring. I plan to make a steel frame, install aluminum panels, insulate inside the panels, and add tank heaters/heat tape. My goal is to make the tank and drain area completely enclosed so that it's operational in the Winter. The under belly on mine is already a continuous sheet of aluminum. On top of that sheet is a layer of 3/4" Celotex. I insulated the floor joist area with extruded foam. With the laminate flooring, it isn't difficult to get the floor up to temp.

BobsYourUncle wrote:
I like winter camping and plan on doing a lot more of it now, especially after no longer bring FT and now have a S&B again. I miss those minus 30 nights in the TT! Haha!

But the old Topaz is a mite chilly and has an ice cold floor in those temperatures.

JMO, but if you're intending to leave the trailer in one location all winter you'd be much further ahead to simply skirt the trailer and if you prefer add some auxiliary heating within the cavity created. I did this one year with our hybrid, not for the purpose of keeping the floor warmer but to stop mounds of snow from blowing under the trailer ...



However, had I been interested in actually using the camper I'd have instead used Reflectix as an insulating barrier with some sort of light framing to hold it all in place. Here in Ontario several campgrounds offer winter camping programs so trailer skirting is commonly seen as a method of keeping the interior of what is really a 3-season camper more comfortable in sub freezing temperatures.

Hi Bob,

Electric heated carpets. Be sure to use a fabric underlay or the tile on the floor may turn a dirty brown color (DAMHIK).

There is a type that has no wires--that is what I purchased. They will cut it to allow for things such as dinette table pedestals. I selected indoor outdoor carpet as I can take it to the car wash and use a pressure hose to clean it.

Currently urban docking with 2 15 amp circuits. Ambient temperature is 2 C. Floor temperate is 40 C. It feels nice on bare toes!

My supposedly four seasons class c has enclosed tanks--which were supposed to be heated. I added a 120 volt outlet and use a small 600 watt fan type heater with a mechanical thermostat. I've tested that to -37.

Bob,

Take a look thru THIS ALBUM and it might give you some ideas on how to enclose your underbelly and even add some insulation. What I did along with maybe some tank heaters would easily make my trailer a 4 season as far as the underbelly area goes. Some trailers have actual heating duct openings to the underbelly area while others simply run the heating ducts thru the underbelly area. The latter normally uses the thin wall flex duct and is what mine uses and it does a great job in heating the underbelly area when the normal furnace runs.

Larry