Unattended furnace

Gdetrailer wrote:

Huntindog wrote:

OH48Lt wrote:
If you want to leave on an unattended heat source (and sleeping in the trailer does not define "unattended"),That is the very WORST kind of unattended!! get some insurance on it. Enough to pay for your trailer and everyone else's property that was also damaged. IF everything operates like it is supposed to, it'll be OK. When a safety device fails, bad things happen.

Most RV's have furnaces that are in very close proximity to combustibles. Home furnaces generally are not situated inches from combustibles.

I've been to numerous house trailer fires. They burn fast and are deadly. Almost always caused by a faulty furnace, leaky propane, or electrical at the CB box. Or some idiot using a kerosine heater.

I see this a lot on this forum. Irrational fears. You will occupy a TT with a running furnace, even sleep in it, yet believe that it will go nuclear if nobody is present.... If you are that sure of it, then the irrational part is the willingness to go to sleep with it running...

If this is real concern them we have all been duped. Buying these expensive RVs with too dangerous to use furnaces.

#1 OP does not have SHORE POWER at storage site.

#2 OP doesn't wish to winterize while in storage since they plan to use the trailer periodically.

#3 This leads to the idea of running furnace in between camping (unknown time frame on this).

The problem is there is too many unknowns...

While a RV furnace IS designed to be "safe" at all times one must consider that a RV furnace doesn't really match up well for constant unsupervised usage (unsupervised defined as no physical presence of a person more than 24hrs).

A lot can go wrong and if it goes wrong you end up with frozen lines or worse yet a fire (and YES this has happened to folks). RV furnaces unlike home furnaces are typically installed in a zero clearance space. Basically put the furnace is extremely close to flammable materials link wood paneling, flooring (vinyl) and such. Furnaces CAN malfunction (IE overheat or fail to start) so it really isn't all that good of an idea to do this just because you don't want to winterize..

No shore power would require considerable battery capacity, these furnaces have blower motors which can draw 6A-10A of current. If the furnace runs say 1/4hr out of every hr then your furnace alone with use up to 60Ahr of battery capacity for 24hrs.

To put that into perspective a typical RV is often equipped with a group 24 RV/marine battery with a capacity of about 80 Ahr (actual REAL usable capacity of 40Ahr). Basically one battery would only support the furnace for LESS than 24 hrs and would kill the life of your battery.

In order to store your RV this way you would need to add solar AND a much larger battery bank. Storage of 7 days would require at the minimum of 420Ahr battery capacity (4 of 6V golf cart batteries) and most likely some solar.

Then there is the expense of propane, good chance that in a weeks time you will be using at least 20lbs of propane. This IS an expensive way to avoid winterizing.... to the tune of $20 PER week in propane alone..

Just winterize, it is quick, simple and COMPLETELY FOOL PROOF.

What I would do though is instead of using the pink stuff in the water lines, just use a small portable air compressor to blow the lines of water. Once the water is out of the lines open the low point drains and leave all the spigots open. Make sure you EMPTY the water heater!

Add a little pink stuff to the drain traps and call it good.

When done camping for the winter you can do a full on winterization with the pink stuff..