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sail2liv's avatar
sail2liv
Explorer
Feb 17, 2015

Polar package limit

Have Flagstaff 8524 rlws with polar pack, heated tanks, valve, enclosed underbelly, heat duct to basement.....have used unit to 14 degrees zero degrees wind chill.....now facing single digits, 0-9 degrees.....I put two 110v drop lights in basement near plumbing and open all cabinet doors to plumbing....also will turn on 12 v lights in basement and front bay.....try and run hot water every few hours for a minute....also flush toilet regular....also cover low point drains and fresh water drain with pipe insulation or swim noodle...fill fresh water tank as full as can leaving some head space for expansion, keep grey and black at least half full....along with heated blankets dump about a gallon of hot water into tanks a few time nightly.....what do other campers with similar 5 ers do to keep from freezing lines and tanks at new zero temp....and colder wind chill?
  • Hi,

    I would not bother with the dumping of hot water. I don't have low point drains. The fresh water drain can be an issue, but since I'm in a class C, engine heat can thaw it out.

    You do need to protect the fridge. This thread will help:

    winter camping

    The only concern with wind chill is rate of cooling. It can not get lower that the "real" temperature no matter how much wind there is.
  • Well we relax, plug in a movie and check things first thing in the morning for potential problem areas. In time we relax and you will as well
  • Thanks for the input, after researching the fridge, seems like needs to be under 15 F for 3 days before concern, and we only encounter that temp for less than 24 hours....so now relaxing to a point, since have one tree limb with ice on it over front of trailer....hopefully since southern live oak will be as strong as the ones they used on old ironsides.....good luck to all this winter
  • Here is what we do during December (central Illinois) for temps that sometimes get down to zero, with windshields falling below that.

    We have a heated water hose. After dumping the black tank I put a gallon of RV pink in the black tank, then every day I add another gallon. After 3 or 4 days I dump the tank and start all over. Grays stay open. At night when we go to bed I leave a very small stream of HOT water going in one sink.

    Even though I have a furnace register in the basement I keep a ceramic heater going down there 24/7.

    We allow the furnace to run during the day and night off and on. We supplement with two more ceramic heaters, but we also let the furnace do part of the heating because on our make/model that also puts heat into the underbelly.