Class As in cold weather?

[jts140]

Hello All,

Coming from a Fifth wheel and looking into a Class A. How are they in the freezing temps? My son has moved to CO from FL. and I am trying to convince wife we would be better in a class A vs our fifth wheel. I would be looking for an older Class A diesel. Thanks

[wallynm]

Not all diesel Class A have an aqua hot system! If that is what you want check it out before buying!

LouLawrence wrote:
Class A diesel units are going to have some version of Aquahot diesel fired baseboard heat. This also heats the wet bays and keeps everything nice and toasty. If the unit you look at does not have this then pass. All the plumbing in inside the coach so even if it got really, really cold you could add a small electric heater or a light bulb or 2 to the wet bays and you will be fine. We have traveled in most every weather you can imagine and we have been fine. I must say that when the company sent us to ND in January (20 below zero) we passed and drove our car and stayed in a hotel!

[LouLawrence]

We often spend months in below freezing night time temps (still working for a living). We can't imagine trying to do that with propane unless you have lots of free time in your week to refill those tanks on a fairly regular basis. For any long term cold weather camping you are going to need electricity to keep everything warm and your costs to a minimum.

[mountainkowboy]

We're good down to 24F without issues. Lower than that needs much more attention to keep from freezing. Pull the slides in, go on tank water, and have a few lights in the service bays. Go find a warmer place to park, they really weren't designed for use in sub zero temps.

[Sandia_Man]

Too many variables involved to simply say class A rigs across the board are better for cold camping than 5ers, TTs, or class B/C rigs. One thing for sure is any RV can be easily modified for cold weather use, we have done this to every RV we have owned over the last 3 decades including our current class A Monaco. We do lots of sub-freezing camping but not for weeks on end, usually a few days is plenty as we do like enjoying the outdoors without freezing our tails off. Truth be known, RVs are just not designed to withstand long term below zero extreme cold usage from the factory.

As we got older and now camping without our kids we went from having 5ers, TTs, and toyhaulers to a class A rig, it is easier overall which keeps my DW happy, she was losing interest in RVing and now is invigorated to set out for our next excursion. We took our time researching the many aspects of motorized RVs, drove as many as we could to help decide which chassis and drivetrain we felt suited us best. Doing your homework is critical for motorized RVs, getting it wrong could cost 10s of thousands of dollars of repairs down the road and severe loss of value when reselling.

[dalenoel]

We use our non-Aquahot DP all the time and do not have problems without strip heaters in the AC units and only have one furnace. But we are only 36' long.

[Bruce_Brown]

LouLawrence wrote:
Class A diesel units are going to have some version of Aquahot diesel fired baseboard heat. This also heats the wet bays and keeps everything nice and toasty. If the unit you look at does not have this then pass.

Terrible advice - lots of nice units without Aquahot.

To the OP, better advice is to check the R value of the MH you are considering. Some simply have better insulation properties than others. Our original Winne and next Fleetwood wouldn't do well in winter, and we sweat in the summer. When we started ordering we went for dual pane windows and a better built unit. Heat or cold, we're good now.

We have camped as low as 15F with our NON-Aquahot DP with no issues whatsoever.

[rgatijnet1]

We use our gasser almost exclusively in the Winter out West. We spent many nights below zero in the mountains. We always took chains because you never knew when a snow storm would pop up. We also hooked up to shore water only to keep our water tank topped off. We only hooked up to the sewer to dump our tanks. In the wet basement compartment we put in a thermostatically controlled 150 watt incandescent light bulb installed in a trouble light wire cage. We disconnected and removed the ice maker hose. We never had the RV water pump or a water line freeze. Inside we used our furnace very seldom since a couple of 5000 watt space heaters were sufficient in all but the coolest temps. We also carried a portable heat pump that we vented to the outside, which was quiet and worked well to keep things comfortable in below zero temps. A portable 120 volt heat pump is never exposed to the outside temps so they will work at below zero temps. We also used small fans to blow on the windshield to keep it from frosting up. The other windows were double pane which helped keep the interior warm. I believe with proper preparation and with some limitations most any RV is usable during the Winter months.

[wa8yxm]

jts140 wrote:
Hello All,

Coming from a Fifth wheel and looking into a Class A. How are they in the freezing temps? My son has moved to CO from FL. and I am trying to convince wife we would be better in a class A vs our fifth wheel. I would be looking for an older Class A diesel. Thanks

Depends on how long it's cold
I drove a Class A for 15 years in that time
-6: Froze solid had to replace the ice maker solenoid and one fitting less than 20 dollars total cost.

11 Degrees A cross line (Crossing from one side to the other) Froze. there are two lines (Hot and cold) only the cold froze. NO damage it thawed when the sun came up but over night I had to use hot water to flush the toilet (Fill picture in lav. then dump in toilet)

Many nights in the 20's no tribble.

I used Tanked water (Fill tank on rv, disconnect and drain water hoses) parks water is a problem below freezing. though I just tossed a heated hose.. Took a standard hose. a string of Rope Lights (NOT LED) and a couple rolls of fancy patterened Duct Tape. And a Freeze-stat outlet adapter.

[Dutch_12078]

Just a cold weather data point, we've been comfortable in our gas Class A as low as -4 deg. F for a few days. We have two LP furnaces that do a great job of keeping the interior comfortable, and a small electric heater in the wet bay that kept everything from freezing except one small pipe to the accumulator tank. The only effect from that was the pump cycling more as if the tank wasn't there. Five minutes with a hair dryer fixed it. I will say we went through a lot of LP though, and were happy to move on to warmer weather.

[Ivylog]

“ Class A diesel units are going to have some version of Aquahot diesel fired baseboard heat”… only higher end units will have A Hot which is great for cold weather and once you’ve had it, you will not go back. About like having a DP, you’ll never go back to a 5er.

[LouLawrence]

That's not true with a diesel coach with Webasto/Aqua Hot heat. You can stay plenty warm and the wet bays will stay well above freezing for a long time. The heating system uses the fuel in you tank so you have plenty available for extended cold periods.

[shastagary]

if its going to go below zero its going to be tough to keep the water system from freezing no matter what you get you will need a auxiliary lp tank and enclose the bottom at the least check utube for videos of what it takes to survive those kind of temps

[scbwr]

We've been in cold temps in the teens with our Bay Star and stay quite warm and toasty. I get enough heat from the gas furnace in the water bays to keep them from freezing, but I have remote temperature sensors in the bays and have two small personal electric heaters that can be turned on if necessary. The Bay Star is well insulated. When the temperature is closer to freezing or above, I use an electric heater at times to help save propane as I'm usually at a campground with electric service.

We don't winter camp, so our experience with cold weather is usually when we head south in the winter and have to travel from Ohio to wherever it's much warmer!

[LouLawrence]

Class A diesel units are going to have some version of Aquahot diesel fired baseboard heat. This also heats the wet bays and keeps everything nice and toasty. If the unit you look at does not have this then pass. All the plumbing in inside the coach so even if it got really, really cold you could add a small electric heater or a light bulb or 2 to the wet bays and you will be fine. We have traveled in most every weather you can imagine and we have been fine. I must say that when the company sent us to ND in January (20 below zero) we passed and drove our car and stayed in a hotel!