RVing in the winter

TwistedGray wrote:

pnichols wrote:
In our Class C we can block off with curtains the cab and the cab overhead bed area. With these two areas isolated from the rest of the interior, the 25,000 BTU propane furnace can easily keep the rest of the coach warm by only having to cycle On and Off about 3 times per hour. This helps cut down on propane use and coach battery draining when camping without hookups in cold temperatures.

When setting up an RV for winter camping it helps to temporarily make the living area as small as possible that has to be kept warm.

We're not into cold room sleeping, so we keep the interior of the coach at around 65 degrees, which makes it possible to sleep under light covers ... just like in our stick house.

Can you make it through an evening (say 40F) at 65F with just the cab blocked off?

Yes, sleeping with outside temps in the mid 30F's has presented no problems keeping the coach interior at 64-66 degrees. However in addition to blocking off areas of the coach interior with curtains:

We have distributed heating ducts that can be aimed 360 degrees, we always carry along insulation for the insides of the windows, the propane tank is large (18 gallons) for the size of our 24 ft Class C, the furnace capacity is generous for the size of our RV, and our two large AGM batteries have no problem running the furnace for only 15-20 minutes, total, out of each hour at those inside and outside temperatures ... plus both the wife and myself use cool-air CPAP machines all night.

Our small RV also has a couple of "ace in the holes" for at least moderate cold weather camping. 1) One of the 4" diameter heating duct tubes from the furnace runs right past the fresh water tank (which is in the interior under the bed) so as to keep both the freshwater tank and the underside of the bed at interior or higher than coach air temperatures. 2) The grey and black tanks have 12V tank warming pads on their bottoms, so we can hookup camp or drycamp at cold temperatures - even if it takes some generator run time each day for battery charging after each night whenever drycamping. On hookups the coach converter can keep up with the amperage needs of the the 12V heating pads.

Another thing we never do is hookup camp with fresh water hoses (or drain hoses) hooked up. We use the RV tanks when on hookups - only filling them or draining them every few days just like when drycamping. The only thing we hookup is the electrical cable, so we have no freezing-of-the-freshwater-hose issues.

The coach floors and walls are made up of 1.5-2 in. thick sandwich bonded foam interiors. The roof has a thicker sandwich bonded foam interior - maybe closer to 3 in..

Our Class C came with a so-called "winter package", but I have no idea what that includes.