RVing in the winter

m37charlie wrote:
Winter camping:
My Unimog/Unicat camper has a 5kw /17000btu/h hydronic heater system just for the camper. And a separate 9kw for cab/engine and the camper can be sealed from the cab with a removable plate. I have figured out the effective thermal radiation 2 ways: by calculation (the walls and floor and roof are 0.44W/m2-degK, windows about 6 times that, vent cutouts are covered with insulation), and by comparing home power draw to average outside temperature, which I can follow on a daily basis. I currently live with only 3 cats and my daily routine is invariant since I put myself under house arrest March 8. In the winter I heat the camper with 2 thermostatically controlled Hornet 700w AC aircraft heaters hooked up via the camper to grid power. They are set at ~41F in the coolest areas, the average interior wall temperatures are 41-46F by IR measurements. The purpose is to avoid freezeups at all costs even though the camper is winterized.
The results are very close by the 2 methods: 30-33W/degC temperature gradient. Since the 2 heaters put out 1400w together, they can keep the camper comfortably above freezing down to about -38C or-36F. The diesel powered Webasto therefore could theoretically keep the interior at 77F down to -140F, assuming 80% efficiency. But, even Arctic diesel fuel freezes up at -50F. I have a 500w AC heater pad on the 40gal “day tank” (total capacity 162 gal) but it would be very hard to start the diesel generator at very low temperature. Even with a hair dryer or aircraft heater inside the housing. And if camping off the grid my house batteries hold only 10kwh (840ah). Solar panels are useless in an arctic or subarctic winter for obvious reasons (I have 650w nominal).
Let’s now talk about winter camping in cold subarctic places. In the summer of 75 I backpacked south to north across the Brooks Range to the Arctic coast. It was very pleasant except we got real hungry because we ran out of food early and subsisted on 40M&Ms a day each, plus blueberries and 1 ptarmigan that I shot through the neck with a 30-06. For at least 4 days.
In early February 78 I flew into Arctic Village as a newly minted MD on a medical field trip to the village clinic. The village is now practically embedded in ANWR. The local people (Athabaskans) were happy to see me and immediately took me on a snow machine trip 20 miles up and back up the East Fork of the Chandalar River. The still air temperature was -52F. I was dressed in bunny boots, multiple layers, gloves under giant beaver mittens, a marten hat and a huge down parka with a wolverine ruff. I rode standing on the back of a sled. It still felt chilly.
Winter of 79 or 80 I went fly-in caribou hunting on the Alaska Peninsula near Pilot Point. We camped in a summer type nylon backpacking tent for 2 nights at-25F. The nights were a bit chilly as well. We got 2 caribou however.
Spending time outdoors in near cryogenic temperatures especially when solar insolation is minimal (like around the solstice) isn’t fun except as a novelty. So even if one’s RV can theoretically “take it”, are you going to spend all the long nights inside and venture outdoors for 2 hours a day?
I realize camping in ~+20F with much longer lower 48 days is much different.
But there are very good reasons why lots of Canadians migrate themselves and their (somewhat cold capable) RVs to Mexico or the USA southern states in the winter if they are full timers.
Sorry for the lengthy post but the stories are true and the calculations correct.

Thank you and no thank you (lol) for making us envious of your charmed RVing life.

I am still thinking of RVing to visit all the national parks in Alaska.

And definitely it. won't be in a Unimog. I might have to wait very long to have the content provided with EV charging once I get my Cybertruck -- or just drop this dream Ring off my bucket list.

Anyway, excellent story and definitely NatGeo worthy.