pnichols wrote:
your comments started me thinking. You say that only the propane furnace supplies the neccessary BTUs to keep the coach area warm so therefore the generator by itself powering electric heaters is not an option. This situation doesn't mean that you can only keep warm until the propane runs out using only the propane. I'll bet your propane furnace could be used more days when drycamping if you ran it at the same time as the generator and electric heaters and thus keeping the propance furnace's ON cycles much shorter. Using these two together in combination may extend your cold weather drycamping time way beyond what you could get by using only the furnace by itself with the generator/electric heaters not being used.
Yes, generator running with supplemental electric heaters would be a good idea. It sounds like there are other opinions - that electric heaters will do the job. I exercise my generator in the winter with electric heaters. After running for an hour or two they barely take the chill off. BUT, again, I haven't done any sort of special insulating or anything. And maybe 2 hours isn't enough.
It's 10F outside right now. I fired up the furnaces about 90 minutes ago from a cold start (they haven't been on since this past weekend). It's about 50 in there now. I'm headed out to do some work on the rear thermostat (it's faulty) and the radio.
pnichols wrote:
Just out of curiosity ... I wonder how many days some of you have gone, or heard of others going, drycamping in the extreme cold in a non-expedition-type (i.e. "regular") Class C?
For starters .... I guess that with our Class C that would be the number of continuous days until the propane ran out and then add to that the number of continuous days that the built-in generator could be run off the main engine tank and still leave us enough fuel to get out to a gas station. That's assuming we start out with a nearly full main fuel tank and that a 4000 watt generator can supply enough BTUs to keep the RV warm 24/7. We don't have solar, so that's not a consideration ... but probably solar is of only marginal use in the extreme cold anyway - as it is in the extreme heat.
I always find extreme heat or extreme cold dry-camping discussions more interesting because self-containment capability, when needed, is why some folks spend the $$$ for a Class C in the first place - at least for camping in the Western U.S. with it's extensive dry camping opportunities. Many extreme camping situations are easily dealt with when on FHU ... but when dry camping in the cold things can get really challenging (and interesting).
I have a standard issue rig - no solar, 2 automotive-type batteries for the coach and a generator.
I would measure the cold camping days in propane. When it's below freezing, electric heaters don't touch the cold in a "standard" rig (not permanently parked and insulated). While my generator is 6,500 watts only 30 amps of it (27.4 to be exact) is available for heaters, split between 2 circuits. The 1500 watt box-store heaters don't come close to cutting it. My front furnace is 35,000 BTUs and the rear is 18,000 BTUs. Based on recent experience, I can probably get between 5-6 days of heat with ambient temps around freezing (32 degrees F) out of my 80 lb. propane tank.
Both furnace fans run the batteries down in a hurry - less than 24 hours time. The generator uses a little less than a gallon an hour with a light load (like the furnace fans). It will charge the batteries up to full within an hour while powering the furnace fans (I did upgrade my converter from the 1984 one that came with it). With an 85-gallon fuel tank, I could run the generator enough to keep the thing heated for as long as the propane lasts.
This may be a "duh" comment, but I found recently that closing the heavy curtains (particularly in the cab) really helps keep the heat in. I had thought that leaving them open so the sun could do its thing would be better. But no, there is a noticeable difference in heat retention with all the curtains closed. But, these are very heavy, 1984-type curtains.
