New rig, Winter camping, everything has gone wrong

[No_Stress_Expre]

We finally bought our Rig last week (over a month behind schedule we had no choice but to move right in), and thought it was smart to stay local for the next month to educate ourselves about our new home, make sure everything is in good working order and so on.
What we didn't expect...the NC weather to be so cold, the weather to affect the furnace. Then there is the 10 other things that have gone wrong with it that we have to take it back to the dealer to be fixed.
I have years more experience camping than Dan. I camped in the U.P. Michigan every year with an old TT and never had a problem. So, what or why would my furnace (both), stop working when temps dropped below freezing? We weren't using propane, just our 50 amp service. We checked breakers, switches and so on.
Now I'm very concerned that everything is going to freeze and break...black water, gray water, fresh water. The tanks and lines. It's 21 degrees as I'm typing this. We've had to leave the motor home at the campground. I think we are in real trouble. Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

[doxiemom11]

When it's cold out, keep your shades down, put something in the vent/fan openings as warm air goes thru those little plastic covers easily. We have also noticed that floor is cold and if sitting with your feet down, makes you feel colder. Put an extra layer on the floor where you sit. You will feel warmer. We also use electric heaters to supplement the propane furnace, but we do use the furnace to make sure our water stays good. Do NOT leave your grey tank valve open as you will end up with an ice chunk in your hose. Let your holding tanks fill and them empty, the black first, then the grey to rinse the hose. You can also put bubble wrap on the inside of the windows to help insulate. If a motorhome - keep drapes closed on the windshield. That lets a lot of cold in.

[Y-Guy]

I always carry a couple (2-3) small ceramic space heaters, since they are much quieter then the propane furnace, and I can heat the motorhome with them set on low. If it gets super cold the LP furnace supplements them, I rarely run them on high.

[LarryJM]

allen8106 wrote:

Scottiemom wrote:
If you were heating with electric heat pumps, that could be the problem. Heat pumps only work till about 40 degrees. Then they just blow cold air. Nothing wrong with them, that is how they work by design.

Always keep propane when it's cold out.

Dale

I work for an HVAC manufacturer, we design heat pumps to operate down to minus 20f.

I think that's because those have an electric supplemental unit to augment when temps get too low, something RV units don't have because of electrical limitations.

Larry

[allen8106]

Scottiemom wrote:
If you were heating with electric heat pumps, that could be the problem. Heat pumps only work till about 40 degrees. Then they just blow cold air. Nothing wrong with them, that is how they work by design.

Always keep propane when it's cold out.

Dale

I work for an HVAC manufacturer, we design heat pumps to operate down to minus 20f.

[jnharley]

As long as you keep your furnace on (we set ours at 55 degrees when it is forecast to be freezing) and you have a heated underbelly you can use the water in your rig. We however, fill our fresh water tank and use the pump. Full timers deal with this stuff all the time. Heat pumps work great if the temp is above 40 degrees but when you are more comfortable with your systems, experiment and you will find how low your can use your heat pumps. Our bedroom one will routinely work down to freezing but our main one only works down to around 40 degrees. You may not have damaged anything at all if you did not have sustained freezing temps. When it is too low for our heat pumps, we put the furnace on 55 degrees and use a spac e heater. Closing off the rest of the TV from the sleeping area and using a space heater is freezing temps keeps us nice an warm overnight. Then we kick up the furnace in the mornin g to warm the rest of the rig up.

[RVER]

DO not use your water system when it is below freezing. You can buy some windshield washer solution to pour in toilet to flush but do not use water in rig at all when it is freezing out. NOW if you can thaw out your pipes, get a thing that screws into your city water inlet in the rig, and use a compressor and blow out your pipes of water with a faucet turned on and when no more water comes out go to the next faucet but at no time close one before you open the next. Do that to the toilet and shower as well. Pull your low point drains to drain out what you can before blowing out the pipes. Drain your hot water heater and your grey and black water tanks. You should be ok. MOST trailers and Motorhomes are NOT made to live in 24/7 and some actually will void the warranty if they find out you are living in it. IF you have a stick house than that is good, you just say you are traveling extensively now. HOPE it all works!!

[ncrowley]

As stated, when it gets below 40 degrees you need to turn on the propane heater. I also use electric heaters. The combination of the two of them work well. Also check to see if you have a switch that will blow hot air from the propane heater into the bays below the coach. If you do, you will want to turn that on.

[RoyB]

We have camped alot in the winter months with our OFF-ROAD POPUP camper off grid and this indeed makes for much more planning and having different PLAN Bs. If we just showed up and hoped for the best it usually fails for us somewhere along the way... Camping at sites with hook-ups should makes this a bit easier you would think...

Also jumping into something that is brand new to one's use and heading out into the camping environment would be another bad idea for us.... It always takes awhile to learn how the things work and what PLAN Bs you need to establish to be successful...

Look at what you have experienced so far... Camping at home or at some local camping place would have been very valuable operating information for you guys...

We have learned a long time ago alot of planning and good PLAN Bs is what makes it all work for us...

We have never had a large trailer with all the toys and bells and whistles that come with them. Can't even imagine the learning curve involved with one of those monsters...

Hoping the best for you guys... Sounds like some good PLAN Bs have already got established out of your adventure.

Roy Ken

[sch911]

If you have 50A service then X 2 on adding a couple of electric heaters.

Use the furnace to supplement them when it's really cold. But be prepared for heavy use of propane, you'll be refilling more than you care to. Also consider putting a shop light down in your wet bay to keep things there thawed out.

[ksg5000]

Consider buying a couple of inexpensive portable electric heaters - they work great if you have shore power and in a pinch you can always fire up the generator. I prefer them to main heater as they are quiet.

[ken56]

Probably should mention that if you are turning on the propane furnace for the first time you will get an acrid smell from the oil burning off the heat exchanger and maybe a little bit of smoke too. No, its not on fire, just burning off the oils on the metal. It stinks but it will go away after a while......that means many uses so be patient.

[ken56]

I would be draining the tanks and lines if you are in danger of things freezing and doing damage. At minimum blow out the lines with air. I am in east TN and yep, its cold. Upper teens this morning. My house is heated with an electric heat pump so they do work in the cold weather. Its a bigger unit than what is on a MoHo, I know but read your manuals on their operation and understand the limitations on your units. They are not really meant to be a replacement for the propane furnace in very cold temps. They will also not get heat to the tanks and water lines, only the propane furnace is ducted for that purpose.

[No_Stress_Expre]

Thank you Scottiemom! That makes sense, oh so much sense. Now that I don't need to worry about them being broken, I can move on to what may have broke because of the lack of heat.

Do you have a recommendation or two for resources to get the most information/education as possible before we hit the road?

[Scottiemom]

If you were heating with electric heat pumps, that could be the problem. Heat pumps only work till about 40 degrees. Then they just blow cold air. Nothing wrong with them, that is how they work by design.

Always keep propane when it's cold out.

Dale

[No_Stress_Expre]

Everything else works. We also ran out of propane. Filling the tank this morning, hoping that will work.

Do you have any clue what would make both stop working suddenly?