Adding enclosed heated underbelly. Can it be done?

[BobsYourUncle]

Perhaps an odd question but has anyone taken a regular 3 season TT and added the enclosed heated underbelly? I am not too familiar with what they do at the factory for this option but seems like perhaps it could be a doable thing. Can't see it being that difficult to achieve.

And then along the same line as that, what about doing the same for the tanks? I know I can add aftermarket tank heaters, that's not a problem.

I like winter camping and plan on doing a lot more of it now, especially after no longer bring FT and now have a S&B again. I miss those minus 30 nights in the TT! Haha!

But the old Topaz is a mite chilly and has an ice cold floor in those temperatures.

[BobsYourUncle]

OP here,
I thank you all for the ideas and input, even the ones that varied a little. All these things are a big help. It's nice to be able to glean info from others that have done it.
I'm going to climb under and thoroughly evaluate a plan of action and do something with mine. My floor gets really cold in the middle of January. But I'm not going there until it warms up in the spring.

[TurnThePage]

I added ac/dc heat pads to the tanks (two on the fresh water tank), used a little eternabond on several edges to ensure they stayed stuck. Surrounded the tanks with 1/2" foam board and filled the gaps with spray foam. Corroplast was then suspended between the I beams just to protect the foam. It's worked great for me for the last 10 years. Oh yeah, I also added an Ultrafab 12v pipe heater down near the drain valve, then thoroughly insulated the exposed drain pipes too. So far so good!

[Huntindog]

bbaker2001 wrote:
huntindog

thanks for the pics. you underbelly looks much like mine. with the exposed tanks and pipe, is this NOT considered a covered underbelly.

Found it... Those are Old-Bicuits pics. I believe he has an covered underbelly. He has just removed the covering to show what is under it.

The covered underbelly is a great idea... Unfortunantly most manufacturers don't use it to its greatest potential.. Serious cold weather campers will need to do some upgrades to make it more effective. Lots of ideas out there. They can all have some benefit. My best advice is to take a look at what you already have, and determine what areas need improvement.

[bbaker2001]

huntindog

thanks for the pics. you underbelly looks much like mine. with the exposed tanks and pipe, is this NOT considered a covered underbelly.

[BobsYourUncle]

Thanks for all the wonderful input and information. I appreciate that.
You guys are awesome!

[Huntindog]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
The factory doesn't do anything special
Flexible ducting is just attached to furnace discharge plenum, cut a hole in sub-floor the run end of duct down by tanks.








UltraHeat Products

My TT wasn't even that complicated. My heat ducts ran thru the floor. A main trunk line with floor vents rising from it. All the factory did was cut a hole in the bottom of the trunk line to let heat into the underbelly. Crude but somewhat effective. When I did my custom arctic upgrade, I cut an additional hole in the fresh water tank area.
I also improved the insulation a lot, and ran heat tape on all of the water lines.

As for dumping, my valves are located in the heated underbelly, with long rods going to the dump handles outside the belly. This means that the pipe that the sewer hose is attached to is empty except when dumping.

[time2roll]

BobsYourUncle wrote:
I like a warm floor though, especially when I wander out to the potty at O-Dark Thirty and have bare feet.
Now you're in Ca, what's a cold night for you? A chilly 60 degrees? Lol!:B

A warm carpet should get you across the RV in the middle of the night. pianotuna has the details. Just seems way less complicated than covering the belly.

I modified my water system after a freeze up at -10F up in Mammoth Lakes.

I also have added two additional heater ducts to get more hot air flow. OEM system was so bad I was constantly hitting the high limit switch even after propping open the collapsed oem floor plenum.

And so while anything less than 60F around here is considered freezing we have ventured into some actual snow areas.

[bradyk]

Here in Cowtown I have a Flying J only 10 minutes away. They leave the dumper open all winter. The only issue is no running water so I usually just fill a few 5 gal jugs and dump them in after emptying the poop tank and let that be the rinse. Not perfect but have done it many times and it works well. Just be prepared for their dump fee.

GordonThree wrote:
another question for 4 season campers, where do you dump in the winter?

at least in my area of michigan, as soon as it's too cold to spread sh*t on the corn fields, all the dump stations close, because the septic guys rate goes from $$$ for a pump-out and dump to $$$$ for a pump-out and trip to the waste water plant.

[SDcampowneroper]

Hi Bob,
Old waterbed heaters worked for me, then the braided stainless steel heat tape you can cut to length, screwed 1 1/2 pvc ( think brick moulding) to the frame then fiberglass, added 1 1/2 plnk foam, then coroplast. no need for ducting.
Max

[GordonThree]

another question for 4 season campers, where do you dump in the winter?

at least in my area of michigan, as soon as it's too cold to spread sh*t on the corn fields, all the dump stations close, because the septic guys rate goes from $$$ for a pump-out and dump to $$$$ for a pump-out and trip to the waste water plant.

[bradyk]

Living in Calgary and like to get out all year I decided to remove my cloroplast and fixed up the underneath too. I did the Ultra Heat pads on the 2 tanks as well. Don't forget to get to get the wraps that go around the drain pipe gates for the drains. If you cant open them when frozen you wont be able to empty things out.
I also went through the inside and heat taped my lines inside. I was lucky as all my lines run topside so was not too bad to get to them other than I had to be like a snake on the floor. My water tank is inside under the bed so I just put a heating blanket on it and it stays plenty warm if I need it. Most of the time it does not need to be on other than when it is real cold. Keeps the back side warmer in bed too.
Needless to say we can camp in almost any weather especially with a few of the campgrounds with power open all year.

[GordonThree]

Ultraheat was mentioned a few times... I found their price ridiculous for what it is (carbon film resistive heater)

Dyers has 65 watt pads for under $40, 12 volt only
Clicky

Maybe Ultraheat's adhesive is better, or the substrate....

I bought several of the Lasalle pads, they installed easily. the substrate appears to be a EPDM type foam rubber, with a pressure sensitive adhesive backing that stuck hard onto the tank plastic right away.

[LarryJM]

Bob,

Take a look thru THIS ALBUM and it might give you some ideas on how to enclose your underbelly and even add some insulation. What I did along with maybe some tank heaters would easily make my trailer a 4 season as far as the underbelly area goes. Some trailers have actual heating duct openings to the underbelly area while others simply run the heating ducts thru the underbelly area. The latter normally uses the thin wall flex duct and is what mine uses and it does a great job in heating the underbelly area when the normal furnace runs.

Larry

[pianotuna]

Hi Bob,

Electric heated carpets. Be sure to use a fabric underlay or the tile on the floor may turn a dirty brown color (DAMHIK).

There is a type that has no wires--that is what I purchased. They will cut it to allow for things such as dinette table pedestals. I selected indoor outdoor carpet as I can take it to the car wash and use a pressure hose to clean it.

Currently urban docking with 2 15 amp circuits. Ambient temperature is 2 C. Floor temperate is 40 C. It feels nice on bare toes!

My supposedly four seasons class c has enclosed tanks--which were supposed to be heated. I added a 120 volt outlet and use a small 600 watt fan type heater with a mechanical thermostat. I've tested that to -37.