Artic Fox 990 and winter camping

[cubbear]

went to Black hills SD snowmobiling did not winterize camper hooked up to shore power and used electric heater to keep warm had no trouble using water or anything else. was gone for week had plenty of water and sewer capacity. Next went to Grand Rapids MN to granddaughters hockey tournament parked in arena yard and used Honda to charge batterys, furnace to stay warm temp got to -8 still had no trouble. From there went to tower Mn snowmobiling 1 night temp got to -14 water line froze between pump and water tank used hair dryer to thaw out. next night -32 below zero water froze again thawed out with hair dryer again. was hooked up to shore power used electric heater to stay warm. we were gone 9 days had plenty of water and sewer capacity. only thing I did to camper was install storm windows, insulate ski lites with foam and windows that did not have storms, back door, cab window ect. I also rewired rear fan that blows heat to drain valves so it would run even if furnace was not on.

[ticki2]

deltabravo wrote:
Constant power from a switch sounds like a good idea for that little fan that blows in to the tank valve area. I might investigate a highr CFM fan too. It looks like a big computer case fan.

I don't have a standard basement like a new TC . My tanks and valves are in a rear overhang compartment . I've insulated with 2" an 1" rigid insulation . Put in two computer fans , one in and one out from the cabin . In temps from single digit to freezing I'm reading 10 degree differential between compartment and cabin .

[ticki2]

AKSuperDually wrote:
I've camped down to 0 in our AF. Probably seen some single digit negatives. No problems with drafts around the slides or frozen lines. Heater runs pretty much constantly below +10F, but even in a week of camping dry we didn't use up our propane tanks.

Thanks , that's helpful . So roughly 10# per day .

[cubbear]

I did not have thermal pane windows as I bought off dealer lot and it did not have them. I will be installing a baseboard heater before next winter so I wont need to use portable heater as much.

[trail-explorer]

cubbear wrote:
we did not have any condensation problem.

Do you have the optional thermal pane windows?

[jmckelvy]

deltabravo wrote:
Constant power from a switch sounds like a good idea for that little fan that blows in to the tank valve area. I might investigate a highr CFM fan too. It looks like a big computer case fan.

That can make a big difference if camping with power and using an electric space heater which is how we survived the really cold temps we encountered last Nov.

I swapped the standard thermostat for a digital one with Heat/Cool and an Auto/On fan control. It was easy to wire the power wire for the basement fan so that it still comes on when the furnace kicks on but will also come on when the Fan switch is switched on. It stays on when the furnace runs. On our trip I think that little fan ran continuously for almost two weeks.

The electric space heater did a good job of keeping the camper warm enough. Although on the really cold days/nights we kept the slide in.

[deltabravo]

One thing I discovered when adding my heavy duty charge line is that the surface that goes out over the bed rails has ZERO insulation - all it consists of is thin plywood.

[deltabravo]

Constant power from a switch sounds like a good idea for that little fan that blows in to the tank valve area. I might investigate a highr CFM fan too. It looks like a big computer case fan.

[AKSuperDually]

I've camped down to 0 in our AF. Probably seen some single digit negatives. No problems with drafts around the slides or frozen lines. Heater runs pretty much constantly below +10F, but even in a week of camping dry we didn't use up our propane tanks.

[cubbear]

I did not realize it was going to get -32 below zero or I probably would not have gone there. weather forcast -16 below zero. I did put electric heater by basement fan so that probably helped. I was hooked up to shore power most of time so used electric heaters so propane was not an issue. I did notice a lot of cold air does come from where slide ends up when out. I will work on fixing that before next winter. also I would put RV antifreeze in grey and black tank to keep lines from freezing I worried about them. Make sure to order camper with bunk above dinette as a great place to put stuff. we could put all our snowmobile gear up there and still sit at table. we did not have any condensation problem.

[ticki2]

I'd say you did pretty good at those temps . How much propane did you use ?

[trail-explorer]

jefe 4x4 wrote:
... I guess that's why the call it an ARCTIC fox.
jefe

I reckon you are correct. 😉

[jefe_4x4]

Whoa! You are way out of our league with our almost-insulation-free-wimpy-LA-model Lance Lite. No basement. No heated tanks. Good down to about 20 deg. F. if I keep the lower cabinet doors open while the noisy, battery sucking, heater is blasting away. Have frozen solid a couple times requiring a new H2O pump in the spring. If we do go below 20 deg.F, I will evacutate the water system all together and just use straight -50F RV antifreeze to flush the toilet.
It must be nice. I guess that's why the call it an ARCTIC fox.
jefe

[jmckelvy]

ace44 wrote:
Nice to hear, -10 is the coldest I have seen with mine.

We successfully survived last year's "Polar Vortex". -18 F in Laramie and several more nights in Idaho well below zero.

[kerry4951]

Thats a pretty nice testament to the weatherability of your AF TC. With some of those temps it would be difficult to keep any RV from freezing up. Im glad to hear that you wired in a switch to operate your basement fan while running electric heat off of shore power. I did the same thing. If I was going to be in those kind of temps and hooked up to shore power, I might consider placing a small heater in the hallway just away from the basement vent/fan. That way you would get more of a blast of direct heat going into the basement. I installed 1000 watt electric baseboard heater (make is Dimplex) so I would use that plus the portable heater for the basement heat.