Camper and Skiing

rider997 wrote:
We camp in 0F (-18C) temps without a problem in our Arctic Fox 811.

Drying gear only becomes an issue in late spring conditions or when skiing in the rain. Our first line of defense is to waterproof our gear- this reduces the amount of water you need to evaporate while in the camper.

We arrange damp gear around the vents of our forced air propane furnace, and find that even keeping it cool in the camper at night (40F / 5C), the gear is typically completely dry by morning. We also bring resistive element passive boot heaters to dry out our boots. It is clearly necessary to crack a roof vent to reduce condensation in the camper when adding all of this additional moisture to the atmosphere.

With 300w of solar (in series) and an MPPT charge controller, our battery bank charges in even highly overcast conditions. We have about 180Ah of battery at 12V, which is sufficient for a week or more of cold weather, partially or mostly overcast camping, while running the heater, the boot heaters, and charging electronics.

The Arctic Fox is well enough insulated that we don't have problems with tank water freezing even at the aforementioned 0F outside, 40F inside. (The cold water line to the bathroom has a tendency to occasionally get frosty if it's very windy on the driver's side of the camper).

Skis go in a Yakima/Thule box on top of the camper. Poles go either there or in the basement storage tray. Boots will fit in the top box, but since they're impossible to put on when they're cold (and they suck the heat out of your feet), we typically keep them in boot bags inside the camper.