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barmcd · 02-15-2021, 09:20 AM

I was in the middle of some coach maintenance this fall when I had a motorcycle accident. I have been unable to finish so the coach has been undrivable and unwinterized. I just drained the tanks and put a heater in the basement and interior to get by. Normally that is good enough for our low temps.

Now we’ve got a frigid cold snap with snow and single digit temps. The electricity has been on and off all night so I’ve had to make several trips out to the coach to turn the heaters back on. Finally I just turned on the propane heater and set the thermostat to 45 degrees. It has an outlet in the basement to keep the utilities warm. I only have half a tank of propane - hope it lasts a couple days.

Now it looks like we won’t have electricity until this afternoon. I got the generator started to recharge the batteries and run the space heaters again. Of course, we don’t have winter blend diesel and everyone is out of diesel treatment. Hope it stays running.

What a pain this is.

Outbound · 02-15-2021, 09:36 AM

Good luck, sounds like you have all your bases covered.

jacwjames · 02-15-2021, 09:57 AM

Yup, good luck.

Not many options if power is out and you have to rely on propane. Plus you'll have to watch your battery level as the furnace will pull the batteries down pretty quick. I guess you can use you AGS to start the generator and hope the cold doesn't impact the fuel supply.

mccrob · 02-15-2021, 01:01 PM

Fuel should be fine till it gets way below zero. I’m sure you are really cold but not like if you were up north

**Spdracr39** · 02-15-2021, 01:15 PM

Sorry Dennis. It's tough in these parts right now. We got 8 inches of snow and also have lows around zero with minus 10 windchill tonight. My transfer switch went out yesterday and I had to rewire to the genny side in the snow and 10 degree weather. We live in ours so no choice but to get it done.

BobJones · 02-15-2021, 02:02 PM

Sorry to hear about the accident

I've yet to have one, and don't want one neither

I wouldn't worry to much about the unit, if you drained it, you'll be fine. The furnace will help a ton. Up here, and I have no bay heat, even when it's -2 or -3 the wetbay is still at around 4c due to heat from the inside leaking down.

Get well soon!

barmcd · 02-15-2021, 04:10 PM

Thanks guys. It’s been a real challenge. The first day it got cold started as rain, then changed to sleet and then snow. I had a real challenge getting it unlocked. Then the next two days were a rinse, repeat as the ice on the side melted a little, then froze again it took de-icer and a blow dryer to get in. Finally I just left it open. It’s single digits at night, who is out stealing anything?

We still don’t have electricity going on 14 hours now. Originally, it was supposed to be back on by 5. It did for about a minute. Now they are saying 9 pm. We were going to go to the coach tonight, where it’s warm, but have since decided it’s a bad idea to leave the house cold. The only heat in it is the propane fireplace.

I’m glad to hear we don’t have to worry about the fuel, I’ve got a full tank. The half tank of propane ought to last the night.

shootist · 02-15-2021, 05:54 PM

#2 diesel starts to thicken around 30 degrees f.

**Spdracr39** · 02-15-2021, 06:54 PM

My genny had a real hard time getting started at 15 degrees. We don't normally have an issue with gelling in this part of the country but we are now.

barmcd · 02-15-2021, 07:48 PM

Mine has been running fine all day. It’s down to 12 now. Absurdly cold for central Texas.

96 Wideglide · 02-16-2021, 05:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by barmcd

Mine has been running fine all day. It’s down to 12 now. Absurdly cold for central Texas.

Yeah, it's 40 up here in Canada

!

153stars · 02-16-2021, 05:51 PM

Jet stream does crazy stuff in 83 or 84 near Chicago was below zero for a month record -26f while Alaska was 40s to 50s the at same time they announced it every night on the news.
If the fuel filter is inside genny box it may catch a little heat keep fuel from gelling on filter membrane. I know some filters are heated on semis .

Quote:

Originally Posted by 96 Wideglide

Yeah, it's 40 up here in Canada

!

96 Wideglide · 02-16-2021, 05:57 PM

Yeah, we had a arctic air cold spell. We just sent it south

!

barmcd · 02-16-2021, 06:26 PM

Starting day 3 with no electricity and hopefully the last of the frigid weather will end tonight. It’s 18 right now and going to be 36 tomorrow. We’re down to 40 percent on the propane tank in the RV and hopefully we can get a refill tomorrow. We are making it okay and the house has stayed amazingly warm considering. It was 7 this am and it was 48 inside with no heat.