Winter Camping in an ORV

[camper8251]

Stumbled across this blog..
Has some good info about our ORV's and how they hold up in the winter.

https://www.adventurousway.com/blog

[Dave Pelletier]

I just read the blog (well done, as always). I'll be interested to see how your 1500w heater use and forgoing the furnace affects your water and waste tank temps......though I don't have the fw tank heater.

Dave

[troutmandj]

ORV 21RBS here. we just took ours to Denali National Park in Alaska, -22 degrees, and stayed toasty warm and fully operational. Here's some of the things we've done:
we have generator, that is key: it compensates for lack of daylight in Alaska - charging batteries (we have 350W solar panels, but in gray skies and darkness they can operate minimally) and running heat lamps.
i run 2 250W heat lamps under the trailer (on gen power). Only need sporadically as trailer furnace does a great job, set at 78 degrees).
for backup though, we have 2 weeks of food, carry 20 gal water in jugs, propane and gas portable stoves, lots of clothing and blankets.
truck did fine starting and running at that temp, but i have a portable jump starter battery in case.
antifreeze in gray and black tanks.
we camp where we have cell capability as well. surprising how much coverage there is, even in remote areas of Alaska.
we have no skirt for the bottom, but that may be a plan for future. problem is that sometimes the ground is not level, and when i level the trailer the ground clearance changes making it difficult to pre-cut a skirt. i haven't thought about it much yet though. not a problem in official campgrounds and rv parks.

[Vintage465]

I'm going to say you guys are taking this winter camping thing to a level I don't want to entertain! But, I'm glad you guys are havin' a goooood time! I've taken our 20fq down to 7 degrees and fared well. Sustaining much time at 7 degrees or less would certainly put us to the test. And by the way, we were plugged in and we only had single pane windows at the time....that was the deciding factor to upgrade!

[ALLOY]

[Mod Edit]



If you don't have one of these they are a great tool to find the places with the greatest heat lost.



https://www.flir.com/products/flir-one-gen-3/


After seeing the heat loss we:
- made 1 1/2 EPS plugs for the windows held in with foam backer rod
- covered the AC ducts in the ceiling with 1 1 /2" XPS.
- added 2 layers of 1/2" Polyethylene Foam to the opening at the bottom of the slides.

Dry camping at -5 the water system hasn't frozen yet

[Brad Wilf]

Originally Posted by ALLOY

If you don't have one of these they are a great tool to find the places with the greatest heat lost.



https://www.flir.com/products/flir-one-gen-3/


After seeing the heat loss we:
- made 1 1/2 EPS plugs for the windows held in with foam backer rod
- covered the AC ducts in the ceiling with 1 1 /2" XPS.
- added 2 layers of 1/2" Polyethylene Foam to the opening at the bottom of the slides.

Dry camping at -5 the water system hasn't frozen yet

Curious, how and where exactly to you mount the foam for the slide?

[ALLOY]

Originally Posted by Brad Wilf

Curious, how and where exactly to you mount the foam for the slide?

It is friction fit. Started with long pieces but the cutouts (the foam wraps over the top of the slide tubes) made them hard to store so I cut them into 3 pieces.



This is the foam. Closed cell so it doesn't absorb water.


https://www.thefoamfactory.com/close...lene-foam.html

[zim]

How do you keep things from freezing up while towing? Can you run the furnace while towing? Or do you pump antifreeze through the lines?

[Gammel]

Alloy, tried to find 'R' values for Cross-Linked Polyethylene Foam but it must be above my clearance level. How stiff is the 2 lb density? I'm thinking of it for covering windows at night. I would think a 3/4" panel would be fairly stiff.

[troutmandj]

Originally Posted by zim

How do you keep things from freezing up while towing? Can you run the furnace while towing? Or do you pump antifreeze through the lines?

yes, you can run the furnace. i do while towing. i have antifreeze in black and gray tanks. fresh water does ok with the furnace running, but my trips in winter are short, max 6 hour drive. That's so i park for the night, run generator and heat lamps under the trailer (for sub-zero boon docking).

[troutmandj]

update: i just returned from another overnight in Denali. this time not so successful. temperature friday at Denali was -22 when we arrived in the afternoon. generator started and ran with no trouble, furnace good, all good. i turned the generator off at 11:00 pm for bedtime (mistake). checked temperature at 3:00 am: -30. battery still good but draining at 11.9v. i woke up late, 10:00 am; battery at 10v and furnace cutting off and on. temperature at -30 still. generator sat too long in this environment it is clearly not made for; no hope for starting it. i hooked up the truck's electrical cable and ran the truck, so we had a nice leisurely coffee and breakfast, and enjoy the beautiful scenery. but, as per our plan, if generator don't run, we do. so we packed up and came home. we slept toasty warm and comfortable overnight, and the batteries (four 6v in series/parallel) did well overnight, but without generator we're dead in the snow. not enough light for our solar panels to bail us out. -30 is borderline nuts anyway. in year 1 learning about our rig - it's all good! we do love the winter.

[JHinman]

-30 is pretty cold. We had our 25KRS out in 11-degree F temps in October, and that seemed cold. Heater ran half of the time, and we had plenty of frost around the windows. No significant input from the solar panel, but the generator worked.

[2Curtass]

Originally Posted by troutmandj

update: i just returned from another overnight in Denali. this time not so successful. temperature friday at Denali was -22 when we arrived in the afternoon. generator started and ran with no trouble, furnace good, all good. i turned the generator off at 11:00 pm for bedtime (mistake). checked temperature at 3:00 am: -30. battery still good but draining at 11.9v. i woke up late, 10:00 am; battery at 10v and furnace cutting off and on. temperature at -30 still. generator sat too long in this environment it is clearly not made for; no hope for starting it. i hooked up the truck's electrical cable and ran the truck, so we had a nice leisurely coffee and breakfast, and enjoy the beautiful scenery. but, as per our plan, if generator don't run, we do. so we packed up and came home. we slept toasty warm and comfortable overnight, and the batteries (four 6v in series/parallel) did well overnight, but without generator we're dead in the snow. not enough light for our solar panels to bail us out. -30 is borderline nuts anyway. in year 1 learning about our rig - it's all good! we do love the winter.

That's some good info you have given us!
We just bought our ORV last year and had our first elk hunt in it this year. I was a little hesitant taking it up with full water as all our hunting buddies have campers, but don't ever run water in them for the hunt. Everyone was happy to know that I had full water in my camper and would come over to wash their hands and face at the end of the night. It is pretty nice to have hot water without having to warm up on the stove to just wash your face at night.
This year we did not get too cold, our coldest night was -6 but the camper did just fine. Couple years ago we were in our pop-up for the hunt and we had 12 nights of temps ranging from -6/-22. That was a cold year and one of the reasons we started looking at ORV.

One thing I do with my generator while on the hunt is run it all night. Just so I don't have to try and start it in the morning while it is cold soaked. I also plug my truck into the generator at night so it is warm in the morning as well.

[camper8251]

Originally Posted by troutmandj

update: i just returned from another overnight in Denali. this time not so successful. temperature friday at Denali was -22 when we arrived in the afternoon. generator started and ran with no trouble, furnace good, all good. i turned the generator off at 11:00 pm for bedtime (mistake). checked temperature at 3:00 am: -30. battery still good but draining at 11.9v. i woke up late, 10:00 am; battery at 10v and furnace cutting off and on. temperature at -30 still. generator sat too long in this environment it is clearly not made for; no hope for starting it. i hooked up the truck's electrical cable and ran the truck, so we had a nice leisurely coffee and breakfast, and enjoy the beautiful scenery. but, as per our plan, if generator don't run, we do. so we packed up and came home. we slept toasty warm and comfortable overnight, and the batteries (four 6v in series/parallel) did well overnight, but without generator we're dead in the snow. not enough light for our solar panels to bail us out. -30 is borderline nuts anyway. in year 1 learning about our rig - it's all good! we do love the winter.

So why do you think the Generator wouldn't start? Propane too cold? Oil To Thick?

Just curious....