Questions on using motor home to live in this winter

[Marine359]

How do you plan on refilling your propane?
In sub-freezing, we go through about a gallon of propane in our little TT every night.
A big motorhome might use twice that much. Your on board propane supply probably won’t last more than a week. You’ll need a solution like a buddy propane tank, or consider a diesel heater. Otherwise you’ll have to move your rig every week, or have propane delivered,

[donr103]

Start adding insulation to your rv now.. not later.. seal up every crack and every hole plumbing went thru floor.. use reflective bubble wrap insulation of your choice inside every window.. use Velcro on sides so you can take down.. Mark on them where they go.. if you have refrigerator vent outside.. inspect that area closely and see if there are gaps.. mine was 6+ in on both sides.. see my old post on insulation.. if you had or have center tv in front cap.. see my old post.. and under front grill.. or generator bay.. inspect under dash area.. mine had 0 insulation.. see my old post.. you are behind in adding insulation if you already made up your mind to stay.. oh.. insulate the vents.. cheap pillows works.. get at thrift shop.. you will find gaps.. cracks.. and holes in basement too.. you may be able to add insulation to tanks.. wet bay floor and even bay doors.. not a lot. But some.. and if weather turns bad.. any you correctly added will help.. have a back up indoor propane heater in case main heater stops. Put in all.. I mean all batteries if less than 3yrs .. and maintain engine and generator..
Good luck and keep us posted

[shepardmike]

OP - Just saw this article - https://rvlife.com/rv-skirting-airskirts/

[1972VWbus]

Is your basement area where the water tank and lines heated?

Mine dumps heat into the water tank compartment (both basement storages on passenger side) when the house heater is on.

When I have it in storage I drain the tank and cover the lines/pump with a nice thick terry cloth (beach towel). Works great. You could do the same for your lines during winter use.

[saddlesore]

Originally Posted by Marine359

How do you plan on refilling your propane?
In sub-freezing, we go through about a gallon of propane in our little TT every night.
A big motorhome might use twice that much. Your on board propane supply probably won’t last more than a week. You’ll need a solution like a buddy propane tank, or consider a diesel heater. Otherwise you’ll have to move your rig every week, or have propane delivered,

See My Post #6 getting a local LPG distributor to set a 120 gallon tank, and put on a "Keep Full" schedule..

[RVFunlovers]

I don’t know your specific coach.

We have been in some very cold weather in the coach for weeks at a time. High of 30 low of zero.
We use electric fireplace and small electric heater.
And diesel heat. Basement is heated.
The only thing I do special is use a water hose that is heated with electric.

I use temp sensors from Govee. Little small battery devices that work over wifi to tell you the temperature. You can program them to alert at 40 or water temp you chose to alert you if you have a low or high temp. I have one in the coach basement and one in coach.the

[powercat_ras]

Another thing you'll have to deal with is the absorbtion refrigerator uses a weak solution of water and ammonia in the weak solution collector tank and or tubing above it can freeze. If it does then your refrigerator cooling cycle will stop and the refrigerator absorbtion cycle boiler can overheat and cause damage, unless you have a Fridge Defend from arprv.com. You can put a little heat behind the refrigerator. I use a 120 volt heat mat that is used for starting seedlings plugged into a temp controller for running a stock tank heater that comes on in the mid 30s. Others use a 40 watt light bulb. A few Norcold absorbtion refrigerators already have a cold weather heat kit option that essentially builds in what I dicuss above.

There is also a temperature range for compressor refrigerators for the compressor compartment, typically 40 F or warmer. My friend had her Norcold converted from absorbtion to compressor and they put a low wattage heat source there with a manual switch she can turn on when it is forecast to be 40 F or less.

[Ray,IN]

Originally Posted by OldBaldFat

Amen. Nothing is more fun than being outside in sleet and snow with a hair dryer trying to thaw out a frozen dump valve with water backed up into the shower and overflowing onto the floor.

And the sewer hose is trashed. Freezing breaks one many places.



Another Amen.

I cannot find specs on your rig, and I know refilling propane in a motorhome is a PITA. If you cannot find some willing to come to your site to refill it, you have to remove all your winterization and drive it to a propane retailer. Or supply a large external tank like in the photos above outside that you can have a professional install to bypass the smaller tank built into the rig.

However, I'm assuming you have a 30 to 35,000 BTU propane furnace. To replace the output of a common 34,000 BTU propane furnace will require 9,964.75 watts of electrical power - which is 83.04 amps.

I don't think that rig is set up with 100 amp power.

You can't provide enough electrical heat to match 1/2 (50 amp rig) or 1/3 (30 amp rig) of the heating that propane does.

Supplemental electrical heat - fine, useful. But propane will be essential.

Living cheap and living in an RV during a cold winter are opposite sides of a coin.
The 1998 Fleetwood Bounder owners manual addresses cold weather living in section 4.
There is no way IMO to use electric-only during sub-freezing weather and still prevent water plumbing problems.

[jacwjames]

Most of my plumbing in the basement is in one compartment, and the water tanks (fresh, grey, black) in another compartment next to it.

I used a small cube heater and had it blowing into the the one compartment but instead of relying on the thermostat on the cube heater I used a EasyHeat plug https://www.lowes.com/pd/EasyHeat-Fr...roller/1060249 . This would start and stop the heater.
I did not rely on the furnace to keep the basement from freezing.

[TandW]

Originally Posted by jacwjames

Most of my plumbing in the basement is in one compartment, and the water tanks (fresh, grey, black) in another compartment next to it.

I used a small cube heater and had it blowing into the the one compartment but instead of relying on the thermostat on the cube heater I used a EasyHeat plug https://www.lowes.com/pd/EasyHeat-Fr...roller/1060249 . This would start and stop the heater.
I did not rely on the furnace to keep the basement from freezing.

Been using that exact same device to control a 120 watt three place buffet plate/bowl warmer that lays in the bottom of the wet bay in the old Allegro 31 IA. Never a burnout and never a freeze-up.

[Ray,IN]

For electric basement plumbing heating, check out reptile heat lamps. Teamed with a thermocube it sounds like a good idea.

[vmgotit]

In the past, I have been able to keep everything on electric power and heating with electricity in the RV park in Chelan, WA. I did have skirting around the perimeter of the coach. Used a mechanic’s light with heat lamp bulb in the compartment with the Grey and Black valves. Also, my Water connection was in the compartment. I have a nice water hose that is factory made with heat taping given to me a couple of winters ago. Worked great along with heat tape on the frost free water spigot, also spigot covered with insulation i had to use, fiberglass, then covered in plastic to keep snow and rain from soaking the insulation. Ran the “house” with two radiator style electric heaters, mostly on medium even in the extreme cold weather conditions. I am thinking of doing basically the same, adding a radiator style heater underneath the motor home with the insulated skirting.

In my opinion, propane is not a good option. To much moisture using this and just is not a “warm” feeling. If you look up the heat wave lengths of different types of heat, you will see that wood heat is the best, followed by Oil heat. Electric heat is better than Propane. Propane not so good. Even the btu output should tell you this per gallon. Yes, not many can or will use wood heat in their motor homes. Using a portable Oil heater is not safe on most models. Best in my opinion is Electric heaters, in the RV. Power outages do happen, good time to run the Generator, to keep this In working order. Thanks everyone for your input and suggestions. Vance.

[TandW]

Originally Posted by vmgotit

In the past, I have been able to keep everything on electric power and heating with electricity in the RV park in Chelan, WA. I did have skirting around the perimeter of the coach. Used a mechanic’s light with heat lamp bulb in the compartment with the Grey and Black valves. Also, my Water connection was in the compartment. I have a nice water hose that is factory made with heat taping given to me a couple of winters ago. Worked great along with heat tape on the frost free water spigot, also spigot covered with insulation i had to use, fiberglass, then covered in plastic to keep snow and rain from soaking the insulation. Ran the “house” with two radiator style electric heaters, mostly on medium even in the extreme cold weather conditions. I am thinking of doing basically the same, adding a radiator style heater underneath the motor home with the insulated skirting.

In my opinion, propane is not a good option. To much moisture using this and just is not a “warm” feeling. If you look up the heat wave lengths of different types of heat, you will see that wood heat is the best, followed by Oil heat. Electric heat is better than Propane. Propane not so good. Even the btu output should tell you this per gallon. Yes, not many can or will use wood heat in their motor homes. Using a portable Oil heater is not safe on most models. Best in my opinion is Electric heaters, in the RV. Power outages do happen, good time to run the Generator, to keep this In working order. Thanks everyone for your input and suggestions. Vance.

Sounds like you had it well figured out to begin with. Now how will you keep the ground level heat from escaping past the engine compartment/radiator?

[Ray,IN]

vmgotit, IMO, I would not try to add heat under the RV. The heat will pull moisture from the ground, concrete, or whatever the base, and cause the frame and other metals to corrode more.
Blocking air-flow is a good idea, but not all. I'd want a bit of air-flow to prevent moisture buildup. Even stix N Brix with a crawl-space have a few air vents for the same reason.