Cold Weather with a Lazy Daze December 30, 2009, 09:38:30 am Yahoo Message Number: 108832Well, I have been fulltiming in the LD for 7 months now - how time flies. It's been great. I came back to GA for Christmas and had hoped to be headed to South Texas by now, but my mom is having surgery early next week so I am staying around for a bit longer. AND IT's COLD!!! I'm currently in Winder, where it has gotten to 27 degrees at night, but this weekend a cold front is coming in and I am moving up to the mountains to be closer to my mother. The lows for next week are high teens and low 20's. So, what should I do? In the past I have not hooked up city water and opened cabinet doors below kitchen and bath sink. I also keep it a bit warmer with the propane furnace than I might otherwise do. I'm concerned about the pipes and the holding tanks. I plan on having fairly empty holding tanks, so if they freeze there is room to expand.Any other suggestions? PS - my aircard broke last night so I'm on a library PC. I know there has been information on here about cold weather, but doing a quick search it looks like it will take me a while to find it and I only have 30 minutes on this PC and just got my 10 minute warning. It might be a day or 2 until I get back to a computer, so thanks in advance for any info.Thanks! Pam
Re: Cold Weather with a Lazy Daze Reply #1 – December 30, 2009, 10:16:12 am Yahoo Message Number: 108833QuoteSo, what should I do? In the past I have not hooked up city water and opened cabinet doors below kitchen and bath sink. I also keep it a bit warmer with the propane furnace than I might otherwise do. I'm concerned about the pipes and the holding tanks. I plan on having fairly empty holding tanks, so if they freeze there is room to expand.Any other suggestions? Use a heavy-duty extension cord with a small electric heater, set to the low setting, on all the time. Locate it inside above the holding tanks, on or close to the floor. You can supplement by using the furnace while you are actually inside.Steve
Re: Cold Weather with a Lazy Daze Reply #2 – December 30, 2009, 10:33:37 am Yahoo Message Number: 108835Here are a few tips culled from the Eureka article on cold-weather camping: * If possible, plug into shore power (even if it's only 15A) and use electric heaters. For even heating, two small heat sources are better than one big heat source. I run two electric heaters on 750W apiece, so they can both plug into the same circuit. * If you have 30A shore power, use the heat strip setting on your air conditioner (if it has one) to get extra heat. * insulate the cab from the rest of the coach with a blanket or (better still) comforter. * Insulate windows and vents with Reflectix. Or buy the snap-on vent covers sold by Lazy Daze and other RV suppliers. * Remember to set the cab heating system to "OFF" when you park. A lot of cold air can blow in through those dashboard vents if you don't.* If you can, park broadside to the sun. * Make sure your house batteries are in good shape. If they get too low, your furnace won't work. The blower may turn over, but if it doesn't reach a certain speed, the burner won't ignite and it'll just blow cold air. * A 12V warming pad from ElectroWarmth.com is a wonderful thing, because it lets you get into a pre-warmed bed at night. * If you have shore power, buy some pipe heating tape at Walmart or a hardware store and wrap it around the pipes from your tanks to your dump valves. * If you have shore power, buy an incandescent trouble light, put a 100W bulb in it, and lay it on the ground under your tanks. * If you have shore power, put a small (25-40W) incandescent lamp inside your water pump cabinet. * Of course, don't hook up to city water--you already know that. Use your freshwater tank instead. * Don't be tempted to buy a portable propane heater such as the inexpensive "Mr. Heater Portable Buddy" type. See our recent discussion on heater safety. Baking bread or cookies in the morning is a great way to start the day and warm up the coach. Do your prep work the night before (e.g., for refrigerator cookies), so that you can turn on the oven first thing in the morning. :-)Those are a few of the things that come to mind. Hope this helps!Andy Baird http://www.andybaird.com/travels/
Re: Cold Weather with a Lazy Daze Reply #3 – December 31, 2009, 01:41:56 pm Yahoo Message Number: 108857Hey Pam, all of Andy's suggestions are good advice. Personally, I really don't think you will have any problems at all unless the temps stay below freezing all day long. No water hookups and keeping the batteries charged are the two biggies. Enjoy the winter.......... mike @My Daughter's Place, Yuba City, California
Re: Cold Weather with a Lazy Daze Reply #4 – January 01, 2010, 10:31:30 am Yahoo Message Number: 108876Thanks for all of the information. The good news is that in the 10 day weather forecast (which I don't typically trust) the couple of days where the high wasn't above freezing has changed. While the lows are still 15 and 16, the highs are above freezing (34 and 35). So hopefully I will be ok. I do have a few questions. For those of you who have used the warming tape, how did you put it on? Straight as the instructions say for a pipe or wrap it around the pipe, which would seem to be more appropriate for this size pipe? Also how did you secure it? My next thought. I do have 2 electric heaters, but I do not use those at night or while I am not in the RV. I feel safer with the propane. One of the suggestions was to leave an electric heater on at all times and placed over where the tanks are, which makes sense, but I do worry about that. Any thoughts on this.By the way, I have a 27 ft mid-bath.Pam (PS - Verizon was very quick and I received my "certified like new" aircard the day after I took the broken one to the store, so I am back to using my own PC!)
Re: Cold Weather with a Lazy Daze Reply #5 – January 01, 2010, 12:15:57 pm Yahoo Message Number: 108878"For those of you who have used the warming tape, how did you put it on?" Spiral-wrap it around the pipe, securing with nylon cable ties every six or eight inches. (You can find them in Walmart's auto department; if they don't have long enough ones to go around a 3" pipe, buy the longest ones they have and link two or more together.) Once you've applied the heating tape, it's a good idea to overwrap with self-adhesive foam insulating tape, which is usually sold in the same part of the store where you found the heating tape. This will hold in the warmth from the pipe tape. Since there's no way to heat the dump valves themselves, in really extreme cold they could freeze up even if the pipes are kept unfrozen by the heating tape. But if the contents of the pipes are above freezing, it shouldn't take too long to thaw out the valves with a hair dryer. "I do have 2 electric heaters, but I do not use those at night or while I am not in the RV. I feel safer with the propane." I think you have your risk-assessment priorities backward. Electric heaters are quite safe--in fact, if anything, they're safer than running the furnace. All portable electric heaters have tipover and/or overheat switches, so the risk of a fire even if one should be knocked over is close to zero. And of course an electric heater can't generate poisonous carbon monoxide (CO). Although your furnace normally won't release CO to the coach interior, in an older unit it's possible for the heat exchanger to rust through or leak, allowing exhaust gases to mix with the warm air flow. (RV tech Mike Sylvester always checks for this with a sensitive CO sniffer when he does annual maintenance on furnaces.) This situation is rare, but it can happen... whereas with an electric heater there's zero risk of CO emission. Bottom line: electric heaters are probably the safest way to heat your rig, and you shouldn't hesitate to use them at any time. I'm about as safety-conscious as anyone I know, but in cold weather I run my electric heaters all night and when I'm away from the coach.Andy Baird http://www.andybaird.com/travels/
Topic: Cold Weather with a Lazy Daze (Read 17 times)
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Topic: Cold Weather with a Lazy Daze (Read 17 times)
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