Montana Owners Club - Keystone Montana 5th Wheel Forum - View Single Post

sreigle · 02-13-2012, 09:01 AM

1. Heat tape a water hose so you don't always have to use onboard water. The park spigot/pipe will need to be taped and insulated as well.

2. I put two troublelights in the basement, one in the water connection center and the other one at the other end of the basement. Each has a 40w bulb. Also have an indoor/outdoor thermometer sensor in the water connection center so I can monitor that temperature. The troublelights both connect to an extension cord. The other end of the cord comes up through our laundry chute so I can plug it in as needed. If you need it all winter and have a basement 110v outlet (we don't) then plug it in there. Our model (and probably yours) does get some heat in the basement storage area so the troublelights are not totally necessary. Even without the lights it never got lower than 34 in the water center even with ambient temperature at 5 below. I'm just more comfortable with the lights keeping things warm.

3. Keep all tank valves closed except when dumping or flushing. Otherwise as water runs into the dump hose it will build up and freeze. A few layers of that and your hose is frozen shut. If that happens, DO NOT touch the hose. It will disintegrate in your hands. Been there. Also, if those valves are open the dump pipes sitting outside the belly can also freeze up with ice. Then you don't dump until they thaw. Not good.

4. When it's in hard freeze territory, be sure the furnace runs occasionally. There is a heat duct in the belly that keeps things warm in there.

5. See if you can get/rent/lease/borrow a large propane tank. We were in rv parks that would loan us a 100 pounder and charged only for propane used. But you might want the 200 pounder or larger. During that 10 days with no high higher than 14, we went through the 100 pounder in about a week. You can get the extend-a-flow hose setup for connecting to the external tank at Camping World or many rv dealers.

6. If you do not have dual-pane windows, seriously, seriously, seriously consider using the window film, the shrink wrap stuff available at Walmart, Lowe's, Home Depot, to cover your windows on the inside. That makes a huge difference. December 2010 we didn't do that and we used about twice the propane we used in winters where we filmed the windows. The film is cheap. You'll have to remove the valances and unscrew the shades at the top to install the film. Then you can remount the shades and valances.

7. We supplement the furnace with electric heat, especially if we're not paying for electricity. I found that if the temperature is below about 23 or 24, then we can run the electric heaters and the furnace still runs enough to keep our water lines comfortable. At temperatures above that we might run a single electric heater on a low setting but that's it, for downstairs. Upstairs we use an electric heater whenever it's cold up there.

We've survived 5 below zero twice. And 10 days where the high for the period was 14 F. But several here have survived far worse than we have. Many of them use skirting. We didn't. You might check with someone about their skirting. That can make a big difference. I know RC and Samantha did a couple of full winters in Montana, very close to the Canadian border. They used skirting. I haven't seen them on here for awhile so you might email them.

Good luck.

02-13-2012, 09:01 AM	#13
sreigle Montana Master Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Oceanside Posts: 20,028 M.O.C. #20	1. Heat tape a water hose so you don't always have to use onboard water. The park spigot/pipe will need to be taped and insulated as well. 2. I put two troublelights in the basement, one in the water connection center and the other one at the other end of the basement. Each has a 40w bulb. Also have an indoor/outdoor thermometer sensor in the water connection center so I can monitor that temperature. The troublelights both connect to an extension cord. The other end of the cord comes up through our laundry chute so I can plug it in as needed. If you need it all winter and have a basement 110v outlet (we don't) then plug it in there. Our model (and probably yours) does get some heat in the basement storage area so the troublelights are not totally necessary. Even without the lights it never got lower than 34 in the water center even with ambient temperature at 5 below. I'm just more comfortable with the lights keeping things warm. 3. Keep all tank valves closed except when dumping or flushing. Otherwise as water runs into the dump hose it will build up and freeze. A few layers of that and your hose is frozen shut. If that happens, DO NOT touch the hose. It will disintegrate in your hands. Been there. Also, if those valves are open the dump pipes sitting outside the belly can also freeze up with ice. Then you don't dump until they thaw. Not good. 4. When it's in hard freeze territory, be sure the furnace runs occasionally. There is a heat duct in the belly that keeps things warm in there. 5. See if you can get/rent/lease/borrow a large propane tank. We were in rv parks that would loan us a 100 pounder and charged only for propane used. But you might want the 200 pounder or larger. During that 10 days with no high higher than 14, we went through the 100 pounder in about a week. You can get the extend-a-flow hose setup for connecting to the external tank at Camping World or many rv dealers. 6. If you do not have dual-pane windows, seriously, seriously, seriously consider using the window film, the shrink wrap stuff available at Walmart, Lowe's, Home Depot, to cover your windows on the inside. That makes a huge difference. December 2010 we didn't do that and we used about twice the propane we used in winters where we filmed the windows. The film is cheap. You'll have to remove the valances and unscrew the shades at the top to install the film. Then you can remount the shades and valances. 7. We supplement the furnace with electric heat, especially if we're not paying for electricity. I found that if the temperature is below about 23 or 24, then we can run the electric heaters and the furnace still runs enough to keep our water lines comfortable. At temperatures above that we might run a single electric heater on a low setting but that's it, for downstairs. Upstairs we use an electric heater whenever it's cold up there. We've survived 5 below zero twice. And 10 days where the high for the period was 14 F. But several here have survived far worse than we have. Many of them use skirting. We didn't. You might check with someone about their skirting. That can make a big difference. I know RC and Samantha did a couple of full winters in Montana, very close to the Canadian border. They used skirting. I haven't seen them on here for awhile so you might email them. Good luck.