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

sreigle · 11-16-2004, 09:21 AM

We've been down to 14 in ours, and in the teens a number of times. As others said, the Arctic Package includes additional insulation in the belly (don't know if there's more in the walls) and also there's a furnace duct in the belly. To keep tanks from freezing you need to make sure the furnace runs enough to get warm air down there. So on subfreezing nights we shut off the electric heater in the living room, set the furnace at 50 or 55, close the door to upstairs and run an electric heater up there to supplement the furnace. Above freezing we'll set the furnace as above but will run an electric heater downstairs on low.

Despite the arctic package, when temps get down into the teens you may have trouble with pipes freezing. One culprit is the low point drains under the rig. I spent some time under the rig with a hair dryer last winter. This time I've insulated them and hope that's enough. We also froze pipes somewhere else but only a couple of times. Opening the cabinet doors at night where there are pipes seems to help a lot. Some folks have dropped the bellypan and insulated their pipes but I haven't (yet) done that. If we have problems this winter with pipes freezing then I plan to insulate ours before the next winter. Someone reported they had pipes laying on the metal frame, which really helps them freeze.

You also will want to either fill your fresh water tank and disconnect the hose from the park spigot or use a heat taped hose. We use the heat taped hose and it's never frozen. I have frozen hoses not heat taped though. Makes for one giant popsicle and can damage the park's spigot. I also filled a five gallon can with roll insulation and put that over the park's spigot after connecting the heat taped hose. I see some people down the row used a large trash can for this. Theirs encloses the fixture all the way to the ground. Good idea but we have no place to store that trash can during the rest of the year. Our five gallon plastic bucket stays in our basement when not in use.

Some folks down the row are using hay bales as a skirting on their rig but I heard on this forum that's a good way to invite mice and insects. Another one used black plastic to enclose theirs. I can't tell for sure but it looks like they duct taped it to the underside and used something to hold the bottom of the plastic down. We've not done any skirting but do wonder if we should.

11-16-2004, 09:21 AM	#5
sreigle Montana Master Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Oceanside Posts: 20,028 M.O.C. #20	We've been down to 14 in ours, and in the teens a number of times. As others said, the Arctic Package includes additional insulation in the belly (don't know if there's more in the walls) and also there's a furnace duct in the belly. To keep tanks from freezing you need to make sure the furnace runs enough to get warm air down there. So on subfreezing nights we shut off the electric heater in the living room, set the furnace at 50 or 55, close the door to upstairs and run an electric heater up there to supplement the furnace. Above freezing we'll set the furnace as above but will run an electric heater downstairs on low. Despite the arctic package, when temps get down into the teens you may have trouble with pipes freezing. One culprit is the low point drains under the rig. I spent some time under the rig with a hair dryer last winter. This time I've insulated them and hope that's enough. We also froze pipes somewhere else but only a couple of times. Opening the cabinet doors at night where there are pipes seems to help a lot. Some folks have dropped the bellypan and insulated their pipes but I haven't (yet) done that. If we have problems this winter with pipes freezing then I plan to insulate ours before the next winter. Someone reported they had pipes laying on the metal frame, which really helps them freeze. You also will want to either fill your fresh water tank and disconnect the hose from the park spigot or use a heat taped hose. We use the heat taped hose and it's never frozen. I have frozen hoses not heat taped though. Makes for one giant popsicle and can damage the park's spigot. I also filled a five gallon can with roll insulation and put that over the park's spigot after connecting the heat taped hose. I see some people down the row used a large trash can for this. Theirs encloses the fixture all the way to the ground. Good idea but we have no place to store that trash can during the rest of the year. Our five gallon plastic bucket stays in our basement when not in use. Some folks down the row are using hay bales as a skirting on their rig but I heard on this forum that's a good way to invite mice and insects. Another one used black plastic to enclose theirs. I can't tell for sure but it looks like they duct taped it to the underside and used something to hold the bottom of the plastic down. We've not done any skirting but do wonder if we should.