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Old 12-16-2005, 11:21 AM   #21
CountryGuy
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Oh, boy, This subject has been discussed here a few times too, see the archives, I'll bet you will be reading for a while.

Al and I were contemplating running with the furnace on this year when we leave here right after Christmas. Now I am re-thinking the situation.

We frequently run with the frig on, but have no qualms about food spoilage and sometimes run with it off.

But, this time we are taking my plants with me, and there is gonna be a problem getting them into the truck, and I had hoped to run with the furnace on low. I know Steve R. does this in cold weather. We did do it one day last year, when it was about 12 degrees and we were about 2 hours from our stop for the evening, we turned on the furnace, have to say, it sure felt good going into Montana and having it a bit warm.

So, Back to plan A or B or Q, R, S???? Guess I will get my creative juices warmed up (HA HA HA HA, it is 21 here right now and 12 to 16 inches of snow on the ground) and see what I can come up with.
 
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Old 12-17-2005, 12:56 PM   #22
owenwetzel
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We just moved to Pigeon Forge TN. We left Indy it temp was 17. When we arrived at cg in TN the 5er was warmer than temp outside because we ran furnace on 50 as we made trip with no problem. Also ran wh and fridg.

We use park power to heat water, use furnace, and fridg. As well as ceramic heaters. Don't use a lot of lp.
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Old 12-17-2005, 06:27 PM   #23
dsprik
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Owen, how are your using your furnace on park power? Or were you referring to the ceramic heaters?
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Old 12-18-2005, 04:13 AM   #24
Random Line
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[quote]Originally posted by Roman4

We did it one time. On one of our first trips I fired up the furnace about 30 minutes prior to our arrival at an overnite stop to "pre-warm" the trailer. It seemed not to cause any problems. After thinking about it, though, I noticed that about half of the floor registers are covered by carpet when the slides are retracted. That might not cause a major problem, but it is enough of a concern that I will be unlikely to do it again.
------------------------------------------

Roman4,

Good thinking. A furnace tech repairing our furnace last year told me to be sure to keep the vents open while running the furnace. If there is a constriction in airflow the air will get superheated in the chamber and shut down the limit switch or otherwise screw up the computorized board in the thermostat and-- good by heat. There are no Suburban furnace techs or parts locally available by the way.

As we live in our Montana this winter waiting to get into our house (still under construction) we enjoy the heat in this rig to the max and obey all the precautions. -23 degrees F so far and the furnace runs fine. If the furnace stops we will be in a motel (that accepts Lobo) within an hour and for for another month until our place is habitable.

Now there is a whole bunch of discussion on winter camping that we might have right here but I will spare you and me and others all of that at the moment.



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Old 12-18-2005, 04:47 AM   #25
dsprik
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Jim, if it's something that we can benefit from, I'd like to hear it. I'm getting all the info I can as we will be FTing after May 06 and some of that time will be in N. MI around this time of year.
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Old 12-19-2005, 03:04 AM   #26
Random Line
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by dsprik

Jim, if it's something that we can benefit from, I'd like to hear it. I'm getting all the info I can as we will be FTing after May 06 and some of that time will be in N. MI around this time of year.----------------------
Will do as you request at the time we end our survival experience. We hope that will be NLT about 2-1-06.

Always glad to pass on our experieces for the good of this fine forum
We hope that someone can learn from our good (or bad} decisions.

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Old 12-19-2005, 05:15 AM   #27
dsprik
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Thanks, but I feel a little sorry that you have to throw yourself on the grenade for the rest of us.
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Old 12-20-2005, 06:10 AM   #28
sreigle
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Ron, we set the furnace on 45 when traveling in freezing weather. Never had a problem with this and no inordinate use of propane. We'll do it again when we leave here Jan 2nd if temps are below or even near freezing.

Our fridge is on 24x7, traveling or not.

Derfr, the newer propane bottles have the safety valve. If a hose is ruptured the rush of propane will cause that valve to close, shutting off flow of propane. If an accident ruptures a tank, then it won't matter whether the propane valve was opened or closed. If we had the older tanks I'd have second thoughts but with these newer ones I don't worry about it.

Jim, -23 is pretty darn cold. Did you have any problems with water lines freezing? Coldest we've been in is minus 5. This winter, minus 3 with almost a week not getting above the teens. We had some freezing problems due to my mistakes as noted in another thread. This time around I made no mistakes and we've not frozen again although the lowest this time is 8 F. Our neighbors froze their low point drains the other night when the low was 10. He's heat taping those this week, I believe.
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Old 12-21-2005, 02:44 AM   #29
Random Line
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[quote]Originally posted by dsprik

Thanks, but I feel a little sorry that you have to throw yourself on the grenade for the rest of us.

------------------------------------

.......eeeeeEEEEEE yyyyYYYYaaaaAAAAhhhhHHHH.. !
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Old 12-21-2005, 03:56 AM   #30
dsprik
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[quote]quote:Originally posted by Random Line

Quote:
Originally posted by dsprik

Thanks, but I feel a little sorry that you have to throw yourself on the grenade for the rest of us.

------------------------------------

.......eeeeeEEEEEE yyyyYYYYaaaaAAAAhhhhHHHH.. !
Whew!!! Thanks, Jim... I'll put you in for a medal! I'll relay to your next of kin what a hero you were.
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Old 12-21-2005, 02:14 PM   #31
sreigle
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by Roman4

We did it one time. On one of our first trips I fired up the furnace about 30 minutes prior to our arrival at an overnite stop to "pre-warm" the trailer. It seemed not to cause any problems. After thinking about it, though, I noticed that about half of the floor registers are covered by carpet when the slides are retracted. That might not cause a major problem, but it is enough of a concern that I will be unlikely to do it again. Also, experience has taught me that the furnace is so effective that it will warm the trailer pretty quickly anyway.

That's a good point, Harmon. All registers in our model are clear even when slides are retracted. I never thought about other models not being the same way.

In our situation, we don't run the furnace so it's comfortable for us when we stop. We run it when in freezing weather in order to keep heat in the belly and keep the tanks and water lines from freezing. Otherwise I'd just fire up the furnace soon as we get to the park.

See you folks in a couple of weeks.

I forgot to say in my other post we do not run with water heater running. It only takes 20 minutes to heat the water. Plus, with the burner being so close to the airflow I'm not sure it would stay lit on the road. Haven't tried it so don't really know.
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Old 12-21-2005, 02:39 PM   #32
Dustytuu
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We run the fridge on propane while traveling. Also run the furnace when it is very cold but have it set at around 50. We have a kitty that is happier traveling in the 5th wheel so we want to keep him warm. We do shut everything off before refueling.
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Old 12-21-2005, 03:03 PM   #33
Random Line
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Jim, -23 is pretty darn cold. Did you have any problems with water lines freezing? Coldest we've been in is minus 5. This winter, minus 3 with almost a week not getting above the teens. We had some freezing problems due to my mistakes as noted in another thread. This time around I made no mistakes and we've not frozen again although the lowest this time is 8 F. Our neighbors froze their low point drains the other night when the low was 10. He's heat taping those this week, I believe.
-----------------------------------------------

Steve,

Sure, Depending on wind velocity and or direction things tend to freeze usually as follows:

Between 20 degrees and 15 degrees (F) ...warm water and kitchen cold waterwater freeze

Between 15 degrees and 10 degrees ... all water lines freeze

Around 10 degrees tanks are freezing. Eventually they must be totally frozen because they will not drain.




Don't know the best way to operate under these conditions.

Totally freezing a full tank of anything will probably cause it to split from expansion.

We don't use the tanks under those conditions but are freezing partially filled tanks.

We run the furnace fan low speed all of the time with the thermostat at about 68 degrees. When we are in the unit we run 3 1500 watt electric heaters all the time.

My assumption is that the heat going into the belly by the constant fan operation may keep the ice in the frozen tanks from mazimum expansion and prevent damage. Is this valid? We may learn more about this as time passes.

When we get two or three consecutive days above freezing temperature we hook up the water hose and thaw and dump the grey and black water tanks and repeat the cycle.

We do have 50 amp power which is fortunate.....

This is about all I have time to relate at the moment.

Later.
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Old 12-23-2005, 09:06 AM   #34
sreigle
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Jim, heat tape and insulation on the low point drains will stop those water lines from freezing, at least down to around zero from what we've found. They're freezing up into the tee into the water lines and shutting off water flow. I found insulation alone on the low point drains only bought us a few degrees. It took heat tape to solve the problem. That heat tape has been on the drains for over a year and we've not frozen those drains in that time. We've been down to minus 5 F. The recent freezing was because of something else (dumb error on my part).

The heat duct in the belly should be pointing right at the tanks. At least ours is. We've not had a tank freeze, even down to minus 5 and very windy. We shut off the electric heater in the living area at night (when below freezing), close the door to the upstairs and use an electric heater up there. That keeps the furnace running. We set it on 60 or 62, depending on how cold I think it's going to be.

Also, I put foam pipe insulation on the water lines in the basement storage area and on the lines in the belly from rear axle forward. Haven't got it done behind the axle yet.

It's probably a bit too cold to crawl under and insulate those things though. As cold as it gets up there in Aberdeen it may be a losing battle anyhow.
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Old 12-24-2005, 02:27 PM   #35
Random Line
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Steve,

I think that you are on the right track with your winterizing. In our situation we don't have time for anything other than trying to get our house habitable and get moved in. But s big part of the challenge is to live in this trailer until that time. I we have to move into a motel for a month we lose the game.

Later

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Old 12-29-2005, 04:32 AM   #36
Bob & Lee
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Happy New Year to all,
This is a strange thought, I was standing outside last night and the heater came on the normal HOT air came rushing out the vent.. is that carbon gas or is it OK to breath ? and if so could it be re-routed to the under belly and not just wasted? may need to see the manfgr. HUM...

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Old 12-29-2005, 01:10 PM   #37
sreigle
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by Bob & Lee

Happy New Year to all,
This is a strange thought, I was standing outside last night and the heater came on the normal HOT air came rushing out the vent.. is that carbon gas or is it OK to breath ? and if so could it be re-routed to the under belly and not just wasted? may need to see the manfgr. HUM...

It would be whatever results from burning propane mixed with air. I don't breathe it but there have been times when I'm dumping tanks and will hold my gloved hands close enough to those vents to warm them up. I'm standing right in front of the vents when doing that.
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