3813MS -10° in Indiana log

[oldcart]

12/23/2022
-10° and wind chill -35°
heated water hose and Tenax Contractor Grade Silt Fencingblack for skirting.
small electric heater in storage unbelly .

[oldcart]

12/22 overnight into 12/23/2022
as temperatures dropped all was good . temperatures were -1° at midnight with wind chill of -28° the area where the water hose attaches to the unit was running an average of 38° water was still working good and camper was able to stay 70° . we are only using the gas furnace so we keep the underbelly fed with warm air.
3am -10° wind chill -35°
temperature at water inlet 32° water was still flowing but I was getting worried .
6am -11° windchill-35° no water .
28° at water inlet
we put a small electric heater in the storage compartment and the temperature at the water inlet started going up .2 degrees every minute.
9am temperature at water inlet 40°
outside temperatures -10° windchill-35° still no water so my guess is heated hose is frozen .
tank heaters have been on but I did drain all the tanks before the cold set in. the holding tanks are all at about 1/4.
the furnace has been running continuously since about 1am. inside temperature is staying about 68°.

[Todd & Mary]

WOW, I think I would be headed towards warmer weather, although that is not easy to find right now. We are originally from Wisconsin, so we are no winter novices, I have worked outside at -17 no clue what the wind chill was. All I knew is we couldn't touch anything metal as it would instantly freeze to our skin! We are currently wintering over our first time in Quartzsite AZ. It has been getting down close to freezing a few nights, we are boondocking so I dont have to worry about water hoses, but we did run the tank heaters a few of those. We do not miss the cold and snow at all.
Good Luck and stay warm, keep watch on your LP tank levels. And by gosh stay inside if you can!

[DutchmenSport]

Welcome to the forums and hope you get unthawed REAL quick. We're just a little farther South than Newton County, Indiana. We're in Madison County, West of Anderson, East of Lapel.

It looks like the lowest we got was -9 (or at least that's the lowest I could actually catch). My outside digital themometer stopped working at zero (battery must be low). So the -9 was actually Lapel, Indiana (about 5 miles from where I live.)

Sorry to hear about your water problems. If you've lived in Indiana log enough, maybe you can remember 1995 Christmas, it was -20, and about 2 years later it got down to -20 again in January. You do have to admit, we've some some pretty decent weather all the way up until yesterday about 5:30 - 6:00 pm time frame! Last year, weather stayed nice until January. But not near this cold.

My Montana is currently at Modern Trailer in Anderson getting new axles. The axles finally came in, after waiting weeks for a delivery. I was hoping the camper would be fixed and ready before Christmas, but now ... I'm kind of glad things were delayed. It was moved into the shop a couple days ago, so I know, right now it's inside a nice heated area. And Modern Trailer is now closed until January 2. So, my baby will be under cover through all this frigid cold, howling 25 mph winds. So maybe there is a little bright side to having the camper in the shop.

I do hope you get unfrozen. But it looks like this cold and wind is not going away for a while. Good luck. Keep us posted on your progress. This is a great forum, lots and lots of very knowledgeable folks here.

[Mikendebbie]

Originally Posted by oldcart

12/23/2022
-10° and wind chill -35°
heated water hose and Tenax Contractor Grade Silt Fencingblack for skirting.
small electric heater in storage unbelly .

Silt fence for skirting is interesting! Please post a pic when the weather warms up. Did you use T-posts? How did you hammer them into the ground - I assume - being very close to the skirting?

[Cat320]

The wind chill factor is irrelevant...water will freeze at the air temperature, not the wind chill temperature.

[oldcart]

true unless the wind is blowing over the hose over a long period. anyway I'm just logging the events . I had a real hard time finding any information on full time living in a 4 seasons rv in indiana and as I log my experiences I may help someone later .

[1retired06]

We are in Ocala FL. Woke up this morning to 23 Degrees.

[oldcart]

woohoo
12/24/2022
0° most wind gusts have died off
water is running today . camper is nice and warm. furnace has been keeping up and has had a few chances to turn off and rest.
so in conclusion looks like Montanas are good to 0° . it's early in the winter for indiana so I'm sure I will be continuing to log evens .

[oldcart]

the silt fence has stakes on it and we had to add some stakes on the corners and around the slides . we set all that up a couple weeks ago becuase we knew we didn't have time to vinyl skirt it. it break a lot of the wind but a lot still got through.

[dieselguy]

"so in conclusion looks like Montanas are good to 0°"
To each his own adventure, but is that quote "good to zero" actually practical and comfortable long term? I don't care what brand of RV we're talking about ... 2" of wall insulation and all kinds of glass with metal frames that just ooze COLD just doesn't add up in my world. Practicality and comfort have widely varying definitions depending on the person or couple. My other half has a freeze factor round 70F at two layers of clothing and I have a propane usage limit of two 30# bottles to a 5-6 day span. I will concede that your cold weather reporting is interesting to read thru however.

[oldcart]

oh it's 70° inside but we are burning a lot of gas . we are on a 125gal tank and drop 10% a day . but we live in this full time . it's a lot better then our old unit