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Old 11-24-2010, 03:31 AM   #1
Drifty1
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Arctic package?

I have one question, what arctic package. I am work camping in Anacortes Wa. and as a lot of folks know we are going thru a cold spell in this area. It seams that I have a frozen water line somewhere between the inlet to the rig and the cold water supply to the kitchen sink that also feeds the water heater. So it looks like if I am going to any cold weather camping I will need to drop the belly skin and take care of the insulation problems that I find with water lines. So my question is has anyone done any thing to solve this problem by adding insulation or other type of fix. So when they shut down our job at the Shell refinery for the rest of the week I left the rig with a full bottle of propane, and the thermostat set at 64 deg. I also shut the water off to the rig so when I get back on Sunday evening I am hoping that I don't have to make any repairs to allow me to have water. As you can imagine I am not to impressed with Montana's Arctic Package!!!
 
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Old 11-24-2010, 03:39 AM   #2
blarkman
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did you disconnect the water to the rig and have you put a heat tape on the outside water line. I know when we go South the RV park lets us know to disconnect the water line when it gets below freezing, like 16- 20's at Burns,OR
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Old 11-24-2010, 03:57 AM   #3
ols1932
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In addition to having a heat tape on the supply hose, in freezing weather it is a must that you run the furnace at night. The furnace allows some heat to get into the underbelly and helps keep the frost away. In freezing weather, we run our furnace at 55-60° F. Works for us down at least to 0° F.

Orv
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Old 11-24-2010, 04:55 AM   #4
drknapp
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We are in Salem, Oregon presently and also going through a bit of the same cold spell. Our supply hose froze also, but fortunatly I kept the fresh water tank about half full. It warms up just enough for the hose to thaw and we add more water to the tank. We are just relying upon that untl the weather warms up a bit. I went to Camping World to see if they had one of those electrically heated hoses, but no luck.

We have been keeping pretty cozy inside though. All and all, it's handled the cold weather pretty good for us. We will be heading back down to So Cal though on Friday.
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Old 11-24-2010, 05:16 AM   #5
blarkman
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The heat tape is a lot cheaper!! and yes I am about 25 miles south of you
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Old 11-24-2010, 05:18 AM   #6
Drifty1
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I have heat tape and foam insulation on the hose outside, but the problem I have is in the poly tube some place under the floor in living room. I have water in the cold water in the bathroom and to the toilet but no hot water to either sink. So far everything outside is fine with the heat tape and foam insulation over the hose. It would of been nice if the factory would put foam over the tubing under the floor as it might cost them $30 to do so. OH wait that could be part of the ARCTIC PACKAGE! When I go back up north on Sunday I might crawl under the rig to see what I can do to prevent problems down the road. I work 10hr days so any thing I do will need to be done in the dark and rain.
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Old 11-24-2010, 07:39 AM   #7
Exnavydiver
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When we spent the winter in Linden Tenn. year before last we had a bad problem with freezing. We had heat and insulation on the hydrant, and hose into rig. But the entrance area hole in the bottom of the service bay seemed to be the problem. I ended up stuffing the hole with rags and and pulling the duct tape off the bedroom feed from the furnace and letting the bedroom heat supply dump right behind the service bay. This easily kept the water supply warm enough in that area to avoid any further freezing down to 5 above. When we checked the weather and it called for sub freezing temps we disconnected from the supply and used the fresh water tank in the rig. The outside temps usually got above freezing during the day and that ended that problem. Just keep the furnace set about 55 and the basement and belly area will stay above freezing and the heat from the rear of the rig will migrate to the front and keep it plenty warm... Dave
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Old 11-24-2010, 08:29 AM   #8
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Good thing you are not in the Arctic. (lol)
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Old 11-24-2010, 10:17 AM   #9
CamillaMichael
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Guess we have been more fortunate with our "arctic package." In October while camping in Maine the temp reached the 20s on a few nights, 30s on many more...after having our water supply hose freeze, we started letting the water trickle overnight and had no further issues. We did, however, go through a tank of lp gas every couple of days.
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Old 11-24-2010, 11:11 AM   #10
hookman
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If you are using heaters in the trailer instead of the furnace your pipes could freeze as the furnace pumps some heat under the floor to help prevent freezing.
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Old 11-24-2010, 11:47 AM   #11
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Don, the furnace comes on every 10-15 minutes so I do not believe that is a problem. I do have a Eden Pure heater in the living room but I try to keep it down low so the furnace will run for that reason. Unless someone has dropped the belly skin and seen if the ducting is designed to allow air flow into the belly I am not a believer. I hope someone out there can prove me wrong. I would believe that the ducting runs thru the belly and there might be a little heat that comes off duct as it travels thru the belly.
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Old 11-24-2010, 12:04 PM   #12
blarkman
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I was told that is why the ducting runs underneath the floor and with the belly pan in turn helps prevent the plumbing from freezing. I also have the hot water tank set on electric so it also helps.
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Old 11-24-2010, 12:23 PM   #13
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by Drifty1

Don, the furnace comes on every 10-15 minutes so I do not believe that is a problem. I do have a Eden Pure heater in the living room but I try to keep it down low so the furnace will run for that reason. Unless someone has dropped the belly skin and seen if the ducting is designed to allow air flow into the belly I am not a believer. I hope someone out there can prove me wrong. I would believe that the ducting runs thru the belly and there might be a little heat that comes off duct as it travels thru the belly.
Sent you PM.
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Old 11-24-2010, 01:22 PM   #14
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by Drifty1

Unless someone has dropped the belly skin and seen if the ducting is designed to allow air flow into the belly I am not a believer. I hope someone out there can prove me wrong. I would believe that the ducting runs thru the belly and there might be a little heat that comes off duct as it travels thru the belly.
Actually that would be good to know if anybody checked. There is a heater vent in the storage area itself, but is there one where the tanks are stored?
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Old 11-24-2010, 03:14 PM   #15
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When we first got the Monty I removed the panel in the storage bay to check out the wiring and plumbing. There was one flex pipe coming from the furnace with the open end just sitting on top of a holding tank. It looked like it was supposed to be attached to the back of that round plastic vent that you see when you look into the storage area. At the time I thought maybe it was the source of heat used to prevent the holding tanks from freezing. I may end up connecting it to the vent but I've been plugging in an ceramic heater to the outlet in the storage bay and running it on low. It keeps the bathroom floor and part of the bedroom floor nice and warm on cold nights.
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Old 11-25-2010, 04:45 AM   #16
richfaa
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there Is heat vented to the underbelly. The problem is with the arctic package which works well in Arctic, Alabama but not so well in really cold weather. It should read "Moderate weather package"

We did withstand a few hours of hi 20's temps here in Florida last winter but we removed all outside water sources, went to internal water and kept the heat up.
as have said before..we did not get the warm and toasty package with this 06 3400.
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Old 11-25-2010, 05:04 AM   #17
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quote:Originally posted by richfaa

there Is heat vented to the underbelly. The problem is with the arctic package which works well in Arctic, Alabama but not so well in really cold weather. It should read "Moderate weather package"

We did withstand a few hours of hi 20's temps here in Florida last winter but we removed all outside water sources, went to internal water and kept the heat up.
as have said before..we did not get the warm and toasty package with this 06 3400.
Rich. Do you know how heat is vented to the underbelly. I could see the furnace with one flex pipe connected to the main ducting that feeds the length of the trailer, a small diameter flex pipe to the bathroom and the one mentioned above which seems as though it should have been secured to the plastic vent feeding the storage bay. There didn't appear to be a flex pipe from the furnace leading down into the belly. Is it possible there is an opening on the underside of the main duct part way down the underbelly? My concern would be the fresh water tank. Is it not all the way at the back? A long ways from the furnace.
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Old 11-25-2010, 05:15 AM   #18
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The only heat to the under belly area is a flex ducting that comes directly off the furnace discharge and is directed to the rear of the underbelly which holds all the tanks (fresh, grey and black). The flex tubing simply lays there not secured to anything, poor design; an alternate would have been diffusers off the main metal duct that runs the length of the trailer under the floor!!
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Old 11-25-2010, 05:59 AM   #19
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quote:Originally posted by 8e3k0

The only heat to the under belly area is a flex ducting that comes directly off the furnace discharge and is directed to the rear of the underbelly which holds all the tanks (fresh, grey and black). The flex tubing simply lays there not secured to anything, poor design; an alternate would have been diffusers off the main metal duct that runs the length of the trailer under the floor!!
Thanks 8e3k0. I guess the round plastic vent in the wall of the storage bay is passive and not meant to be connected.
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Old 11-25-2010, 04:30 PM   #20
scductman
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I have been in mine a couple of times there is a 2" flex hose that runs down in the belly and dumps warm air below the floor. It is not a great system but if you dump to much air off your furnace you are losing it from in the rv where it is needed the most. Also if you are only losing hot water you may have a bad ck valve at the hot water heater I had to replace mine a couple of months ago. ozz had great pics.
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