Basement Insulation - Montana Owners Club

Bigboomer · 12-31-2012, 02:37 AM

While we are here in the chilly NE US for the winter I have been monitoring the basement temps and while the outside temps have dropped into the teens at times the basement drops into the mid 30's at night. I was going to add an electric ceramic heater under there to assist but noticed a couple simple design oversights on the part of the folks at Montana.

One, the front wall between the basement and the front storage/ generator area is just plywood with no insulation. Two, the slam doors are not insulated as well.

Thinking of adding some 1" Dow Blueboard insulation to both in an effort to keep the cold out.

Any thoughts on this?

bncinwv · 12-31-2012, 03:00 AM

Based upon some experiences in cold-weather camping that have been discussed in detail on the forum (for some fun look up Icehouse's previous posts), the additional insulation obviously cannot hurt, but what I have gathered is that providing some sort of underpinning (like on a trailer) to keep the wind and cold from beneath the unit is probably another approach that you may want to consider. I have seen rigs here at local campgrounds that have actually lined the outer reaches of the rig with straw bales for added insulation and wind breaks. Looking forward to hearing about your approach to your "winter living", keep us informed, forum information is always available for the future and may be beneficial to others.
Bingo

**DQDick** · 12-31-2012, 04:45 AM

I'm with Bingo. Having lived in mobile homes on the plains a couple of times blocking the wind from under the rig is the first step you want to take. The others aren't a bad idea, but letting the wind work on the belly will take far more BTU's out of your rig.

mazboy · 12-31-2012, 05:20 AM

i added the 1" blue syrofoam on the bedroom floor in the basement. seemed to keep the temp a little bit better......

1retired06 · 12-31-2012, 05:37 AM

Having just pulled my underbelly to replace the cable pulls for the sewer dumps, anything you do is an improvement over what is in place.

Bigboomer · 01-02-2013, 06:11 AM

Well folks for now I went out and bought a small 1500 ceramic heater at Home Depot for about $22 and put in the basement near the convenience center. Within about an hour the basement went from 35 deg to about 60 deg so I have tuned it down and now with the outside temps at around 15 deg the basement is staying around 50 deg. We generally like to keep the inside temps in the low 60's and with the warm air under the bedroom floor the inside temp upstairs is staying around 62 deg and with the little heater running we can feel the warm air coming out near the intake vents on the inside steps. We will keep monitoring to let you know if anything dramatically changes but so far so good.

bigskyjimmy · 01-02-2013, 07:07 AM

Straw bales surrounding my Rv ???? Yea that would fly at our resort......NOT! I would be getting DAS BOOT the same day!...You know You're a redneck when you........

bncinwv · 01-02-2013, 08:54 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by bigskyjimmy

Straw bales surrounding my Rv ???? Yea that would fly at our resort......NOT! I would be getting DAS BOOT the same day!...You know You're a redneck when you........

One of these days I should write a book (with pictures of course....just got to remember to start taking them) detailing the camping habits of some of the hillbillies that abound in them thar camping "resorts" in the hills!!!

Bingo

Irlpguy · 01-02-2013, 09:28 AM

Nah! straw bales around my mobile home 50 years ago was considered ok, and no suggestion of being a redneck.

Straw bales however are a personal invitation to all them thar mice in the neighborhood. Being a Redneck is when you tried to rid the trailer of the mice with the .357 mag.

We was just pooh trailer park trash back then, and there were some Rednecks in the park I can assure you....LOL

If you upgrade to bales BigSkyJimmy I will definitely go out of my way to visit when we pass by you on our way south. Heck we could do some huntin together.

bigskyjimmy · 01-02-2013, 10:27 AM

Sounds like a plan Edward!!! you bring a case of Molsons and a .357 and we'll get them little critters partner! I had me some rat fritters last night but dang I never get tired of um

sreigle · 01-02-2013, 12:04 PM

Even when we got down to 5 below zero, fahrenheit, it never got below 34 degrees in the water connection center in the basement. So there is some heat getting into the main basement storage area. I'm just not real sure where it's coming from.

Still, I'd like a little more margin of comfort in there so I hung a trouble light with 40-watt bulb in the water connection center and another trouble light, with 60-watt bulb that hangs from the rafters at the other end of the basement. Those trouble lights both plug into a single extension cord that I then run into the laundry chute area. When temperatures are to be below freezing, I just pull the plug of that extension cord out of the laundry chute and into the living area. There is an outlet by the steps where I plug it in. This extension cord is a standard flat-wire household extenstion cord so it allows the laundry chute door to still close fully.

I have an outdoor/indoor thermometer mounted to the wall in the water connection center so I can monitor the temperature.

Not an elegant solution but it works well for us.

GA Mountaineer · 01-02-2013, 01:43 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by sreigle
Still, I'd like a little more margin of comfort in there so I hung a trouble light with 40-watt bulb in the water connection center and another trouble light, with 60-watt bulb that hangs from the rafters at the other end of the basement. Those trouble lights both plug into a single extension cord that I then run into the laundry chute area. When temperatures are to be below freezing, I just pull the plug of that extension cord out of the laundry chute and into the living area. There is an outlet by the steps where I plug it in. This extension cord is a standard flat-wire household extenstion cord so it allows the laundry chute door to still close fully.

I have an outdoor/indoor thermometer mounted to the wall in the water connection center so I can monitor the temperature.

Not an elegant solution but it works well for us.

We use a 100W plugged in to the TV outlet by the patio side door. Haven't had a thermometer in there, but it's nice and warm.

sreigle · 01-07-2013, 11:26 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by GA Mountaineer

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by sreigle
Still, I'd like a little more margin of comfort in there so I hung a trouble light with 40-watt bulb in the water connection center and another trouble light, with 60-watt bulb that hangs from the rafters at the other end of the basement. Those trouble lights both plug into a single extension cord that I then run into the laundry chute area. When temperatures are to be below freezing, I just pull the plug of that extension cord out of the laundry chute and into the living area. There is an outlet by the steps where I plug it in. This extension cord is a standard flat-wire household extenstion cord so it allows the laundry chute door to still close fully.

I have an outdoor/indoor thermometer mounted to the wall in the water connection center so I can monitor the temperature.

Not an elegant solution but it works well for us.

We use a 100W plugged in to the TV outlet by the patio side door. Haven't had a thermometer in there, but it's nice and warm.

Ahh, you folks with the newer rigs have that tv outlet in the basement. Those of us making do with the older ones do not.

BusyCarol · 01-07-2013, 02:31 PM

All great ideas and considering it is supposed to be around 1 degree during the night when we start making our trip south to Quartzsite from Montana we may need to implement some of these and quickly!

RonD · 01-12-2013, 03:47 PM

I lowered our bottom belly cover to fix the leaking tank flush, all I can say is these are not built for any real cold weather, the only insulation was a foil bubble wrap, fine, we don't use it in real cold weather anyway.

scductman · 01-13-2013, 03:48 PM

Steve you have me thinking and that is scary LOL. I put a cable tv and 110 outlet in my basement for the outside tv so I have a place to hook a light. I am now thinking about putting a light in there mounted with a guard with a 60 watt bulb and maybe a small switch inside. Then just cut it on and off when needed. There shouldn't be a problem with it burning all night. You have never had any trouble with yours have you?
Bobby

Roamingusa · 01-14-2013, 03:42 AM

And what is wrong with us rednecks? We have a full skirt for ours when we are unfortunate enough to be in cold climates. No need for it down here in south east TX.

shovelhead86 · 01-14-2013, 07:24 AM

Where in Southeast Texas are you roamingusa?

Roamingusa · 01-14-2013, 10:28 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by shovelhead86

Where in Southeast Texas are you roamingusa?

Beaumont. AC two days go, furnace today!

Allen in MT · 01-14-2013, 10:40 AM

Up here in NE Montana in the oil fields there are so many trailers set up and the big thing is after harvest to get straw bales and ready the camper for winter. You see hndreds of these and yes they do attract the mice, but one wants to get rid of the straw and mice as soom as possible in the spring because where there are mice the rattle snakes move for some fine dining, and there are lots of snakes.

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