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Old 11-20-2020, 05:50 PM   #1
Half Fast Rusty
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Cold weather dry camping

Well, My wife said I'd never take our Monte elk hunting. Well due to unusual circumstances, I was able to take it this year. It was nice to come home each evening to my alternate home. Kind of laughed calling it elk camp! So here is what I learned about dry camping in very cold weather (got down to 3 degrees on night).

Make sure you have fresh batteries that can handle the long nights of furnace use. Also don't forget to turn on the tank heaters, especially the fresh water the first night. They run on 12 volts if you weren't aware. Here is what happened. On the first day, the batteries exhausted themselves early as I'd run them down a bit the night before and only ran the generator for a short time to make coffee and use the microwave. And I forgot to turn on the tank heaters. The house was very cold when I got home. Of course the fresh water tank froze and I had to improvise a bit for a couple of days until at least part of the tank thawed. Nothing else froze as far as I could tell, just no water. Fortunately, I had access to fresh water from a hose (must use quickly as those freeze rather fast too). I replaced the batteries and they held up for the rest of the trip with only running the generator in the evenings to charge them while watching TV on the portable satellite system. We were really roughing it!

So, when I thought my tank had thawed and I had some running water I decided to take a much needed shower. After the shower, I checked the water level and noticed it said empty. Hmm. Where did all the water go? I'm pretty sure it was still there just in solid form. The tank heater apparently thawed enough to take a shower then it showed empty. I used the hose the replenish what I had used, but it didn't take much.

It got down right cold one night and the tank froze again even with the heaters this time. I suspect that had I had a full tank of thawed water the tank heaters might have been able to prevent the loss of water again. We had a bucket of water from our water source in the bathroom to use to flush the toilet when there was no running water and another to wash dishes and hands in the kitchen.

We didn't tag out on our hunt, but we had a grand time in our Montana elk camp.
 
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Old 11-20-2020, 06:29 PM   #2
mlh
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I’ve never camped at 3 degrees but I have camped at 9 degrees in a pop up canvas sided camper without any heat except for the range burners on one 20 pound bottle of propane while my brother and I spring turkey hunted. It was the best hunting and camping I ever did. And yes the turkeys do gobble when it’s cold if they are in the mood that morning.
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Old 11-21-2020, 04:20 AM   #3
RMcNeal
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This is my second year camping for 2 weeks in upper West Virginia in our Monte for deer season. This year has been quite warm, but I have been down to just below zero degrees with no issues. As you say, turn on the tank heaters and use internal water only when below freezing temps. Also, I bought a wireless thermometer with 3 sensors and put one in the garage, one in the basement and one outside. The garage and basement never went below about 45 degrees even though I kept the furnace at 60 and ran electric heaters inside. The four seasons package is really quite good compared to many of the campers I have used in the past. Everything appears well insulated.
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Old 11-21-2020, 06:40 AM   #4
Daryles
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Just thinking out loud...
If you were anticipating below freezing temperatures for a while, and you don't think the freshwater tank heater will handle it (its only 65W),
What if you preheated your freshwater by running a heated insulated hose from the outside shower to the freshwater drain and turn the hot water tap.
This would put hotwater into the freshwater tank to help the tank heater keep it warm. You would not deplete your freshwater since it would be running a loop from the freshwater tank to the water heater and back.
I was actually thinking of running a hot water loop from the water heater around the underbelly and back to the water heater input. Use a recirculation pump to circulate the hot water.
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Old 11-21-2020, 01:08 PM   #5
John R
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daryles View Post
Just thinking out loud...
If you were anticipating below freezing temperatures for a while, and you don't think the freshwater tank heater will handle it (its only 65W),
What if you preheated your freshwater by running a heated insulated hose from the outside shower to the freshwater drain and turn the hot water tap.
This would put hotwater into the freshwater tank to help the tank heater keep it warm. You would not deplete your freshwater since it would be running a loop from the freshwater tank to the water heater and back.
I was actually thinking of running a hot water loop from the water heater around the underbelly and back to the water heater input. Use a recirculation pump to circulate the hot water.
Love that idea
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