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winter camping in cold weather area
Hi everyone. I have to ask if any of you have camped thru the winter months in your RV in cold climates? Pam and I are in Northern Virginia and full timing it. This will be our first winter in the bus. All the weather folks at work and the locals around here say this year will be bad. Arrghh.
Any advice out there? No, we can’t move back to florida as Uncle Sam says we need to stay put for at least 3 years. I am concerned about running the webasto furnace automatically. Pam and I both work and I just don’t have the confidence in letting it run while we are not here. I can run the roof air until it hits about 40 then it is not any good. I was told to get new space heaters for the inside during the day and run the webasto at night if needed.
I need advice for heating inside and the components under the bus (plumbing, water tanks, fuel etc) Any Advice, techniques, hints are very welcome.
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7 Replies
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Chip & Pam,
We spent about a month in sub freezing this past winter and these are my suggestions. I have a marathon so your coach is different but some of these might help and I am sure other CC owners will jump in.
We turned the webasto off unless we were in the coach… no reason other than I like you wasn’t crazy about leaving it on when we weren’t around. We have electric toe heaters that would keep the coach warm enough while we were out and our water bays had dedicated heaters as well so that took care of that. When we returned home we would fire up the webasto and it got toasty warm within 15 minutes or less.
My biggest suggestion would be invest in a heated water hose…. we tried without one for a while but broke down and it was much easier. Also we would never leave the sewer hose out and connected… we would dump black and grey and they retract it back into the belly of the bus to keep it warm and not allow it to freeze up.
Hope that helps!
Bill
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a lot to think about. I would be more concerned about running those small electric heaters than my Webasto.
iI don’t think any of those would be as safe as my Webasto, maybe.
The Webasto has several safety thermostats or over heat sensors that should shut it down hopefully.
I find once I get the coach up to temp it really doesn’t run that much. If you had a malfunction early in the day I think returning to the coach in several hours would not be a problem.
If it did shut down your bay electric heat would keep the plumbing bay safe.
I like running the Webasto cause it heats all the fluids through out the coach, water heater, engine water and all the hoses that deliver that fluid.
I have run mine for four days in 17 degree weather with no problem.
Just make sure it’s in tip top shape.
Interested to see other opinions .
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Chip and Pam, we do a lot of ski trips and have spent a lot of time in weather colder than you are likely to experience in Viginia. When we had our CC XL40 we usually did as you propose- shut off the Webasto and run a small electric space heater inside during the day. We did that because the Webasto was smoky above 7,000 feet and it just didn’t look nice. We used a space heater on a kitchen counter instead of the toe kicks because we were afraid that our big furry dog could be burned while we were away. The bus usually stayed around 50 inside. We activated the electric bay heat, but with the waste heat from the electric water heaters, I don’t think it ever came on.
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The Webasto loves to run. We have no other option. We set the thermostat to 60, during the day with sub freezing temps. If the sun is out,the Webasto doesn’t cycle much at all. Have no problem leaving the bus for the day, with Webasto LEFT on, it’s our only source of heat
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Thanks for the inputs everyone. Many different ideas and all have merit. I do have a heated water hose and will use it. Im still on the fence concerning the webasto. Running it while in the bus is not an issue. running it while away is still up in the air.
Since we have 2 feline friends on board, I plan on getting the best type of space heaters. I think the oil filled rad types would do the trick. No open heat source to spark up.
Being a novice on the bus, I am confused as to where the bay heat, that is mentioned is. I have no idea. Im in an 98 XL and Im not sure if I have it.
I am also soliciting info from the full timers here at the Fort. I found out from a friend with a 5th wheel that making a sectional PVC pipe tube to run the waste tube into. He experianced no freeze ups during the below freezing temps.
I’ll keep ya posted as we go into the winter
Respectfully
Tradewinds Coach
Kyle Bennett (Service)
Brian Miller (Sales) -
Any chance you are the folks who met my daughter in DC at the Arboretam?
I run the inside electric heaters and found a really small heater that I sit on top of the water tanks inside the back bay since my bus only has Webasto heat in the water bay. That and the water heaters have done me fine.
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I think most coaches provide for dedicated heat in the plumbing bay.
My CC has heat strips that are controlled by a thermostat just inside the bay where your water pump access door is.
These heat strips in mine are total independant of any other heating systems and work whenever pluged in to shore power or running the genset. Not sure if they will run off inverter power, probably not.
Also I would suspect that if you leave your water heaters on they will keep the bays from freezing.
Another thought is to not leave your sewer hose connected because on mine it would allow cold air into the plumbing bay unless you wrap something around the hose to close off the area around your house where it comes through the bottom of the bay.
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