[John]

Hey Mercduceman, I too am looking for somewhere to store my coach, the only place I found in the area you are searching is the Underground Caverns in Louisville, Ky. The only problem is there are no electric hookups. The cavern stays 56 degrees year round, they charge $5/ft, the storage area is concrete, but as I stated there is no electric. This is just an idea that could be considered.

Andre’

[Archived]

Try contacting all the airports, especially general aviation airports. It is highly likely you might find a hangar that is underutilized and an owner wanting to get some income to defray the costs.

For such a known long term storage I would consider supporting the chassis and to get weight off the tires, releasing all the air in the air bags. I would then put the coach to sleep by turning off all battery master switches once all batteries have been chanrged and the charging is in float. If the batteries are in good shape they will be OK especially if you top off the charge after about 2 months. Then you are not going to experience any damage or issues if power is interrupted. If the hangar is not heated but is well insulated it is likely a small electric heater in the house and a 500 watt heat source in the water bay is all required to keep from freezing. A full water tank with the small bay heater aimed right at it provides a great heat source in the bay if power does go out because the water will give up a lot of heat before you even approach freezing temps in the bay.

[Robert]

I might just keep it at the house in the building it is currently in.

It’s 50ft from my back door allowing easy daily monitoring. Keeps me plugged into a trusted power source and I will know immediately if there is a power issue and I can take care of it.

Reading some of the other posts about keeping the bay heaters on low, adding a low wattage electric portable heater to the water bay and a larger electric one inside the bus, complimented by a rotation of using one of four of the toe kick heaters. It would also allow me to exercise the bus every couple of weeks too.

Low temps for our winters are typically high teens to low 20’s. We did have a bad cold snap last year where the temps would drop below zero for a few days.

Is this doable? Anyone else ever do this?

[Clifford]

No need to make this any more complex than it needs to be.

Fill the water tank full and get a small cube heater set to 500 watts, point it at the holding tank in the water bay. The heat the water absorbs is given off slowly when temps get into single digits or below so the water bay is likely to remain 50 degrees plus or minus.

Get a 3 heat range oscilating heater and as long as the bus is protected from the wind you can protect everything in the house from freezing with the lowest setting until outside temps get into the 20’s. Then use the 1000 watt setting. When it gets to the teens or below go to the 1500 watt setting. Keep the cabinet doors open so drains and supply lines get the heat. Close all the shades to act as insulation.

As long as you are that close you can monitor the coach as often as necessary to assuree yourself there is no danger of feezing. We did exactly what I described above on our first coach when we lived in western NY. It was not uncommon to have single digit temps or sub zero temps for as long as a week. The key is to protect it from the wind.

[Sid]

So Jon would recommend not “winterizing the coach”. Draining everything, blowing out the water lines with compressed air, putting RV antifreeze in the traps, etc.

We’re 4 miles from Lake Michigan and often get “lake effect” temps … except last year when Lake Michigan froze all the way across!

Further north in maybe Oshkosh, and especially Wisconsin Rapids and Duluth I’d really be concerned about getting really cold temps.

The bus will be parked on the east side of 24′ deep garage and will be plugged into 50amp.

Thoughts.

[John]

Let me put that in perspective.

We lived in western NY for our first 10 years of coach ownership and the bus was stored in a barn. It had cracks in the walls so I could see daylight through them, but the barn kept the winds off the bus. It was about 15 paces from our house and I parked the car I drive to work in the barn so I was in the barn twice a day at least.

I had 50 amp power and the bus was plugged in all the time.

Winter temps were below freezing most of the time from late October to April at least part of the day. In the worst of winter we had day time highs in single digits and it was common to have at least one week stretch where moring temps were 10 to 20 below zero. I can remember a couple of times when it never went above 20 below for a couple of days with the overnight lows down to 26 below. The point being it got cold.

We bought the coach in November so when I got it home I “winterized” it. I had no clue what I was doing and drained and dried as much as I could. It sat in the barn until our first trip 5 weeks later. I got lucky because I did keep some heat in it because in retrospect I hadn’t come close to draining all water. It had an icemaker, all kinds of places to trap water including the drains, a water filtration device (sand filter?), the water pump, etc.

On that first trip part of the time was spent at Harvey Mitchell’s (Steve’s dad) place in Tampa where his crew spent the better part of 4 days teaching us about the coach.

When we got back I filled the water tank, drained the holding tank and never winterized the coach again. The 500 watt cube heater was putting out enough heat in the water bay aimed at the tank so the water eventually got as high as 55 or 60 degrees before the really cold weather hit. When it got bitter cold the water bay temp got down as low as 45. I never saw it lower than that and I opened the bay and checked when I left for work and when I got home from work.

Over 100 gallons of water contains a lot of heat and it gives up that heat slowly. It takes a long time to absorb heat so the cube heater was on 100% of the time. If the temps got so low I would be concerned I still had the Liberty installed heater which was about 1500 watts.

In the house I kept the day-night shades down and they helped insulate the window area. I had the three setting heater sitting on the kitchen countrer top and the fan on and oscilating. I opened all the cabinets beneath the sinks. I monitored the temps inside and most of the time the low setting kept it at 50 to 55. When the temps dropped I went to the 1000 watt setting. When it was single digits I used the 1500 watt setting. I saw it as low as 40 degrees in the coldest times, but my fall back was the Liberty installed toe space heaters that were through that coach.

We used that coach off and on all winter long because we ended up doing trade shows all across the Great Lakes area as far east as central Mass. Not winterizing it allowed me to hop in after minimal prep work and I was good to go. Now I don’t even heat my garage or the coach because in Knoxville the inside of the garage has never gone below 43 degrees.

[Archived]

I have purchased two 500/1000/1500 watt oil filled heaters for the inside of the coach.

Jon has mentioned a 500 watt cube heater for the main water bay. Jon, what kind of cube heater? was this a ceramic, or a heated wire, or oil filled heater you used in the main water bay?

At what outside temp did you turn this heater on?

Should I try and put it on a timer to cycle it on and off periodacally?

I have a little concern letting it continually run in such a confined area.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

[Glenn]

Here is a suggestion for small, safe, easy to install heaters. I had one hard wire installed in our engine room of our twin diesel boat.

I see where they offer a small plug in 600 watt now.

http://www.theboatsafe.com

[Archived]

The small cube heater I used when we lived in western NY was about 6″ X 6″ X 6″ and appeared to be a ceramic core with the heating element attached. It had a small fan to move the air through it.

I set it at a relatively low setting and placed it in the water / holding tank bay aimed at the stainless steel water tank. and turned it on in the fall and left it on. I placed a thermometer in the bay so by tipping the top of the bay door out I could read it. The water tank was always full when I parked the bus in the barn.

The heater warmed the bay and the water in the tank. Early in the season the bay was at 60 degrees when outside temps were in the 30’s. As the winter set in and temps were in the teens during the night and 20’s during the day it was common to see 55 degrees in the bay. When the temps went sub zero the lowest I saw the bay was mid to high 40’s. The bay was insulated, the water was giving up heat as the temps went down outside, but the heater was still adding heat to an extent.

I checked in the bay and in the coach every day, in the morning before getting in the car to go to work, and in the evening after pulling into the barn after work. The key to success was the barn kept the wind off the coach. I am not so sure I would have been successful if the coach was outside.