Malakie
Well-known member
Hi all,
Just wanted to pass on some things for those trying to do the winter thing.. Right now we are living in a Fourwinds Windsport 38' RV in central Wisconsin. And it is already COLD! For the last 48 hours, temps have been down to 23.5 degrees F and holding sustained winds out of the north at 20-25 mph for wind chills that are even colder. We are also getting major gust a few times each minute hitting between 35-40 mph as well.
Two months ago I started preparing for this. I started researching, asking questions and wintering everything I could think of, find or that was suggested. The only things I still need to do that I am still trying to find a solution to are to someone find a way to do the stove exhaust port without sealing it since we use it and the open area venting behind the refrigerator as well.
I have learned a lot though so I wanted to pass long some suggestions.
First, any nitch or area that is open air.. i.e. under your shower, dressers, cabinets, pipe/waterline runs etc you need to insulate and not just with the foam tubes that fit around the pipe itself. You need to fill those gaps with regular insulation. You do not want to pack them tight but you also do not want them left as open air pockets.
Next, double check all of your furnace venting and the connections at each point. Travel pulls and twists the light sheet metal used for the vents. A lot of people are losing not only the output of the furnace to the outside through holes, cracks etc in their vents but when the furnace is not running, the cold air backs in through those same openings. How I fixed the few I found was to Mastic putty first then cover it with 'Gorilla' tape. What a difference there that made.
The next thing I did was buy some rubberized sealer that I applied to any areas under the RV that were open to the actual floor underside. I applied it very thick to make a insulated buffer of the goop. I had thought about doing some kind of insulation but realized that will not work because the first time we drive down the road it will probably all come apart and fly out. This stuff sticks like glue and since it is pliable has a little give in it. Its functional use is not really for insulation but the inch thickness has helped a lot with the floor not becoming freezing cold so it is doing what I had hoped giving us some insulation on the underside of the exposed flooring.
Next, our water tank is in the back and when the cargo door is open it is exposed as is all the water inlets etc of course. I did as others an bought a nice heated water hose of course. But I went two steps further. First I bought a small square CERAMIC heater and mounted it in the bay. I got one that has a thermostat so I could set it to 44 degrees. Without anything further, it has been running about once every 15 minutes or so for about 60 seconds and that is with this wind and cold.. I expect it to be even less once the wind dies down. The other thing I did but have not quite installed yet was to measure out and cut a piece of plywood that is the same dimensions as the hole for the cargo space. I then glued 3" pink fiber insul board to the back of that and on the other side the silver window type reflective insulation. That then sits just inside the cargo door with the silver side pointed toward the outside of course. Even though I have not yet tested it with the heater running, without it the heater was doing just fine so I expect with this added it will really work great to keep that area above freezing.
And just so you know, we have had the heat running off propane as well as three of these small ceramic square heaters for the last month up here. Our electric cost I just paid yesterday and it was $47. I expect it to be about $65-$70 overall per month if things really get cold. Now, keep in mind that I designed and setup a solar AND wind turbine power system from off the shelf parts myself that supplements our power. We use less shore power because of that. I figure based on what we are seeing, without it we would be looking at about $100 per month in electric. So far are propane use has been about $125 per month with the furnace running, stove in full use and leaving the water heater on full time. (I did this purposely to see what kind of maximum draw we could expect - with changes we can definitely bring down the amount and cost but I felt it was good to know worst case).
As for other things.... a lot of people do not realize that depending on your unit, things like the side drawers and cabinets in the sleeping area can actually OPEN to the outside or to one of the cargo bays! In our unit when we first started we kept feeling air draft in our sleep area. We finally pulled out the drawers to the side of the bed storage and were shocked to find that in back under the drawer we had pulled out they were actually completely open to the back cargo area! We could look right into the cargo area, water tank etc. And this has nothing to do with access of that stuff.. it is just left open for no reason on both sides. So of course seeing that got me to thinking.. We sealed that up of course then started looking around and found a few more areas like it where openings exists under items, behind items etc... After sealing them properly and allowing for any venting if that was part of the purpose, it made all the difference in the world for holding heat and stopping drafts.
Most everyone knows about having to seal your windows which are really bad for winter... but don't forget your door! The seals are not as good as you might think.. cold has a major impact on the rubber seal. What we did is take a huge sheet of foam and cut it to 1/2" larger that the door itself. Then when the door is close, we just insert this into the door jam and it seals all the way around the edges of the door. Since it is just a big sheet of foam, when you need to go out, just pull the thing away and when you get back in, put it back.. it takes seconds.
Finally, one area people forget is the grey and black water tanks but especially the ELBOW connectors!! The tanks are not really that big an issue themselves. BUT the pipes for draining them ARE. Even though you usually want to leave the black water tank closed and just flush it as it gets full, and leave the grey water tank open, sometimes that may not be possible. They make a small elbow pipe heater for this purpose... I HIGHLY recommend you add one. You only need plug it in during the time you are closing the valve to let grey water build up for flushing the black water tank. Then unplug it once finish if you plan on leaving the grey water tank valve open again.
Well enough for now.. there are some other things we did as well, i.e. creating a insulated 'blanket' that covers the front driver/passenger dash and hangs down blocking out the firewall and under the dash area from draft and cold. Things like that..
I hope some of these ideas can help others because it has made all the difference for us. Right now as I type this, it is still 23.5 degrees F out but it is a nice 70 degrees in here and the furnace is running every 15 minutes or so for 3-4 minutes at a time.
Just wanted to pass on some things for those trying to do the winter thing.. Right now we are living in a Fourwinds Windsport 38' RV in central Wisconsin. And it is already COLD! For the last 48 hours, temps have been down to 23.5 degrees F and holding sustained winds out of the north at 20-25 mph for wind chills that are even colder. We are also getting major gust a few times each minute hitting between 35-40 mph as well.
Two months ago I started preparing for this. I started researching, asking questions and wintering everything I could think of, find or that was suggested. The only things I still need to do that I am still trying to find a solution to are to someone find a way to do the stove exhaust port without sealing it since we use it and the open area venting behind the refrigerator as well.
I have learned a lot though so I wanted to pass long some suggestions.
First, any nitch or area that is open air.. i.e. under your shower, dressers, cabinets, pipe/waterline runs etc you need to insulate and not just with the foam tubes that fit around the pipe itself. You need to fill those gaps with regular insulation. You do not want to pack them tight but you also do not want them left as open air pockets.
Next, double check all of your furnace venting and the connections at each point. Travel pulls and twists the light sheet metal used for the vents. A lot of people are losing not only the output of the furnace to the outside through holes, cracks etc in their vents but when the furnace is not running, the cold air backs in through those same openings. How I fixed the few I found was to Mastic putty first then cover it with 'Gorilla' tape. What a difference there that made.
The next thing I did was buy some rubberized sealer that I applied to any areas under the RV that were open to the actual floor underside. I applied it very thick to make a insulated buffer of the goop. I had thought about doing some kind of insulation but realized that will not work because the first time we drive down the road it will probably all come apart and fly out. This stuff sticks like glue and since it is pliable has a little give in it. Its functional use is not really for insulation but the inch thickness has helped a lot with the floor not becoming freezing cold so it is doing what I had hoped giving us some insulation on the underside of the exposed flooring.
Next, our water tank is in the back and when the cargo door is open it is exposed as is all the water inlets etc of course. I did as others an bought a nice heated water hose of course. But I went two steps further. First I bought a small square CERAMIC heater and mounted it in the bay. I got one that has a thermostat so I could set it to 44 degrees. Without anything further, it has been running about once every 15 minutes or so for about 60 seconds and that is with this wind and cold.. I expect it to be even less once the wind dies down. The other thing I did but have not quite installed yet was to measure out and cut a piece of plywood that is the same dimensions as the hole for the cargo space. I then glued 3" pink fiber insul board to the back of that and on the other side the silver window type reflective insulation. That then sits just inside the cargo door with the silver side pointed toward the outside of course. Even though I have not yet tested it with the heater running, without it the heater was doing just fine so I expect with this added it will really work great to keep that area above freezing.
And just so you know, we have had the heat running off propane as well as three of these small ceramic square heaters for the last month up here. Our electric cost I just paid yesterday and it was $47. I expect it to be about $65-$70 overall per month if things really get cold. Now, keep in mind that I designed and setup a solar AND wind turbine power system from off the shelf parts myself that supplements our power. We use less shore power because of that. I figure based on what we are seeing, without it we would be looking at about $100 per month in electric. So far are propane use has been about $125 per month with the furnace running, stove in full use and leaving the water heater on full time. (I did this purposely to see what kind of maximum draw we could expect - with changes we can definitely bring down the amount and cost but I felt it was good to know worst case).
As for other things.... a lot of people do not realize that depending on your unit, things like the side drawers and cabinets in the sleeping area can actually OPEN to the outside or to one of the cargo bays! In our unit when we first started we kept feeling air draft in our sleep area. We finally pulled out the drawers to the side of the bed storage and were shocked to find that in back under the drawer we had pulled out they were actually completely open to the back cargo area! We could look right into the cargo area, water tank etc. And this has nothing to do with access of that stuff.. it is just left open for no reason on both sides. So of course seeing that got me to thinking.. We sealed that up of course then started looking around and found a few more areas like it where openings exists under items, behind items etc... After sealing them properly and allowing for any venting if that was part of the purpose, it made all the difference in the world for holding heat and stopping drafts.
Most everyone knows about having to seal your windows which are really bad for winter... but don't forget your door! The seals are not as good as you might think.. cold has a major impact on the rubber seal. What we did is take a huge sheet of foam and cut it to 1/2" larger that the door itself. Then when the door is close, we just insert this into the door jam and it seals all the way around the edges of the door. Since it is just a big sheet of foam, when you need to go out, just pull the thing away and when you get back in, put it back.. it takes seconds.
Finally, one area people forget is the grey and black water tanks but especially the ELBOW connectors!! The tanks are not really that big an issue themselves. BUT the pipes for draining them ARE. Even though you usually want to leave the black water tank closed and just flush it as it gets full, and leave the grey water tank open, sometimes that may not be possible. They make a small elbow pipe heater for this purpose... I HIGHLY recommend you add one. You only need plug it in during the time you are closing the valve to let grey water build up for flushing the black water tank. Then unplug it once finish if you plan on leaving the grey water tank valve open again.
Well enough for now.. there are some other things we did as well, i.e. creating a insulated 'blanket' that covers the front driver/passenger dash and hangs down blocking out the firewall and under the dash area from draft and cold. Things like that..
I hope some of these ideas can help others because it has made all the difference for us. Right now as I type this, it is still 23.5 degrees F out but it is a nice 70 degrees in here and the furnace is running every 15 minutes or so for 3-4 minutes at a time.
