# Heated Holding Tanks



## pigman (Sep 17, 2005)

Question for you experts!

2002 28BHS - How are the holding tanks heated. Nothing in my Outback manual, all it says is it is heated. It is heated by the furnace, or are their heating elements? I have no off/on switch so I'm assuming they are heated by the vents from the furnace. Usually don't run the furnace when dry camping, any recommendations.

thanks

pigman


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## Castle Rock Outbackers (Jan 18, 2004)

Pigman,

Outback tanks are not heated. Specs are "enclosed and radiant heated underbelly." This means you need to run your furnace to generate the radiant heat to keep water in the tanks from freezing. Even then, I would not recommend harsh winter camping without real heated tanks.

Randy


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## Katrina (Dec 16, 2004)

^what he said!


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## pigman (Sep 17, 2005)

Thanks for the info. I thought so


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## Y-Guy (Jan 30, 2004)

We spent 4 nights with our Raptor, same underbelly style as the Outback. We made it through fine by doing the following.
* Run LP furnace as well as ceramic heaters, furnace keeps things from freezing
* Fill fresh water tank, don't use a hose if its exposed to weather
* Don't leave waste hose setup, fill tanks and dump as needed. Add RV antifreeze to tanks too.
* Waste valves may freeze, use warm water to deice if needed.
* At night open cabinets around any sinks or where water lines are exposed.

The Outback, like the Raptor, isn't a deep winter unit but you can make do for a few days in the cold weather if you plan ahead.


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## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

Y-Guy

Once again








You did not have to put a heater under the raptor or maybe enclose the bottom so that the wind doe not get underneath?

Thor


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## Moosegut (Sep 24, 2005)

Pigman,

We were out last weekend and on Friday night the temp went to 14 degrees. As Y-Guy recommended to you, we leave cabinet doors open at night and have the furnace running with the temp set at about 55 degrees. The only thing I don't do is use ceramic heaters since we're dry camping. I could run the generator all night to run them. But I like to let the furnace do all the heating so that radiant heat keeps up in the underbelly. Using a ceramic heater allows the furnace to work less and I want it to work more - I'd rather use up the propane.

We had no problems with 14 degrees at night. It warmed up during the day though. I don't think I'd want to chance it at a steady 14 degrees - day and night.


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## nascarcamper (Jan 27, 2005)

None of my cabinet doors fit tight enough to worry about opening them.


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## vdub (Jun 19, 2004)

14 degrees, eh? That's chilly! We've stayed in ours at 26 and were fine. However, the battery died at about 5 in the morning. When we are staying in it at the low temps, I usually won't unwinterize the rig. I have found that beer is a good substitute for water in almost all cases.


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