# Camping In The Cold



## curtcherry (Jan 15, 2010)

Hi all,

Just looking for a little advice. We do a lot of camping in the cold due to hunting season. We have 30 amp service where we hunt but have to bring the water with us. The new outback I purchased (to arrive in a month) has the fully enclosed underbelly. (Well mostly enclosed - it is enclosed between the I beams). It is heated by the heat ducts and the dealer will install heating pads on all tanks. My question is this - If we run electric heaters and not the furnace, should I have to worry about the lines freezing even when the water tanks are heated? 2 weeks ago it got down to 5 degrees F.


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## thefulminator (Aug 8, 2007)

Just curious why you would go with electric heat in place of using he furnace.


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## GarethsDad (Apr 4, 2007)

As a Plumber i,ll give you my take on this. Yes the water lines will freeze. If the water in the tank is heated, the water in the line is not and the farther the line is from the tank the more likely and faster it will freeze. Also the lowpoint drains are outside of the inclosed underbelly. James


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## Ghosty (Jan 17, 2005)

thefulminator said:


> Just curious why you would go with electric heat in place of using he furnace.


Because running two 1500 watt electric heaters all night long will keep your trailer warm and use only a fraction of the cost that running a furnace wide open does ... its cheaper and after using electricity for two days you don't have to go and find a propane refuel guy to give him $16.00 to refill your tank every two days..

.02


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## curtcherry (Jan 15, 2010)

Ghosty said:


> Just curious why you would go with electric heat in place of using he furnace.


Because running two 1500 watt electric heaters all night long will keep your trailer warm and use only a fraction of the cost that running a furnace wide open does ... its cheaper and after using electricity for two days you don't have to go and find a propane refuel guy to give him $16.00 to refill your tank every two days..

.02
[/quote]

Exactly. Also, we can leave for the day to hunt and come back at lunch and get warm while we eat lunch and dinner. I thought maybe if the tanks were heated and the underbelly is enclosed, it would keep that space warm enough to keep things from freezing. Maybe I should add a skirt or get hay bails out of the barn...


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## Ghosty (Jan 17, 2005)

curtcherry said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Just looking for a little advice. We do a lot of camping in the cold due to hunting season. We have 30 amp service where we hunt but have to bring the water with us. The new outback I purchased (to arrive in a month) has the fully enclosed underbelly. (Well mostly enclosed - it is enclosed between the I beams). It is heated by the heat ducts and the dealer will install heating pads on all tanks. My question is this - If we run electric heaters and not the furnace, should I have to worry about the lines freezing even when the water tanks are heated? 2 weeks ago it got down to 5 degrees F.


Answer is YES -- the lines will freeze under the trailer although you are keeping the trailer warm with electric heaters. The reason is that the lines run along the furnace and when the furnance is not in use, the furnance tends to get cold like the outside instead of warm from the inside...

one trick is to run the hot and cold water every few hours to keep the lines from freezing ... but yes thats a pain if your sleeping and have to get up every three hours to do that ...

also -- You only have 30 AMPS to begin with -- so you may not be able to run both the 1500 watt heaters (I'm going to say that you will need two of them to keep the trailer even semi-comfortable) plus the heating pads for the tanks (the pads pull a little over 1 AMP each A/C and 10 AMP DC when in use) all at the same time and also anything else (like electric hot water heater or microwave) ... you will have to use the trial and error approach on this...


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## Ghosty (Jan 17, 2005)

curtcherry said:


> Just curious why you would go with electric heat in place of using he furnace.


Because running two 1500 watt electric heaters all night long will keep your trailer warm and use only a fraction of the cost that running a furnace wide open does ... its cheaper and after using electricity for two days you don't have to go and find a propane refuel guy to give him $16.00 to refill your tank every two days..

.02
[/quote]

Exactly. Also, we can leave for the day to hunt and come back at lunch and get warm while we eat lunch and dinner. I thought maybe if the tanks were heated and the underbelly is enclosed, it would keep that space warm enough to keep things from freezing. Maybe I should add a skirt or get hay bails out of the barn...
[/quote]

SKIRTS would be a really good idea -- hay bales scare me becuase of my concern that its going to catch fire ... but skirting helps allot... helps keep the radiant heat coming down from the trailer from simply evaporating too quickly and may help the pipes a slight bit...


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## CJ999 (Aug 11, 2005)

Ghosty said:


> SKIRTS would be a really good idea -- hay bales scare me becuase of my concern that its going to catch fire ... but skirting helps allot... helps keep the radiant heat coming down from the trailer from simply evaporating too quickly and may help the pipes a slight bit...


Do you see something I don't that would cause the haybales to catch fire? Or are you just saying in broad terms, they would be a much greater fire hazard?


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## sunnybrook29 (Oct 7, 2009)

What about running the furnace real low , say about 50 degrees. Plus the electric heaters for living areas?


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## sunnybrook29 (Oct 7, 2009)

OPPS,
That will not work because the thermostat will read the cabin temp and never kick the furnace on! What about the electric heaters on, the furnace in the FAN only position , does that draw cabin temp into the underbelly ?


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## curtcherry (Jan 15, 2010)

sunnybrook29 said:


> OPPS,
> That will not work because the thermostat will read the cabin temp and never kick the furnace on! What about the electric heaters on, the furnace in the FAN only position , does that draw cabin temp into the underbelly ?


I would imagine if the tanks are heated and the underbelly is enclosed.. Then there would be sufficient warmth in the underbelly to keep things from freezing while having the furnace kick on once in a while. Water can actually hold a lot of heat and give off heat. I have a cold frame at my house. Often people will put gallon jugs of water in the cold frames to pull heat in during the day, then when the frame is closed at night the jugs can keep the air in the cold frame a couple of degrees higher than outside. That is with no additional heat being put in.


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## twincam (Jan 11, 2010)

Is it possible to take off the plastic bottom and insulate the water lines?


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

twincam said:


> Is it possible to take off the plastic bottom and insulate the water lines?


Yes you can, not fun but it can be done. You could even heat trace the lines since you are having the tanks done you may as well do the lines.,

Where are you located? What level of cold are you talking about. If it gets into the mid to upper 30's but is in the 20
s at night you have a very low chance of a freeze in the trailer with normal use.


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## Lmbevard (Mar 18, 2006)

Ghosty said:


> Just curious why you would go with electric heat in place of using he furnace.


Because running two 1500 watt electric heaters all night long will keep your trailer warm and use only a fraction of the cost that running a furnace wide open does ... its cheaper and after using electricity for two days you don't have to go and find a propane refuel guy to give him $16.00 to refill your tank every two days..

.02
[/quote]
$16.00!!!! Last time I refilled it cost me $29 for one tank.

As far as running the heater along with the furnace, we do that during the early and late season. What we do is to put the heater in the sleeping area with the curtain closed and the furnace on 55 deg. Works well but still uses a lot of gas.


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## Rip (Jul 13, 2006)

$9.99 in Harrison,Mich for a 20 pound tank!!!!!!!!!!!! $49.00 for a 100 pound tank!!!!!!!!!!!!Loving it


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