Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Topic: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful (Read 4618 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #75 – December 01, 2014, 07:31:02 am

We just returned from Illinois where I lost another ice maker valve. I had put a barrier between it and the vent cover but clearly that wasn't enough. Fortunately I caught it before any water came into the coach this time. It wasn't even all that cold where we were.

I will wrap the new one with heat tape or something.

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #76 – December 01, 2014, 08:03:36 am

Rick: In my 02 I cut the water off to the ice maker in the fridge and pulled the wire up to cut it off. Purchased a tabletop ice maker from Compact Appliance (now Sams has some) Makes more ice than needed. DAN

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #77 – December 01, 2014, 09:18:45 am

Quote from: kenhat – December 01, 2014, 12:39:56 am

A cold front and clear skies can cause temperatures to plummet to -20º or -30º over night pretty easily. In those conditions have several electric heaters and a hair dryer handy to thaw pipes. The problem is it's hard to sleep when you know evil things are happening below!

Be careful out there!

see ya
ken

The hard to sleep thing is why I've just sucked it up and started installing heat trace, no more worries about it anymore.

I went and bought 40 lb. propane tanks so that I wouldn't have to drive the FT to the gas station 10 miles away to refill. It was -20F this morning and the propane hose froze up. Woke up to a chillier than normal bed. Well, at least its December now and we only have 3 weeks until winter starts.

Edit: I'm also planning to install a few extra circuits fed off of the shore power panel, as JD mentioned, to keep my inverter from powering all of these space heaters. Its getting fairly annoying having to shut down the heaters when I want to use the microwave or plug in the vacuum cleaner.

Also, my refrigerator stopped working this morning.

Time to go figure out why that is.

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #78 – December 01, 2014, 09:47:40 am

Quote from: rsihnhold – December 01, 2014, 09:18:45 am

Edit: I'm also planning to install a few extra circuits fed off of the shore power panel, as JD mentioned, to keep my inverter from powering all of these space heaters. Its getting fairly annoying having to shut down the heaters when I want to use the microwave or plug in the vacuum cleaner.

Also, my refrigerator stopped working this morning. Time to go figure out why that is.

I might be confused, but on my 98, the inverter is only ON, when I turn it on, and that is only when I do not have shore power. The inverter feeds just a few circuits thru a ATS. But all the outlets that I use for anything work fine, without the inverter needing to be on. So far, I have always powered everything, from shore power, never ever turning on the inverter, when on either park power or generator.

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #79 – December 01, 2014, 09:56:39 am

Dave: With the inverter off does that turn off the battery chargers??

DAN

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #80 – December 01, 2014, 10:03:26 am

Quote from: Dan J. Stansel – December 01, 2014, 09:56:39 am

Dave: With the inverter off does that turn off the battery chargers?? DAN

No, I can select, charger, inverter, and maybe both by switching it on at the control center. I have never thought to run the inverter when plugged in, not sure why anyone would need to.

I always just thought the inverter was a very handy thing to have then the coach is unplugged, or the generator is not running.

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #81 – December 01, 2014, 10:31:08 am

Quote from: Dave and Dolly Cobb – December 01, 2014, 09:47:40 am

I might be confused, but on my 98, the inverter is only ON, when I turn it on, and that is only when I do not have shore power. The inverter feeds just a few circuits thru a ATS. But all the outlets that I use for anything work fine, without the inverter needing to be on. So far, I have always powered everything, from shore power, never ever turning on the inverter, when on either park power or generator.

Everything in your inverter panel still feeds through the inverter. Nearly all of the receptacle in my RV are fed off one 20 amp circuit breaker in the inverter panel, except for the 3 bedroom receptacles.

You are correct that the inverter function is not used when plugged into shore power since there is already 120V electricity present and nothing needs to be done with it. I can leave the inverter function on with the control panel and it only takes over when there is no shore or generator power. My Xantrex System Control Panel shows the wattage passing through it, don't know if you still have the older Heart model? Mine only switches over to invert mode when power has been removed.

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #82 – December 01, 2014, 11:08:27 am

You had said you were powering the space heaters off the inverter. That got me thinking, as I can get power at any outlet in my coach for a space heater, and don't have to turn on the inverter to do so.

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #83 – December 01, 2014, 11:57:30 am

Quote from: rsihnhold – December 01, 2014, 10:31:08 am

Everything in your inverter panel still feeds through the inverter.

It must depend on the coach and its wiring. Ours does not appear to be wired that way (excuse the highlight of the secondary transfer switch in the jpeg).

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #84 – December 01, 2014, 12:18:21 pm

We just don't use enough ice to make the ice maker a practical appliance. I disconnected the water line from the ice maker and from under the sink. I removed the ice cube tray and the water solenoid. It is just a freezer now and we can make ice cubes in trays if we want to. It was always difficult to get that line blown down and winterized. Have a great day ---- Fritz

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #85 – December 01, 2014, 01:14:35 pm

We use the ice maker a lot. The countertop version takes up too much space for us. I have a 5 gal drinking water jug in the bay where the water pump is with a separate pump just for the ice maker and the drinking water spigot at the sink. We carry a couple of extra 5 gal jugs in the bay to switch out.

We drink a lot of water, coffee and tea. Our local water requires a reverse osmosis system to be drinkable so we don't drink what's in the tank.

The other benefit is a nice clear ice cube to drop in a little Johnny Walker Black on occasion.

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #86 – December 01, 2014, 04:55:22 pm

For drinking water, and things that use good water, we use the water purifier faucet in the sink. We change out the purifier element yearly and it works well for us. We also keep a lot of bottled drinking water on hand. Have a great day ---- Fritz

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #87 – December 01, 2014, 06:07:30 pm

Quote from: Michelle – December 01, 2014, 11:57:30 am

It must depend on the coach and its wiring. Ours does not appear to be wired that way (excuse the highlight of the secondary transfer switch in the jpeg).

I can't speak for yours, but every inverter I ever say has that switching relay inside the inverter. So, it's very likely that that box you show is actually inside the inverter.

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #88 – December 01, 2014, 06:08:58 pm

Quote from: krush – December 01, 2014, 06:07:30 pm

I can't speak for yours, but every inverter I ever say has that switching relay inside the inverter. So, it's very likely that that box you show is actually inside the inverter.

Nope. It's a separate box mounted beneath the bed next to the 2 breaker panels. One input is from the main breaker panel that receives shore power, the other input is the inverter. The output of the highlighted secondary transfer switch goes to the 40 amp "main" breaker in the auxiliary (inverted circuits) breaker panel. One of the 20 amp breakers from the main panel feeds the converter side of the Xantrex.

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #89 – December 01, 2014, 06:45:21 pm

Our inverter is like Michelle's. All circuits are connected to the shore power side and only certain circuits are connected to the inverter side so that the inverter cannot be overloaded. If shore power is connected, the relay box has everything powered from shore power. When shore power is lost or disconnected, then the relay box switches every thing to the inverter which picks up those certain loads if it is turned on. We normally leave the switch on the inverter in the ON position and keep the inverter button on the remote panel in the OFF position so that we can easily turn it on if desired. I'm not sure where you can find out exactly which receptacles are connected to the inverter. I just did the O'l check them and see trick. Have a great day ---- Fritz

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #90 – December 01, 2014, 07:52:39 pm

We had to live in our 1982 BB Wanderlodge for a couple of months while house was in renovation. Lowest temp was -12F. We didn't do anything except turn on the heaters. I had one water line freeze to the kitchen. Line was on outside wall and factory heat tape failed. Ice maker water valve on refrigerator froze too. Everything else worked fine.

Gotta' love the old coaches!

TOM

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #91 – December 02, 2014, 02:18:07 pm

rihnsold, Your refer may have gotten to cold and froze up, should start to work when it gets warmer. On some of the dometics there is a switch that you turn on for low ambient temperature which keeps the interior light turned on which will let the unit work in the much colder temps.

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #92 – December 02, 2014, 05:48:36 pm

Quote from: red tractor – December 02, 2014, 02:18:07 pm

rihnsold, Your refer may have gotten to cold and froze up, should start to work when it gets warmer. On some of the dometics there is a switch that you turn on for low ambient temperature which keeps the interior light turned on which will let the unit work in the much colder temps.

Thanks for that info. I don't have the buttons or the cold kit but that did lead me to doing some searching on the web and it is mentioned that it may be beneficial to run on propane when it gets this cold. I'm trying it out now.

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #93 – December 03, 2014, 10:44:00 pm

Running on propane did not get the refer working.

However, simply blocking off the side mount grill/access door has resulted in the unit running again. Looks like it was too cold and frozen up, never had that happen before.

Hopefully anyone camping in very cold weather will see this and realize that it is beneficial to your refrigerator working.

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #94 – December 04, 2014, 09:38:07 am

Quote from: rsihnhold – December 03, 2014, 10:44:00 pm

simply blocking off the side mount grill/access door has resulted in the unit running again

When we had our residential fridge installed at FOT, Larry (remodel shop crew) built a trick sliding door inside the side vent opening. It is made of plywood, lined on the inside with the blue foam insulation sheet. Locks in up or down position - very snug fit when closed. This is a worthwhile mod if you ever have your fridge out for repair or replacement..

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #95 – December 04, 2014, 10:15:58 am

Chuck, when I changed fridge to residential I also put in a "cover" behind the vent you show but I used 1" styrofoam that also slides up out of way in marm climes etc or drops down if not using coach. It definitly makes sure there is no draft coming into coach thru vent. I also have sealed around the joint between front of fridge and cabinet framing on inside with black silicone(matches colour of fidge). This also helps stabilize unit while travelling.
JohnH

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #96 – December 04, 2014, 12:46:04 pm

Chuck or John
That looks nice.
What keeps the sliding door against the inside of the outer wall. I need to build one of those for my residential fridge

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #97 – December 04, 2014, 04:45:48 pm

Sorry I didn't get more photos of the door assembly from the inside, but Larry was working too fast for me to keep up! He built a simple 3-sided frame out of wood. It looked like probably 1" x 1" (or perhaps 1" x 1.5") for the bottom piece and the latch support at the top. The sides are made up of 3 pieces, with a gap between them to hold the sliding door. The door is probably 1/4" exterior grade plywood, with the foam insulation glued to the back side. A magnetic latch on the top support piece holds the door in the "open" position. A spring latch (not installed yet in photo) holds it in the "closed" position. The plywood door just slides in the wood slots on the sides. It moves easily, but is still a very snug fit - no rattles or gaps to let cold air in.

Photo was taken while still under construction - insulation had not been added yet. Hope this helps!

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #98 – December 05, 2014, 09:32:51 am

Thanks Chuck for the description and photo.
Because my refrigerator is already installed I will have to come with a door that can be installed from the outside. Sure wish I would have thought of your system while the install was in progress
Thanks again.

Re: Camping in Cold Weather-Long but hopefully useful

Reply #99 – December 05, 2014, 10:19:43 am

Don, i put my refrig in thinking an plug for the vent hole from the outside might be OK. It was very hard to getbin and very hard to seal. So I pulled the refrigerator out and did it the right way. Very similar to Chuck's. I removed the fiberglass sheet and insulation that was above the vent opening on the outside wall to leave more room for the new refrig and it's venting. I used a 1 1/2" foam with (the removed) fiberglass sheet on both sides. Nice clean look, snug fit, no rattles that we hear and easy to slide up if we need to access that section.

I also fitted 1 1/2" foam sheet into the ceiling vent to close 2/3 to 3/4 of the original opening. Lets heat out in the summer. Nwe haven't noticed a big ruch of incoming cold air when it is colder outside.

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