Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 14, 2025 ...

winter coach?

October 26, 2020, 11:33:19 am

1996 U295. Just wondering if the heaters are on will this coach survive freezing temps in all storage compartments, water, etc?

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Re: winter coach?

Reply #1 – October 26, 2020, 11:43:59 am

You are talking about propane heaters I assume - not AquaHot?

How cold for how long?  Big difference between 30 degrees and 0 degrees, and a few days versus weeks/months of deep cold.

Will coach be plugged in to shore power, or sitting in storage without power?

Will the coach be checked every day, or only occasionally visited?

Will you "winterize" the water lines with antifreeze?

Propane heaters can fail.  Circuit boards go bad.  12 volt power to fan fails.  Etc.

I would feel safer with some kind of backup plan.

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Re: winter coach?

Reply #2 – October 26, 2020, 12:16:19 pm

We live in West Texas.  In 7 years of ownership, we have never "winterized" our coach with the pink stuff.

Our temps do get below freezing every winter, but not really cold for very long.  Mostly in the 20's for a few days at a time.  Teens very seldom.

Our coach is plugged into 50 amp shore power in our driveway.  We don't have a barn or cover - it just sits outside and shivers.

I prefer to use electric heat as primary, and propane heat as backup.  Here, electricity is relatively cheap.  Filling our propane tank is a hassle.

For primary heat I place small thermostatically controlled electric heaters around the coach.  To protect the water system there is one in each end of the wet bay.  Inside the coach, one in the bathroom, one in the kitchen, and one in the living room.  I also place a small heater on the dash to keep the windshield area warm (helps to reduce condensation on inside of glass.

These heaters are all set to come on at about 60 degrees so they can stay ahead of the cold temps.  It is 33 degrees here today and I went out early this morning to check the coach.  I have remote temp sensors in the big center storage bay and both ends of the wet bay with readout inside the coach.  All 3 bay sensors showed about 65 degrees.  It was also 65 inside the coach.

I also turn our coach propane heaters ON and set them to the lowest setting on the wall thermostat - about 50 degrees.  If for any reason my small electric heaters cannot maintain the interior temp then the propane heaters will kick on to supplement.

If shore power fails to the coach then the electric heaters (not on inverter circuit) will shut off, so in that case the propane heaters will take over.  Since I check the coach every day, I could also fire up the generator to power the electric heaters, if it ever became necessary.

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Re: winter coach?

Reply #3 – October 26, 2020, 12:59:08 pm

I put 2 1000 BTU ceramic heaters in both plumbing bays, set propane thermostat at 62, plugged into 50 amps and have a 250 gal propane tank as a nurse tank. I had a furnace motor failure that went unnoticed for 3 weeks, the only consequence was the under sink filter split. Knowing this I will add another ceramic heater under the sink. I made a insulated wood block for where the electrical cord comes into the wet bay plus insulated it.

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Re: winter coach?

Reply #4 – October 26, 2020, 01:47:52 pm

I thought you winterized it?

1st winter we got our coach, because of a deal on the sale of our old coach (keeping it in our shop for the winter) I just blew it out with air. We were going to use it in a month or so to go south. Water heater doesn't have a by-pass kit, didn't want anti freeze in the W/H. Poured Rv anti freeze down the sinks, and let it sit out in sub zero tempts.

We normally store it in a heated building, so I always drain and blow it out when not in use. Don't like old water in the system.

Started the engine once a week with the block heater on.

Had a base board heater going inside. Nothing in the compartments.

I did lose a cartridge on the outside faucet. No matter how much you blow them out, from my experience there is still moister/water in some of the small valves.

I truly didn't like leaving it out, but had to do, what I had to do.

Chris

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Re: winter coach?

Reply #5 – October 26, 2020, 01:59:34 pm

When i winterize in Alberta Canada, I winterize EXPECTING -20 F.
A whole different ball game up north here!!

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Re: winter coach?

Reply #6 – October 26, 2020, 03:04:39 pm

I was mostly wondering about staying in it during the cold without being winterized and plugged into power. Good info. Thanks

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Reply #7 – October 26, 2020, 03:16:47 pm

I stay in my coach when I'm skiing and I'm not plugged in. Before this I had a Monaco Dynasty which I did also. Both coaches I
have done extra insulation to be on the safe side. With small electrical heaters in the wet bay an a couple of 1500 watt heaters
in side the coach you should be comfortable.

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Re: winter coach?

Reply #8 – October 26, 2020, 11:00:48 pm

Since we have been evascuated due to fire threat, it has not got above 10 degrees since last Thursday.  Our low has been 2 degrees.
We are plugged in. I have one small Broan Heat Cube in the wet bay, for back up.
I have a temp sensor on the opposite side (water pump bay).  So far, the lowest reading I have had is 49 degrees.  One thing I did notice, when the rear furnace turns on,( I knew it fed the storage bays) the bay temp goes up another 10 degrees. We are easily maintaining 55 degrees on average in the bays.

We have had 12" of snow, very low temps and its been 5 days now with zero issues. I'm glad to know that should we lose shore power, it seems the two LPG furnaces are more than enough to keep us comfortable.

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Re: winter coach?

Reply #9 – October 27, 2020, 09:49:00 am

Excellent info Mark. Thanks

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Re: winter coach?

Reply #10 – October 27, 2020, 06:37:24 pm

There is a remote possibility that I may be spending next winter in New England with the coach. Assuming I can find an RV park open year round. I would have of course rely on the aqua hot to keep the coach nice and toasty on both the electrical and Diesel aspects of it, however I would also have backup plans with ceramic electric heaters. Probably would put some extra insulation in the wet Bay both sides and make sure that the storage base had nothing that would be damaged by getting Frozen. I wouldn't worry about under the sink personally because my aqua hot heater resides there and keeps that area nice and warm. So far I've been in the coach with the temperature at 32° but nothing lower than that . The amazing job of keeping the coach nice and warm although if you touch the windows you definitely know it's cold out there. I would also get an additional thermometer that I currently use to monitor freezer and refrigerator temperatures and put the remote in the wet Bay and the large storage Bay. the small storage Bay is where the aqua hot resides and there will be enough heat coming off of that to keep that area toasty. I wouldn't want to winterize the lines because I'd be using them.
Course all this is conjecture at this point but it's good to know that this coach can do well in the winter. Of course if the alcohol goes out and I can't get it going I probably should have plenty of antifreeze available to flush the lines out with and they get my butt to a hotel. LOL.

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Reply #11 – October 28, 2020, 08:50:41 am

I full time and spent the entire winter in Wisconsin last year Oct thru April down to -20.  My aquahot ran everyday & night. ( Never again more stress than u need) I kept thermometers in all the bays that could be monitored from the kitchen. Dec had an AH control box issue at -7 and Rudy overnighted the part which arrived less than 24 hrs later.  The trick is keeping moisture to a minimum. Mold could become a serious issue. The upper round roof edges inside the compartments are aluminum covered with a thin carpeted strip held on by glue or velcro. In cold temps these aluminum edges sweat and become very frost covered. I made sure to have every upper cabinet door and closet doors propped open a couple inches to allow for warm air equalization. It was very successful and gave better peace of mind. I also put a fan in the front blowing toward windshield area to keep it from frosting and sweating.and another fan mid coach blowing toward the rear plus ceiling fan in bedroom. I had it down pat but it took some trial & error to perfect it in the extreme cold. If heat fails u better have a quick fix backup plan as well as a backup to the backup. I keep the ultimate backup of 13 gallons of pink stuff on board and have a winterize connection installed at my water pump for that need if all else fails. NOTE: It is winter in Wisconsin as I type this. I am in Texas. Soooo much easier this way.

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Reply #12 – October 28, 2020, 09:57:09 am

Sounds like renting a house or apt would be much easier in winter areas. Thanks

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Re: winter coach?

Reply #13 – October 28, 2020, 10:08:59 am

A dehumidifier is a good idea in the winter months, it really helps. Bubble rap on the windshield and if I wasn't moving and that cold
I would put on 3 layers.

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Re: winter coach?

Reply #14 – October 28, 2020, 11:25:57 am

Battery condition is very important.  Especially if not on good shore power. Cold batteries have volts but the amps go down.

I was drycamped skiing in a 87 ored with two new flooded cell 8d's and the temp went to -32F.

Everything was off the next morning on fully charged batteries the night before,  no green lights on any systems.

Exciting.  Lucky we were next to the snow plow barn and they came over and jumped the coach to get everything going,

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