Getting ready for coldest weather in our Solitude 310GK

[Nuffsaid]

We are at our daughters home in Belgrade, Montana and as I type this it is a balmy 1 degree F outside with tomorrows high forecast to be around 15F. Weds it is forecasted to be between -28 and -31F with highs below zero. Right now the fireplace and furnace are pretty much running nonstop, I have my diesel heater in the front generator compartment set on low heat and pumping heat into the basement area and it is holding temps in the upper 90's in the basement and warming the bathroom floor nicely. I also have an additional electric heater next to the couch helping keep the slide out area warm. Tank heaters are all on and I have two 100 lb propane bottles and hopefully that lasts until the 28th when we will hopefully head home weather permitting. I think the spray foam on the frame rails is working well, no freeze ups knock on wood. There is about a foot of snow on the ground and tomorrow I hope to clear off snow from the slide out tops so that it doesn't turn to ice. We are able to maintain about 70 degrees inside which my wife says is too warm, lol. I have reflectix type bubble wrap on all of the windows except the two by our bed, that is nice and cool to sleep next to! I will also add that we our using our water tank and it is full. I keep the hose in the basement with heat on so that it doesn't freeze and I will add water every couple of days. I dump the grey water in the flower bed area.

 

[stroguy]

Brrrrrrr………stay warm. Cuddling is a great option. Good luck.

 

[DougW9876]

If you can get along with closed slide outs, closing them will reduce exposed surface area and cubic feet of air needing to be heated. Doing so should make keeping the RV warm inside easier.

 

[Nuffsaid]

Well, knocking on wood didn’t work, fresh water feed to the water pump froze last night. I had water when I showered around 10:00, but froze hard this morning. The basement was warm this morning when I woke up and the diesel heater still had fuel. I just turned the thermostat for the furnace up to 73 to keep the furnace running non stop and hopefully the water line will thaw. It doesn’t look good for later this week with a forecast of -31 Wed and Thursday

 

[Nuffsaid]

I am hoping my fresh water tank heater didn't fail. We only used maybe 20 gallons of water since filling the water tank and when I checked it today it shows empty. I will try and open the dump valve in the morning tomorrow and see what happens, if it doesn't open, heater might be failed. It is -8 right now as I type this at 8:50 pm. I have a solid stream of heat pumping into the belly and when I check temps on the frame rails with a temp gun they are holding mid 70's, so I know my spray foam is working. Grey water tanks were not frozen and I dumped them this morning without issue. Any repairs will have to wait until I pull the trailer home and it warms up a bit, hopefully there aren't any major issues. Worse case scenario I will blow out all of the water lines in the trailer with air.

 

[Canyonlight]

Yes, this cold front (EXTREME COLD and windchills) coming in a couple days days to the Plains/Midwest will be some of the most extreme in many years. It is already quite cold but this is a major hit coming.

To give folks an idea, our local weather team suggested that this cold will dip all the way to Cancun Mexico......no joke.

For the folks "wintering" in the deep south, be prepared......this is slated to be a very cold spell with killing wind chills in our area up north, with cold and wind chills impacting much of the US.

The AZ flight to Hawaii with many injuries and damage reported to the plane yesterday seems to be as a result of this VERY cold air coming to the US.

[MENTION=6569]Nuffsaid[/MENTION], with your background you are in a good position to prepare as you have shared but this will be a significant test. Best wishes.

Folks, be tuned in to the weather forecast for where you are and/or will be traveling as to the projected impact for you.

Dan

 

[orbsah]

I am hoping my fresh water tank heater didn't fail. We only used maybe 20 gallons of water since filling the water tank and when I checked it today it shows empty.

This past summer we had to pull the underbelly under the FW tank. I was surprised to see how small the tank heater pad was. Maybe about a square foot. Definitely didn’t cover the entire tank. Maybe if the temps are too extreme, that small heater just can’t keep up.

Our solution is to head south!

 

[Nuffsaid]

With the extreme cold that is headed our way, I gave up on trying to thaw the frozen line. I attempted to open the fresh water drain valve and it is frozen and no point in pulling too hard and breaking it. I went ahead and drained the water heater and blew compressed air through all of the water lines. Only issue is the line from the fresh water tank to the pump. I am scratching my head about one thing, I switched the nautilus panel over to tank fill and applied compressed air and I didn't seem to get any back pressure. I am hoping that a fitting didn't crack back towards the tank. I don't have any signs of water leaking from the coroplast and I couldn't hear any air leaking when I pressured up the line, but I did have the furnace and my diesel heater running in the basement, so it was pretty noisy. Maybe by Saturday when the worst of this cold front is gone I will try adding water to the tank. In the mean time I have constant heat going into the belly. If I have to drop the coroplast to inspect the plumbing, it will have to wait until I get home. I also have a repair I need to make to my sewer outlet pipe. I had a cap on the outlet with a hose bib fitting that I had the cap off of. The outlet froze solid from dripping water from the grey tanks and partially filled up the pipe down stream of the valves and split the 3 inch abs and elbow. I smeared some RTV silicone on the crack for now and will have to replace the pipe. If I end up having to drop the coroplast to make repairs, I will install a heat trace on the water line and insulate that pipe.

 

[ajg617]

I can't imagine being in anything mobile with temps that low. Do take care all. Seems like New England might escape from the severe cold blast and get rain in the mid-50s with a rapid freeze after but only dipping to the teens if the weather channels can be believed. Ground temps here are well below freezing and nothing is melting.

 

[Nuffsaid]

Sitting in the 5er at 7:00 AM, forecast temp -2 actual temp -9, new forecast low for Weds night -37!!!!!!!! Right now I have the furnace, the electric fire place, another electric heater and a diesel heater at 50% and I am maintaining 71 degrees, but my dear wife likes to sleep cool, so bedroom is around 55. Windows all have reflectex bubble wrap and 3m ceramic film (helps a lot with condensation) and at the bottom of each black out blind it feels like the window is open! Next to our bed the windows don't have reflectex, just the shades down and your arms will feel like they are in the freezer if you leave them outside the blankets too long, LOL I checked my propane tanks yesterday and my 100 lb bottle is still at least 50% and I swapped in a new 30 lb bottle. I have a spare full 100 lb bottle and I will fill up another 30lb bottle today because there is a good chance the good ol diesel truck might not be happy at -37!!! I might add, NO SKIRTING, but I have no idea if the water tank is mostly frozen since the drain valve is definitely froze up.

 

[Always Learning]

Sitting in the 5er at 7:00 AM, forecast temp -2 actual temp -9, new forecast low for Weds night -37!!!!!!!! Right now I have the furnace, the electric fire place, another electric heater and a diesel heater at 50% and I am maintaining 71 degrees, but my dear wife likes to sleep cool, so bedroom is around 55. Windows all have reflectex bubble wrap and 3m ceramic film (helps a lot with condensation) and at the bottom of each black out blind it feels like the window is open! Next to our bed the windows don't have reflectex, just the shades down and your arms will feel like they are in the freezer if you leave them outside the blankets too long, LOL I checked my propane tanks yesterday and my 100 lb bottle is still at least 50% and I swapped in a new 30 lb bottle. I have a spare full 100 lb bottle and I will fill up another 30lb bottle today because there is a good chance the good ol diesel truck might not be happy at -37!!! I might add, NO SKIRTING, but I have no idea if the water tank is mostly frozen since the drain valve is definitely froze up.

Condensation can be a big problem with these trailers. It will collect behind top of bed, in closets, behind couch and in the space between the roof and ceiling. When you get home pull the cowling around ceiling fans and pull out a couple of ceiling puck lights to check for moisture. It would be good to check before you have water running out of the ceiling lights.

 

[WhittleBurner]

And here I was just complaining about the forecast for Christmas eve and day with a high of 48 in Bradenton ,Fl. Your temps put my whining to shame. We hope you get out of this nasty cold spell with minimal issues.
Try to have safe time and Merry Christmas.

Maybe it's time to hide in the kids house even if it's means sleeping on the floor

 

[Nuffsaid]

I should rename this thread to coldest temps spent in a Solitude without freezing to death, LOL. I have moved my diesel heater outlet duct so that it is blowing towards the belly but mostly towards the pantry, a good amount of heat is entering the 5er with the pantry door open, enough heat that the furnace isn't running much and we are holding 71 degrees inside. I have the diesel heater set at about 3.8 HZ and max is 5.0 HZ. This is a 8kw heater and I am pretty impressed with how much heat it puts out. On the present setting I am burning about 2 gallons of diesel in 24 hours and since I have a 60 gallon tank in the bed of my truck with an electric pump, it is more convenient than filling up propane tanks. Speaking of propane, I went into town today and stopped a local Cenex fuel stop to get propane and was told they are out until tomorrow. We will see if their fuel trucks make it or not. When the temps get too low the DEF in late model diesel trucks can freeze and then you are out of luck.

 

[LMagelitz]

I am scratching my head about one thing, I switched the nautilus panel over to tank fill and applied compressed air and I didn't seem to get any back pressure. I am hoping that a fitting didn't crack back towards the tank. I don't have any signs of water leaking from the coroplast and I couldn't hear any air leaking when I pressured up the line...

My guess would be that you didn’t get back pressure because the air was going out the overflow on the fresh tank. That tube is probably large enough that it wouldn’t create much noise, especially if you had some background noise.

 

[tonyhoang]

I just bought pajamas for the first time and it literally changed my life. I always slept with only boxers on, but its getting so cold lately! But I can never sleep with a shirt/sweater due to my anxiety or something, but pajamas are made to breath so it is a life changer lol

 

[Nuffsaid]

According to my daughter we got to -44 last night! I woke up at 3:30 am and I didn’t hear the furnace running. I got dressed and went outside to check on the propane. My one hundred pound bottle was still full, but the 30 pound bottle was empty, the tank switch valve isn’t working and is stuck on one side. I moved the 100 lb bottle to that side and fired the heater back up. The temp inside was down to 66 with the diesel heater and the electric fireplace and another electric heater. I woke up this morning at 8:45 and the official temperature was -44, it was only 60 degrees in the 5er and 56 in the bedroom. My diesel heater had run out of fuel, so outside I went and refueled and attempted to prime the heater. I turned it up to max and luckily it came to life. The high today is only supposed to be -22 and hopefully the this cold wave breaks tomorrow. Tonights low is forecasted to be -32 and it is -28 right now at 7:15 pm. The diesel heater is capable of over 27k btu's , but I will have to turn it down tonight so that the 1 gallon fuel tank doesn't run out. When I get home, I will make a bracket to hold a 5 gallon fuel tank.

 

[Sportsdad60]

This is our 4th season wintering near Corpus Christi TX (Mustang Island) and currently the temp is 23 deg and 7 deg wind chill. This will continue all day today into tomorrow.
It is the 3rd winter we've had the polar express come this far south. It's a common thing now that the jet stream has changed.
Yesterday when it was still 67 deg, we filled up our water tank, disconnected from exposed water source. Turned off icemaker and disconnected the icemaker line located just under the kitchen slide.
Stored our OnTheGo softener in the 310GK basement. Topped off 4 propane tanks (2 connected)
Drained all tanks, then turned tank heaters on before bed last night.
Thermostat set to 68 and fireplace set to 64 deg last night. (This way the furnace does not run all night)

Temps will be back up into the 60's and 70's by Wed next week but these next 3 days are going to be very cold for the wildlife down here that are not used to sub-freezing temps.

We will be doing a sea turtle beach combing with our beach golf cart on Sat looking for stunned turtles and reporting them to the Sea Turtle rescue down here so they can be transported to a warming center.

 

[Steven@147]

This is our 4th season wintering near Corpus Christi TX (Mustang Island) and currently the temp is 23 deg and 7 deg wind chill. This will continue all day today into tomorrow.
It is the 3rd winter we've had the polar express come this far south. It's a common thing now that the jet stream has changed.
Yesterday when it was still 67 deg, we filled up our water tank, disconnected from exposed water source. Turned off icemaker and disconnected the icemaker line located just under the kitchen slide.
Stored our OnTheGo softener in the 310GK basement. Topped off 4 propane tanks (2 connected)
Drained all tanks, then turned tank heaters on before bed last night.
Thermostat set to 68 and fireplace set to 64 deg last night. (This way the furnace does not run all night)

Temps will be back up into the 60's and 70's by Wed next week but these next 3 days are going to be very cold for the wildlife down here that are not used to sub-freezing temps.

We will be doing a sea turtle beach combing with our beach golf cart on Sat looking for stunned turtles and reporting them to the Sea Turtle rescue down here so they can be transported to a warming center.

Yup seems like Deja vu all over again. Tami and I were out beach walking yesterday afternoon 67-70*. Now I've got my hands wrapped around my morning coffee cup. According to the local Galveston news wind gusts up to 47 mph here, that will suck the warmth right out of the RV ! RV rocking and rolling most of the night with the wind.
Took all the precautions we could ahead of the deep freeze. Power keeps cutting off and on, line voltage keeps dropping below 104V, power monitor getting a work out. Extra propane tank this year, running on internal tanks, tank heaters on, long johns, extra socks, multiple hooded sweat shirts. Ma in her kerchief, and I in my cap had just settled down for a warm ? winters day?

Hope all y'all winter campers out there are faring well through this deep freeze!

 

[Sportsdad60]

^^ Since we travel from MT we always have our woolies and long johns ready for this.
However, I forgot my winter gloves and been using Mechanix gloves which I do NOT recommended for 23 deg with 30 mph winds! But it's better than nothing!
We still take the dogs for a 3 miles walk twice a day, rain wind snow or ugly cold!

 

[ajg617]

I'd like to say we are enjoying the 53 degree weather here in New England, but inches of rain that are going to flash freeze today. Daughter is 20 degrees colder in NC. Cleaned the ice off the roof of the RV though. Will be putting on my ice cleats later today though. I guess on the positive side, glad I'm not the guy towing the Airstream below.