[A/S] Re: Winter Living

["Christopher45103" <blickcd@xxxxxxx>]

We had ours out for a weekend last February with night temps in the 
mid 20's.  The furnace burner stopped working so I was a little 
worried about things freezing, particularly the tanks under the floor.

What I did was shut off the gas valve to the furnace, to ensure no 
waste of propane, then put the thermostat up all the way so that the 
furnace blower would run continuously.  Next step was to turn on the 
roof air heat strip and a small electric space heater on the floor.  
The idea was that the electric heaters would warm the air, which the 
furnace would then circulate down to the tanks and more evenly 
distribute thru the trailer.

The space heater had to run on the low wattage setting, otherwise the 
trailer's main breaker would trip.  Inside temperatures got down to 
the high 60's at night and nothing froze up.  I wouldn't want to do 
it that way again, but it's a good emergency strategy to keep in mind.

This trip was to a State Park in SW Ohio and there were no water hook-
ups.  I had already set up a 12 volt fan to circulate air thru the 
water pump compartment under the closet, to prevent condensation in 
colder weather.  This also probably kept the water pump from freezing 
up that weekend since that is otherwise dead air space.  You could 
set up a similar thing.

If you did find a place with water hook-ups year round, I have heard 
of people wrapping the hose and exposed campground piping with 
electric heat tape and insulation, like the way it's done for a 
mobile home.

You may already know this, but during any cool weather you need to 
open the roof vents just a little bit to keep excessive condensation 
from building up.

Christopher