Winter Camping

cruzinfools · 01-17-2012, 12:34 PM

We took the grandkids camping 2 weeks ago here in Iowa. Got down in the upper 20's had 2 heaters going and the furnace still came on. The wind did not blow all weekend. I had a 29RE before this and 1 ceramic heater kept up. The new 335SS is suppost to have better insulation,After this little trip I don't believe this. It was chilly in the camper all weekend. But won't stop me from going again. Going to do some insulating myself.

Chrisnan23 · 01-17-2012, 08:29 PM

We find that the drafts are the problem. Most of that comes from the windows, not that they leak but rather that the cold drops to the floor and creates a draft. We have installed insulated draps and that has helped a great deal. Also large empty areas are harder to keep warm as there is nothing to retain the heat.

dalemac377 · 01-17-2012, 11:33 PM

Don't forget that you are heating a larger interior in your new 5'er compared to your old one. More slides, more window area, etc. Have fun.

gossamar · 01-18-2012, 12:16 PM

Yep...much more room....you can also insulate some of the non-used windows with the bubble wrap stuff. Did that this summer due to the extreme heat we had...made a HUGE difference...

Boomer · 02-06-2012, 11:25 PM

Cruzin: Congrats on the new 335SS. I just bought a new 2012 335SS in the fall and I have found that the slides ( especially the living room and the kitchen slide) were not adjusted properly. IF I got my eye down to the floor I could see daylight under the kitchen slide, and all lower corners of both slides had air gaps ( not big but big enough for air and or a mouse, ants etc.) when either open or closed.

Had my slides adjusted by dealer and there is a big improvement.

BUT I am not satisfied yet - so once the weather improves I will be finishing the adjustment of the bedroom slide and installing additional sealing gaskets at most of the corners of all 3 slides.

I also think that while the walls are well insulated many parts of the coach could stand being sealed to prevent drafts etc. There have been other threads on this in the past.

Having said all that - it is a big space to heat and the one trip last fall amazed me on how much propane I consumed ( First trip - no space heater and slides were not adjusted).

NorskeNY · 02-08-2012, 08:29 AM

cruzinfools and Boomer - There is a fair amount of space to heat in a fifth wheel - the cruiser slanted roof helps some. Our madden trip last fall (mid November) was to Hershey PA and the temps were below freezing every night. We stayed at Hershey for 4 nights. Days were breezy.

I wanted to see how much propane the furnace would use so I did not open the valve on the spare tank. We ran the fire place heater when we were in the trailer and set the furnace thermostat to 70. At night we turned off the fireplace and adjusted the thermostat to about 64. When we were out during the day I adjusted the thermostat to 65. We emptied one tank before we headed home - woke up at 3:00 on the last the morning and it was 55 degrees in the trailer. Got out of bed and valved in the spare tank and warmed the trailer back up.

Boomer · 02-10-2012, 07:32 AM

NorskeNY:
My trip in the fall ( see above) ( mid October - Can Thanksgiving) I went thorough 1 tank in 3 night / days and it was not as cold as Cruzin's winter trip was. I was opening and closing slides alot to try and fix the seal issues I was having.

I will keep you posted - heading to Florida for 3 weeks late March and the first night in PA is typically cold.

tator447 · 02-13-2012, 06:41 AM

;ssamer, interested in just how you did that; with the bubble wrap I mean. How do you apply it to the windows and how big was the bubble-wrap...I know it comes in different sizes.

thanks,
Jim

gossamar · 02-13-2012, 12:40 PM

With the bubble wrap, I got one of those 4-foot tall rolls and started measuring and cutting. I did cheat the bedroom windows and cut the wrap about 1-inch bigger than the window and used some push tacks to hold in place along with the day/night shades. This also helped keep the light out as well.

JimmyCan · 03-07-2012, 02:07 AM

I took my 335SS from Texas to Alaska last April. I noticed that there is a strip a couple inches wide around the slides that doesn't seem to have much insulation and would create a cold draft just from convection. Once in AK and temps in the 30s, I had to fill a bottle about every 3 days. I stuffed pillows in the skylights but did nothing with the other window.
We hit the first spell of bad weather in Wyoming. First night in Wyoming was cold but not too bad. I had bought foam tube pipe insulators to fit my water hose and didn't get a water freeze. I had insulation that I stuffed around the hoses and cables where they came in to the underbelly and I think that helped a lot. I fought a head wind going west out of Cheyenne the next day and it was down in the 20's with blowing snow and 65mph winds. Got about 8 mpg instead of 15 that day and didn't make it out of WY. I kept the thermostat at 40 and the furnace kept the underbelly and inside above freezing.
Once we got north of central BC, there were no campgrounds open. A couple of places offered to let me plug in for $30/night, but wen opted to for motel rooms.
We decided against trying to spend an AK winter the Cruiser, a wise choice since it got down in the minus 20s most of Jan and there record snows.

JimmyCan · 03-07-2012, 02:08 AM

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Edited by: JimmyCan

JimmyCan · 03-07-2012, 02:13 AM

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JimmyCan · 03-07-2012, 02:13 AM

Sorry folks - I couldn't figure out how to get a picture in there....

Edited by: JimmyCan

tator447 · 03-07-2012, 02:16 AM

Jim,
Wow, that was quite an adventure you had, for the time of year you did it. I'm impressed, and as much as I want to head to Alaska (my goal is to visit all National Parks) I will definitely keep an eye on what time of year I head there. Although I live in WI I do have a son who lives in Portland, OR so I think when we plan our Alaska trip we will use Portland as our starting point while watching the weather in AK.

Jim

JimmyCan · 03-07-2012, 04:10 AM

Watch the weather Whitehorse, YT and Tok, AK. We camped for several weeks in TX while keeping keeping an eye on the weather. I used the weatherunderground.com site and put all my planned stops as favorites and checked the temps and forecasts everyday. Even then, things change. We went from TX to Seattle and spent a couple of weeks there. Having traveled the southern route on I-10 to I-5 a few years ago, we took the middle route to the northwest through Denver since it had been a good many years since traveling that way. Best stop along the route was the park at Mountain Home, ID, very well laid out, attractive, and really nice folks running it - highly recommended if anyone is ever traveling I-84.

We had no problem finding diesel along the Alcan, although there were places where it was pretty far between stations, we filled up whenever the tank dropped below half and never got below a quarter tank. The advantage of traveling that early in the season was the traffic - very light except in the few large towns we went through. In some places we had the road pretty much to ourselves. The last stretch of road before getting to Alaska is pretty bad. We stopped for lunch at Buckshot Betty's in Cache Creek(good food) and practically crawled to the AK border. Frost heaves really tear up the asphalt and the Canadians don't invest much in maintaining that stretch. When you get to the border, it's pretty smooth sailing although there are places where the pavement has heaved.

My wife says never again, but explain to her that we need to do it again because I missed several of the potholes...

It is an adventure, get yourself a copy of Milepost and do it, a fun trip and some beautiful scenery. I recommend early travel, maybe not April, but if you wait until it's too warm I've heard that it gets bumper to bumper - you'll be doing about a thousand miles on two lane roads.

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