Year 'round(or at least winter)living in my Zinger

[stl_tl]

Hello all. I may be looking at a separation from my wife in the next month or so (no expressions of sympathy, etc., necessary, it is what it is) so I will need a place to live. Instead of paying big bucks to rent an apartment (along with the mortgage on our house!) I figure why not live in my Zinger 26BH that I'm already paying for along with a lot rental fee in a mobile home park? I've always been very comfortable in our Zinger andI imagine it would be less than renting an apartment. I've seen a few mobile home parks in the area that have travel trailers parked there. My question is, how viable of an option is this in the winter months? Is there anything I need to or should do to make my camper suitable for winter living? I live in southwest Ohio where winters can vary wildly from year to year. Last winter was almost non-existent butthis coming wintercould be more "typical" or worse, you just never know in the midwest. But even in a typical year you're usually only looking at 2-3 months, max, of what could be considered real winter weather. I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who has done this or has experience in winter TT living.

[DoubleVeteran]

I have some expereince with this. Back in 1981, my wife and 2 small children lived ina 31 foot Nomad fiver for a year in western Washington state near Olympia. I don't think the winters are as harsh there as in Ohio, but here's some things I learned about living in a TT during the winter.

1- We used two small electric space heaters (1200 watts each) for heat. We never had to turn on the propane furnace and it was a lot cheaper than heating with propane. You can probably get by on one 1500 watt and use your propane furnace on the coldest days. I've also heard that propane heat is a "wetter" heat, so using electric will help with my second point below.

2- In that small TT space, a lot of condensation will result. Open some windows or crack the top hatches occasionally (like for an hour or so each day) to let the moisture out. Air out the TT when you can on those warmer days ( > 40 deg F). Also open the cabinets and storage areas occassoinally as well...cold and moisture will build up there. Makesure you run those fan vents when you cook and take showers.

3- We didn't need it, but you may want to invest in some TT underpinning material to keep the cold and wind out from under the unit. Will help to keep the pipes/tanks from freezing, and the TT warmer.

4- We used heat tape (its a flat strip of electric wire that you plug in and wrap around pipes to keep them from freezing) and fiberglass insulation around the fresh water hose. Wrapped this in plastic to keep it from getting wet.

5-Don't drain your tanks until they are full, even tho you are on full hookups. Others may say different, but this worked well for us.

6- I believe the Zinger only has R-7 insulation all the way around, which may be what my old fiver had. If you have the polar package, you'll do better.

Hope this helps,
DV

Edited by: DoubleVeteran

[Hummer]

Thanks for the information. We are most likely needing to live in our Seville which has the polar package due to the sale of our house and not enough time to build.

[ewbldavis]

Trailer Life had a great article on winter living a couple months ago...maybe check out their website.

While being in Dayton makes some difference in winter from here in Canton, you will probably want to put skirting around the bottom and invest in heavy curtains for the windows to help keep cold out. hopefully this winter will be like last year and help you out alot!

[fhenn]

A neat trick we use, is we put bubble wrap over the windows, acts as good insulator

[Lloyd]

Unless you are in a climate that's "a lot" warmer then it is here where I live, I wouldn't even consider it.

[stl_tl]

Thanks for the pointers folks, good info to have.