HELP/ADVICE FOR TEMPORARY BAYS WARMING WHILE PARKED IN EXTREME COLD

[NashXL]

12/8

Hi All,

If anyone can lend some helpful advice, what I need is this. Is is expected to be 5, 4 then 3 degrees here (true temp; before wind chill or feels like) this week at night. The XL CC is tucked in its garage but not heated. I have not winterized. I do have the RV anti freeze which I can put some down the traps and toilet. I have some water on board (30 gals?) which I cannot drain where I am parked. So my question is I've purchased two trouble lights to hang in the bays to provide an extra measure so protection for the water. Where would be the best places to hang the lights? After 21 years in Tampa I am in unchartered water (or ice!). Thanks if you can help.

Sincerely,

Doug
NashXL
1999 Country Coach XL

[Joe Camper]

Heck Doug U know your conversion best.

Don't get the light bulbs?? What about MR aquahot or webasto. Please explain.

I think I would buy some small electric heaters instead of bulbs. Keep the cabin warm open all the lower cabinate doors. If U cant keep the cabin warm and R parked start the bus and run it on high idle till its good and toasty once or twice a day. U need to stay ahead of that or U will be sorry. Good luck

[Joe Camper]

I reread the post . U R stored inside with I assume have 1 20amp circuit to plug into. No place to get empty cant run the furnace inside. Right? U better get some heaters and possibly pull it out so u can run your furnaces whatever they R for a certain amount of time in certain intervals as nessessary. Better living on board right now than stored.

[NashXL]

It is illegal to run either type of bus furnace system in an enclosed garage. All posted and would cost me my garage lease. Chances are the garage will not drop below freezing but $20 for a couple of lights is an easy extra measure. A portable ceramic heater (I have one) will run continously and uses a lot of electricity. It will never cycle off because the minimum set temp is 50 and it will not get there in the large space of the cabin. Light bulbs throw off a lot of heat in a contained space and use little.

[Joe Camper]

OK sounds like U R comfortable with bulbs cant tell U exactly where to place them. Use best judgment good luck.

[jetart]

Don't forget about any water you have in the house side of the conversion. Can you run a electric heater in the coach? If so - maybe open up any cabinets that have water lines in them (under sinks, etc) in hopes they won't freeze. Good idea to dump antifreeze down all drains to fill the traps (including the shower, dishwasher & clothes washer, etc....)

Good luck!

[Gil_J]

Doug,

I assume there's no where to dump the fresh water...not good. You said you have antifreeze for the water system. So, here's what I do. Turn on the fresh water and run it down to a level that will leave you only enough water that that quantity can be protected with the antifreeze you have and at least 30 gallons of water. Next, add the anti-freeze. Now, turn on each fresh water faucet until they run pink. Do the water dispenser in the fridge after the faucets. Next turn on ice maker and let it make ice. Next, do the same with the hot water faucets. It will take a while to get pink flow from the hot water heaters as they need to displace all the water in them. Hook up your hose to the city water inlet. Use an air compressor set to no more than 40 psi and hook it to the hose. They make an adapter for this, but you don't have time to get one if you don't have one. Without a way to connect the air compressor to the water hose will only make the process a bit longer. With one faucet on at a time, blow air through the lines. Blowing air clears the short city water line between the inlet and water system and blows most of the pink stuff through. That way, even if the anti-freeze protected water freezes it won't burst the lines. When you are done, leave all faucets open to reduce pressure in the case of freezing.

Place the light bulb behind the cover in the water bay. These get hot so don't let it touch anything. You gray tank now has antifreeze in it and it generally takes a lot to freeze black water. If you'd like, you can protect the black tank too. It has a little pink stuff from flushing the toilet. Add more pink stuff directly into the toilet. if you don't have enough, that's okay. Put the cover on the black/gray water discharge. Hopefully it seals well. Open the gray water tank valve and make sure it does seal. If it does, and it should, open the black tank valve. This will combine the water in each tank protecting both. When it comes time to dump, close both gray and black tank valves. Now the ugly part. Slowly remove the cap and realize this could result in a small amount of solids coming out--not good.

If you can pick up a couple of the oil filled electric radiator heaters, they would be good inside the coach. Most have a low setting and most have thermostats that go down to about 40-45 degrees. If you have a block heater, you may want to use it. Once the engine block is warm it will provide a lot of warmth for the surrounding areas.

Good luck and stay warm!

[Denny]

Not sure about your garage as to size, insulation, regulations, etc and you said can't run bus furnace. What about a torpedo heater with a thermostat? Before I heated my barn I used one for a short time and it worked great. If the garage is even semi insulated it would not take too much to keep it above freezing. Sure would beat winterizing.

[garyde]

A commercial heat gun( hair dryer) will do the trick, with a 120 volt t stat, set it on low fan and set the t stat to 45 degrees. It will keep your whole water bay warm enough.

[NashXL]

Thanks all for the suggestions. I'm just obsessing. Building is very well built and insulated. Even on the coldest nights the day highs will be upper 20's so the heat soak to the building12541should make it warm enough. I'll still take some of the extra measures suggested to be safe. It's 50 miles over and back on snow-icy roads from my home so want to do once and know I'm good!

[Joe Camper]

Your concerns R absolutely justified. U need to give your bus close attention right now.

Gills post was great for those of U who have never had to winterize your bus. Lots of clever things he suggested to those who have.

[Barney]

Sounds like plenty of experienced guys have told you all you need to know. My two cents is if you don't winterize with chemicals you
are depending on the power staying on. Which has some risk, whereas with the antifreeze method is a little more fail safe.
good luck

[Joe Camper]

A mistake I made coming back north 1 winter. Ya know U try to get as far north as U can before emptying everything out, get that last shower. Well the temps dropped off very quickly one year and I found myself in indy and well below freezing, well below. I hit the switches and opened all the low point drains and let them drain while I went and bought some antifreeze. When I got back and went to air up the waterlines and blow some antifreeze into things and tried to close all those valves they were frozen open I could not get them closed.

[lbriant]

Pull that baby to the nearest walmart Parking lot turn on the aquahot on and the bay heats and let it take care of itself it will be over soon but you sure don't want to freeze up, I am in a park but never use my electric heat just run the auqahot at night saves tons on electric,

[Joe Camper]

I think camping and using these campers thru cold weather is fun. Storing them for cold weather is not. 2 completely different topics too.

[lbriant]

I only use car antifreeze for the drains in my old camper, My bus would only get heated bay if I were not living in it as I am now, Car antifreeze you cant drink but its just going into your black and grey tanks and it is designed to keep rubber seals plyable which should help any seals in your bus also I would think, I always left my toilet 1/2 full and the seal would not dry out over the winter the rv antifreeze just barely works one time my dad had a jug in his garage left over after doing his rv and it was frozen not real hard but you definitely don't want to mix it with water,

[lbriant]

On another note I wonder it you had plugged your bus into 110 plug shut off everything including the chargers and just run the electric aqua hot if you could run it without blowing the breaker do you have a 15 or 20 amp?
Then turn it up on high and leave your door on your coach open remember you just need to stay above 32 maybe you could knock the chill off the bay you are in, My aqua hot will roast me outs here ,,,,
I don't know just trying to think outside the box ??????

[lbriant]

I could not think about winterizing my coach with chemicals there is always a chance of some little condensation collecting somewhere you couldn't reach without tearing out a wall or something, With three refridgerators and a bulk Ice maker and three different sinks not counting the outside water station too much to fathom I only used heated storage with a 50 amp plug in and my heaters set for around 40 deg, if there was a power failure at the facility and it didn't have its own back up Generator The bus would definitely kill any mice in the storage bay eventually when the generator kicked in to save the day .)

[NashXL]

12/10

Hi All,

I went over yesterday before our next wave of snow last night (it did come) and really cold temps starting tomorrow for a couple of days. I went ahead and fired everything up, backed out and dumped the water probably about 40 gal (1/4 tank). I cleared all the lines and emptied the water heater too. The grey and black were already empty and cleaned. I pulled back in using the bus heat to heat soak the bus and bays. Put RV anti freeze into the fresh and pulled through the kitchen sink, bath sink, shower and outside faucet. Poured more into the drains as well as the toilet for the black tank. Could not easily get the filter cover off in the cold so will have to put a new filter in to get rid of the sweet taste of this stuff when we go back to using water. Should be good even if the power goes off due to downed lines from snow, ice or just cold. Not sure the garage would get below freezing anyway. Left the garage lights on for a little more heat and have a Pelonis ceramic heater next to the bus set at 45 blowing warm air across the bottom of the bays keeping everything warm.

[dale farley]

Doug, I don't see how anything can freeze in your bus. If it does, it won't be a result of any negligence on your part.

[Joe Camper]

Just in for those who have an Instahot removing it is a convienent way to protect that. Also on the ice maker for the fridge I used to loosen the fitting on the plastic line on the solenoid that goes up to the tray and allow it to gravity out. It was a good alternative to pumping pink into the ice maker and if U have a inline filter don't let filters freeze take it out.

If u can not access it it would be something to think about adding the next time u pull the fridge that is what I did.


If U have a U-line ice maker they R also not hard to pull forward or out. Once U learn the dance its a hr or 2 maybe even for the more complex conversions

[JIM KELLER]

Thanks all for the suggestions. I'm just obsessing. Building is very well built and insulated. Even on the coldest nights the day highs will be upper 20's so the heat soak to the building12541should make it warm enough. I'll still take some of the extra measures suggested to be safe. It's 50 miles over and back on snow-icy roads from my home so want to do once and know I'm good!

Doug, Is that a Florida plate on your Bus ?

[NashXL]

Yes Jim. Its a transfer that I keep using since you buy then own your plates in Florida. Vanity plate that came off a ZO6 Corvette so I am sure it confuses car guys!
Doug

[Gary Carmichael]

I will be spending Jan and Feb at the State Fairgrounds in Raliegh, does not get below 15 usually plan on letting the webasto do the work of keeping the bays and interior warm, probably get fuel every two weeks just in case of a power loss, that way I should be good to go with the gen and webasto, Gary

[jetart]

Here is how I winterize my water system.

I have a water heater bypass pipe that connects my cold water "in" pipe to my hot water "out" pipe (so I can drain it) yet still have a closed system to run RV antifreeze through all the lines. I drain my fresh water tank and disconnect the tank from the pump. I have a special "straw" that connects to the pump. I draw RV antifreeze right out of the bottle (from the straw) until all hot and cold water faucets, shower, washer, dishwasher, etc.. run pink. Make sure the grey and black tanks are empty then dump RV antifreeze down each of the traps and some down the head. Winterizing done! Takes about 15 min to winterize my water system.