Below Freezing temps Over The Road

[dogear]

Going from Lead, SD to Aberdeen, SD on Monday and the temps will be below freezing the whole trip. Do I need to run the plumbing bay heat whilst running down the road? Cheers........JR

[Pete]

ABSOLUTELY!

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Well it seems like you might as well run the bay heat, since you are thinking about it and are aware of it on the coach. Now if you didn't know it was there and or forgot to turn it on, I don't think you would have a problem when you are running along.

JIM

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Jim, Accepting advice from a Vision and a Liberty owner may not be the best thing. Not that these guys give bad advice, but because their advice may be in the context of how their coach is set up.

I haven't studied my present Liberty with respect to bay heat, but on the previous coach which spent 10 years traveling in cold winter weather, sometimes as low as minus 20F I had a clear understanding about whether I needed bay heat. In the case of that bus the answer was I didn't have to do anything because heat in the living area was also diverted into the bay.

I have a heat exchanger in the water bay on my current bus, however I have not looked to see how it is regulated. It may function the same as in the previous bus by heating the bay when the Webasto is working or when the bus engine is running. I also have a thermostatically controlled electric heater that is controlled in my 120V electric panel.

Your Vantare may be set up different than my Liberty, jim's Liberty, or Pete's Vision. It also may be set up different than other Vantare's so it might be safest for you to get advice from a Vantare owner or expert, and then verify that information. Usually I am not so dubious about advice here, but if you start feezing in your water bay and various components bust it can very expensive.

As a FWIW comment the best protection against freezing is a warm water holding tank. I used to keep a 500 watt cube heater aimed at the water holding tank on our first bus when it was parked. That heat output over time warmed up the mass of the water in the tank to 50 degrees or so and despite some bitter cold periods nothing ever froze because that 130 or so gallons of water kept the bay from freezing.

[dogear]

Thanks to all. Got a friend who drives for NASCAR, maybe he can shed some light here as well. I have noticed that whilst running in temps which are cold but not freezing the plumbing bay stays pretty warm without heat. Am assuming this is heat from the radiator which sits just in back of left side plumbing bay. This bay on the Vantare has the choice of a diesel heater or electric. There is another plumbing bay on the right side of the coach which has only electric heat. Both electric services have circuit breakers. Cheers everyone

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Your bay inside temperatures should not be influenced by the heat from the engine or the engine radiator. However if you have a hot water heater that uses engine coolant for a source of heat to supplement the electric heat then it is probable while driving you are going to get some heat in the water bay from that and the pipes leading to it.