Quote:
Originally Posted by Festus2
ktmracer:
Almost all of the above "improvements" seem focused on keeping the interior of the RV warm and toasty. Now, what steps have been taken to protect both the tanks and the water lines. The tanks are housed in the underbelly and a sizeable length of water lines are in exterior storage compartments or in other unprotected areas.
Unless the underbelly is protected with adequate amounts of properly placed insulation and all the openings are sealed to prevent outside air from penetrating into the opening, I am left to wonder about how effective is "direct heat to the underbelly". Having direct heat is great as long as this heat arrives in sufficient quantity, is not diluted with cold air making its way into the underbelly and has enough insulation to make it effective.
Sorry, I just can't buy Keystone's claim that the West Coast newer models are good to 0 degrees F. Have they found a way to keep the tanks and water lines from freezing? Run the furnace 24/7? Place heaters in compartments?
I think that the "answer" Bob got from Keystone pretty much sums it up..... "use your own judgment". Real comforting.
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to clarify. the frame rails in the underbelly are insulated as well as insulation above(on) the coreplast on the west coast package. so the underbelly has substantially more insulation than the outback/keystone "polar package". How good who knows?
What I can say is that with my mod punching 1/2" dia holes in the floor vent pans, our outback underbelly stays at interior temps. We camp when nighttimes are in the 15F range and above freezing during the day. Haven't had any issues. But IMHO that's about the limit for the trailer. much lower and the furnace is going to be running all the time. When it is 15F at night, the interior thermostat is set for 45F and the underbelly sits at 45F as well, checked it with a remote temp sender to see if I was in trouble.
so... I believe that with the changes in the cougars, including better insulation for the underbelly it should be a substantial improvement. Still not 4 season IMHO, but a much much better 3 season.