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Winter in a Cougar, one morning at -4 degrees!
My nephew bought a new Cougar 19RBWE trailer at end of June 2016 and moved it out to north central Washington. He was away from home and wife and needed a place to live while he worked a construction job. During the summer months he ran the air conditioner regularly without any problems staying cool in the hot weather.
Around October he noticed the folks that were going to be living in the RV Park for the winter were having 100-gallon propane tanks delivered and set up next to their trailers so he chose to rent one as well (this was one of the best decisions he said he made). Mid December the water pipe he had connected to froze up due to faulty heat tape. At this time he disconnected his water hose and pressure regulator from the RV park spigot as the park host thawed the pipe. When he reattached his water hose (with heat tape on it) he neglected to include the pressure regulator, big mistake! Although he enjoyed higher water pressure while showering, the lack of that regulator caused the pipe just inside the trailer to begin to leak. The leak didn't cause any damage but it was an inconvenience, as he had to replace the pipe and dry out that area. During the extreme cold temps he set the thermostat at 70 and hoped for the best. The person next to him used an electric space heater to save on propane, this turned out to be a bad idea! The electric heater caused his furnace to not come on therefore not circulating any heat in the small space under the floor where the ductwork and water lines run resulting in a complete freeze up.
As the temps began to dip down into the sub zero range his furnace had to work harder and harder. He would wake in the morning to find his pillow frozen to the wall, his clothes frozen to the walls inside the little closets and the windows frozen with a thick layer of ice on them. He also had a problem with the holding tank valves freezing shut so he decided to skirt his trailer with 3/4" foam insulation board and placed a heat lamp under the trailer, he knew he should have done this much earlier. To avoid frozen clothes he would leave the closet doors open and to keep ice from forming on the windows he placed multi purpose foil on the inside of them (this is the stuff that looks like foil lined bubble wrap). Although he had two dehumidifiers there still seemed to be a small condensation problem. He asked a few people how to avoid this and was told to leave the vents slightly open but with the temperature near zero and a constant wind of 20+ mph he found it counter productive to keeping the trailer adequately heated.
Over all if you are going to use your Cougar trailer in the types of cold temperatures that my nephew found you are going to have to make a few modifications but after those are made you will find a warm and comfortable place to live.
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2012 Cougar TT, 24RKSWE, 27'
2012 Tundra 4.6V8, 2wd, dbl cab
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