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Old 11-21-2012, 08:14 AM   #1
reubenray
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Cold Weather Trip????

We will be taking our third trip in about 10 days to the Toledo Bend area (71449 zip code). The weather will be colder than our other trips. We live just outside of New Orleans where it does not get cold much. The long range forecast calls for the temps to be in the low 30's and the highs to be in the low 60's. So I have a few questions.

1) Will one full propane tank be enough for a 7 night trip? We have not run our furnace yet even though it was tested during the PDI. We will be using it this trip.

2) Do I need to be prepared for the smoke alarms going off being the furnace has not be used yet? Usually the oil burn off will set them off.

3) Will I need to do anything to prevent the pipes from freezing if the temps get down below freezing?
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Old 11-21-2012, 08:40 AM   #2
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I assume that you will be dry camping on this trip and will not have access to 110v.

I think a full tank should last 7 days BUT your furnace will probably get a good workout and; to be on the safe side, why not get the 2nd tank topped up so that you start out with 2 full tanks of propane?

To help with the furnace "oil burn-off", you can always light and run your furnace BEFORE you leave which should help with this possible issue.

When your furnace is running, a very small amount of warm air will find its way into some sections where your tanks and water lines are located but only when the furnace is on. You could try wrapping as much of the water lines with foam pipe insulation which would help somewhat. If you know where your water pump is located, leave the access panel off so that some of the interior heat can finds its way to the pump and the lines close to it.

When we camp in the cold, we use a Mr. Buddy (large size) propane heater during the daytime. It has a low-oxygen sensor and provides quite a bit of heat. The usual safety precautions regarding the use of these types of heaters need to be followed.
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Old 11-21-2012, 08:56 AM   #3
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It will have full hookups.
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Old 11-21-2012, 09:00 AM   #4
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In that case, you can disregard almost everything I said.
Should have asked that question before answering.
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Old 11-21-2012, 09:07 AM   #5
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In those degrees I normally warm up the RV first thing in the morning and then shut it off. I also have carried an electric heater if using full hookups and will turn it on to take the chill off. We have several blankets so we sleep warm, it is just the initial shock of cold in the mornning I take care of and during the day it should warm up enough to keep you cozy. I do like the electric heater and only use it when I am right there with it, for safety sake.

One time I had to leave the electric heater on during the night and I woke up to check on it off and on during the night and had it far from anything.
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Old 11-21-2012, 09:25 AM   #6
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Rubenray -

I don't think East Texas is supposed to be any colder than North Texas and Oklahoma. We are not expecting any freezing weather for the next couple of weeks. Now Festus2 gave some good advice. Down there in Pearl River, just open all the doors and windows and fire that furnace up by cranking the heat to its maximum. It will only take a few minutes of "burn" to clear out the oils and dust bunnies, then crank the furnace back down to "normal temperature". The fan will continue to run until the fire box is cooled. And your nose will tell you when to close up the windows.

When you get to East Texas, you will be ready for camping! It will probably be a little cool at night, but I doubt that the furnace will come on that much during the day, and only a few times at night.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving there in the Toledo Bend area!

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Old 11-21-2012, 11:34 AM   #7
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In order to fire up the furnace at home will I need to keep the camper hooked up to my truck to provide the power for the furnace fan? This info is most likely in the furnace paperwork, but that is in the camper and the camper is in storage. I plan on bringing the camper to my house to set it up for the trip the day before we leave. I will also need to check on my slides to see if they block the vents.
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Old 11-21-2012, 02:17 PM   #8
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Reubenray -

The furnace is all 12VDC, so if you have any battery charge, you are good to go. Now I can't speak specifically about your RV, but it does seem like Keystone prefers to run the floor heat vents down the center of the RV. So you will probably be fine with the slides in.

Now if the batteries are dead, then yes, truck power will be needed. Of course, you could fire the furnace at home while loading and air it out at the same time.

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Old 11-21-2012, 03:14 PM   #9
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The batteries should be good and that is the plan for now.
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Old 11-28-2012, 08:56 AM   #10
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Apparently running the refrigerator for about 12 hours (2 trips) does not use much propane. I went to get them filled and they said the tanks was full. The only other time we have used the propane was for some stove top cooking.
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Old 11-28-2012, 01:39 PM   #11
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So, how was the cold weather trip? I went this past weekend myself. The temperatures got down to 22! I was pleasantly surprised.


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Old 11-28-2012, 01:42 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by reubenray View Post
Apparently running the refrigerator for about 12 hours (2 trips) does not use much propane. I went to get them filled and they said the tanks was full. The only other time we have used the propane was for some stove top cooking.
You should be able to go for a month or more on a 30 lb propane tank if all you're running is the refrigerator. Cooking really doesn't use very much propane. There are about 22,000 BTU in a pound of propane. The normal stovetop burner is 5,000 BTU so you could run one burner "wide open" for about 4 hours and 20 minutes on one pound. That would give you roughly 130 hours of "one burner full time use" out of a 30 lb tank. As for the refrigerator, a 6cu ft Dometic has a 1,500 BTU burner (actually it's 1,500 on high and about 500 BTU on sustain) so essentially, the refrigerator should run on high for about 18 days on a 30 lb tank. Actually, it would most likely run on "maintain" after the first 4 or 5 hours, so realistically, you should get about 50 days of refrigerator use out of one 30 lb tank.

Most people will get around this amount of use, some more some less, depending on how they cook, how often they open and close the refrigerator, etc.

As for using the refrigerator for 12 hours and cooking on the stovetop for a meal or two, you should have used less than one pound of propane.

The next time you're concerned about how much propane is left in the tank, just sit it on a bathroom scale, look at the weight (around 55 lbs full) and subtract the "tare weight" that's stamped on the bottle. That will give you the weight in pounds left in the tank. Propane weighs ab out 4.3 lbs, so as an example, if you put the tank on the scale and it weighs 53 lbs, and the tare weight is 29.6 lbs, you'd subtract that and have 23.4 lbs of propane in the tank. That is about 5.4 gallons remaining in a 7.5 gallon tank (standard 30 lb tank)

As for furnace use, if you have a 35,000 BTU furnace (input BTU) it would use about 1.6 lbs of propane an hour. That would mean that if it ran continuously, it would use the full 30 lb tank in about 18 hours. However, most furnaces would likely run about 1/4th of the time, so you'd get roughly 72 hours or about 3 days on a full tank in pretty cold weather. I think most people will agree with that kind of being a guideline for propane use in cold weather.

I hope that kind of clears up the useage....
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Old 11-28-2012, 02:01 PM   #13
reubenray
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So, how was the cold weather trip? I went this past weekend myself. The temperatures got down to 22! I was pleasantly surprised.


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We are leaving on Sunday. I don't believe we will get that cold there per the forecast. Right now the lows are to be in the 50's. It was 29 a few nights ago.
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Old 11-28-2012, 02:09 PM   #14
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My unit maintained 68 degrees that night it was 22. I'm going to winterized my unit tomorrow. Enjoy the trip. I'm already anxious for spring!


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Old 11-28-2012, 05:02 PM   #15
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We just got back from a trip to Newport News, VA the weekend after Thanksgiving. It got down to around 36 on Friday and 26 on Saturday nights.

From our popup and HTT days, we use an electric heater as our primary source of heat, with the furnace set so it will come on if the electric heater can't keep up. We always had the furnace coming on a night in the popup and HTT, but I don't think it came on once during the night.

One thing I do to help protect against potential problems with the electric heater is make sure the area around the stove is clear of any flammable items and then put the heater on top, blowing out into the room and oscillating to push heat into both the front and back of the main room. I figure if the stove can handle the heat from the burners and oven, the heater shouldn't bother it considering it actually runs pretty cool. Plus, I've already paid for the electric, so why use the LP for heat?

I did a field winterization on Sunday just before we left in about 30 minutes.
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Old 11-28-2012, 05:02 PM   #16
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I will have to winterize mine again when we get back. I did it after our last trip, but we got a wild hair and here we are going again.
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