Winter Travelling Arctic Pak

[fclark00]

Hi All,

I just upgraded from a class c forester to a 2018 Georgetown 369 XL DS with the Artic Pak. My wife and I want to take a trip from DC to Denver in November to visit her sister for Thanksgiving. I was wondering if anyone had any personal experience with the artic pak? Will I be able to use the fresh water tanks and water pump as well as bathrooms if I have it on when the temp is around freezing or below? Does it only have heaters on the tanks or on the plumbing as well? Also are the tanks and lines pretty well insulated from the cold? I've searched all over this site and others and everyone has different opinions. I was wondering if anyone had any personal experience with the artic pak in cold temps? Were there any issues or anythings to look out for?

Thanks,
Fred

[Walte1fr]

If you look at your tank drains there are small heaters on your grey and black pipes. I think with that switch on you can use anything.

[sdowning]

We used ours in 30 degree weather with snow on the ground for a long weekend and had no problems. Now, I did wrap my water hose with black insulation outside so the water coming in didn't freeze. You can also use heat tape on the line around the insulation for Extra Protection.

[jimpacker]

I've used mine a couple of times during a hard freeze, no problems with the tanks or plumbing inside the wet bay. The insulated water line outside was frozen solid but inside was good. FYI, during that week I used a full tank of propane to heat the motorhome.

[tandem54]

I've used mine more than a couple of times during a freezing trip to Wisconsin in November, no problems with the tanks or plumbing inside. If you look under the coach there should be foam insulation on the underside for the cold (included when they add the Arctic Pak I think) As far as I know they only turn on under 40 degrees.

[fclark00]

Thanks for all the replies. I feel a little better now. I'm going to be parked outside of my sister in laws house with no shore power just battery and generator. Does anyone have any idea how long the batteries can power the artic pak or will I need to run the generator for the entire time. I'll be there 5 days.

[Dano1955]

Just fire up the gen for a couple of hours every morning around 2 a.m. to charge the batteries [emoji3]

[BobHanke]

If you have reducers to run a normal heavy duty extension cord from an outlet where you visit, it will be enough to handle the artic pack, maintain battery charge and run the furnace if needed.

[gordonsick]

Originally Posted by fclark00

Thanks for all the replies. I feel a little better now. I'm going to be parked outside of my sister in laws house with no shore power just battery and generator. Does anyone have any idea how long the batteries can power the artic pak or will I need to run the generator for the entire time. I'll be there 5 days.

On my Berk, I seem to recall that the battery draw goes up by about 5 or 7 amps when I turn on the Tank Heat Switch. If you have a 400 amp hour battery setup, count on 200 amp hours of practical usage.

The more important issue for me is that the Tank Heater is basically useless for warming up the water in the tank. You've got less than 100 Watts to heat a tank with about 80 gallons of water. Now, my problem may be that I am usually getting cold mountain water in the Fall and Spring, so tap water is quite cold.

One solution that I have developed, but not fully tested, is to connect a hot water line to the tank fill. Since the Berk has a water manifold bay, it just takes a spare fitting to get hot water and a short hose to connect it to the tank fill. I can run this setup for a while with the bay door closed.

Another solution is to put an interior car heater in the bay that holds the tanks. They pull 800 to 1000 watts. I haven't tested this extensively, but it does require shore power or a generator to be running. I'm planning to install an extra plug in my basement, under the kitchen, so that I can run a power cord to the water bay next door. This will let me run the water heater all night.

BTW, if you are camping in the cold, you should fill your water tank and then disconnect and drain the fill hose. Otherwise you risk freezing your hose, and, worse, the connection at the source. This does let you use a tank heater or other setup to bring the water to a reasonable temperature.

And, I agree with the earlier poster that camping in cool weather goes through a lot of propane. The furnace uses far more propane than our stove, BBQ and hot water heater. A week would probably be about right, as he says, assuming that you have a large built-in propane tank.

–Gordon

[HookupAndGo]

We actually used our travel trailer up in the mountains where it was well below freezing for a week. As others have said, keep your fresh water topped off (more volume helps to maintain the temp) and disconnect your outside hose.

Also, like the others, run an extension cord, it will greatly help and save your batteries. Plus, you can put a small space heater inside the RV to help conserve some of the propane.

It was so cold the year we were in the mountains for the week that we actually had ice cycles hanging from the frames INSIDE the RV. The arctic pac worked really well for us. Others with us had a little bit more of a problem.

Man, that was a great trip!

[fclark00]

Guys, thanks so much for the replies. I will definitely try to run the gen or get some reducers. I didn't even know they existed.

[allanrhamilton]

Last winter we discovered that the arctic pack on our 2017 2860 Sunseeker Motorhome only works when batteries at a high charge level. An electric heater saves propane (shore or generator) but you need to run the furnace to heat the water filter and other areas where piping is underneath. The black and grey valves were a little bit slushy (frozen). Must not have enough heat to hold the temp. We travelled in February from Washington to Newfoundland. Winterized in Washington at -4 C and continued to use grey and black with water jugs. Furnace would have need to run constantly to avoid fresh water freezing.