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Old 01-18-2020, 06:56 PM   #1
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Red face Mis-adventures Winter Camping Adventure

Warning: don’t do what I did; rather, learn from my mistakes.

2019 DX3 37TS

I thought it would be fun to take the family to Colorado last weekend to go skiiing in Vail/Breckenridge. I left picked up my MH out of storage, filled the water tank and hit the road.

The temperature when I left was about 25 degrees. My biggest fear was the roads. It turns out, that the MH does incredibly well on various winter road conditions. There are some limitations though, more on that later.

The first issue was that the kids in the living room complained they were too cold. At the RV Park in Breckenridge, I investigated and found out that my heater (Aqua Hot 400D) wasn’t running in the living room. After a couple hours of troubleshooting I found that there were some wires that appeared disconnected on the Aqua Hot Electrical Conrol Panel. I found two sets of blue wires. I decided to connect them all to Therm 0 and Therm 1 for Zone 1 and Therm 0 (still connected) and Therm 1 for Zone 2.

I finally got heat going at 1 am. At this point, the coach was at 54 degrees but the kids were sleeping with lots of blankets. By morning, the coach had only come up to 58 degrees in the living room. It was also 0 degrees outside.

Conversely, it was a nice 68 degrees in the bedroom. The heat had been running nonstop but couldn’t catch up in the living area. I also discovered that one of the cozy fans under the fridge (LP) had become disconnected and was able to fix that.

I went to go fill up our water tank to no avail. The lines in the wet bay were frozen solid. So, I decided to hit the road to Vail and deal with that later.

I started the MH with the help of the coach batteries (only got one strong crank out of the chassis batteries). It ran for 20 seconds and then died. I tried this a few more times and then called a friend. He told me to plug in the engine and go to the parts store and buy some Diesel 911. My diesel had gelled.

A couple hours later I got was back at the MH ready to pull my first diesel fuel filter and fill it up with Diesel 911. However, I noticed that it wasn’t foggy any longer and so I decided to try to start the MH one more time. It ran perfectly. I added some stabilizer to the tanks and was on my way.

Back on the road, people complained that the heat wouldn’t turn off and the back bedroom was 78 degrees. After some more troubleshooting I learned that only one wire in the set needed to be connected and the common was elsewhere. So, I disconnected the second Therm 1 wire for zone 1 and zone 2.

By this time, I had purchased a couple of space heaters. The small one for the wet bay kept acting up and unfortunately, never unthawed my pipes there. I wasn’t able to ever get water into the MH because of it. One thing I would do is move the water line from the hose reel to the top of the bay, rather than its current location on the bottom of the bay at the coldest part.

We did manage to get a few hours of skiing in and after all this it was still worth it. We started making our way home.

Once home I didn’t think twice when our street had snow on it but didn’t consider the factor of the hill (up until now I hadn’t slipped at all). The MH didn’t stop and I slowly slid. It was terrifying. I finally got it to a stop about half way down and put on the brake. But that brake isn’t for all 4 wheels so it started sliding again.

My foot literally started shaking as I held down on the brake to lock all 4 wheels and barely hold our position. I had my son dump a bunch of ice melt under the back wheels and eventually was able to get the coach to hold with just the back brakes. I went go disconnect my wrangler and it was dead. Ice had built up in the connector and it wasn’t charging on the way home. I got that jumped and pulled off and then had to figure out how to get the MH out of there.

By this time the sheriff showed up because I was causing too much ruckus at 10 pm. Luckily, he was pretty cool and suggested I back up the hill rather than slide down. I had read good things about autosocks and bought those instead of chains. They went on very easily. I locked my differential and slowly backed up the steep hill with the help of the sheriff guiding me (you can imagine my rear camera was unusable because it was so dirty).

The next day, I went to go dump and the Sanicon wasn’t running. I tried to figure out why it didn’t have power but still have not. I went to go winterize it again and couldn’t get prime. Apparently, there must have been some ice in the line and it must have destroyed the impeller at some point on the trip.

I learned a ton on this trip but also have a bunch of stuff I need to address.

* Always keep the coach plugged in
* Always run stabilizer in the fuel during the winter
* Have secondary heat sources available (good large space heater)
* I need to insulate my wet bay (open to suggestions) and move my water line to the top of the bay
* I need to figure out how to turn my tank heaters on. I don’t see a switch anywhere as the manual states or on the Precision Plex screen menu
* Blowing out the water lines doesn’t cut it for winterization, you also need to pour antifreeze in the drains because the p-traps have water
* I need to figure out what those extra wires are on the aqua hot panel. It still kicks off after a long period of time and won’t come back on. I might have a bad board.
* I need to add a zone to the wet bay so it has heat
* I need to figure out how to get the sanicon working again so I can dump
* I need to add more cozy’s to the living room, the 6 that are there are under the fridge (4) and opposite the fridge on the galley side (2). That’s not near enough to keep the living room warm. Has anyone added some more in the living room?

Fun times!
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Old 01-18-2020, 08:42 PM   #2
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At least the kids will have a lot to talk about in class.
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Old 01-18-2020, 09:52 PM   #3
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I run an electric heater in front by the cab, helps out a lot.
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Old 01-18-2020, 10:38 PM   #4
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Whew. At least you made it home safely and kept your cool.
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Old 01-19-2020, 11:24 AM   #5
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Heh feel your pain on a lot of those fronts. I had a similar learning experience.

I'm actually in Tahoe now, and while the temps aren't near as cold its a good test run before we head to Breack for 2 weeks. A couple more thoughts on your ordeal:

1. a space heater in the cab makes all the difference to combat heat loss up there especially with the lack of cozys up there. I'm impressed you gained degrees overnight that first night. I usually wake up to it under 60 when its that cold and not running the space heater.

1a. If youre going to do this alot check out the dyson combo fan/heater. Like everything dyson its a painful buy but man it works great and serves as a fan in the summer.

2. Once your wet bay is froze it takes a lot of heat to get it going (speaking from experience). A space heater running for 3-4 hrs was what mine took.

3. Since I've rewired a thermostat in the wet bay its been doing better, but while monintoring temp by the hose reel there was still a large discrepancy from where the aqua hot puts out the heat. I did buy a small heater for down there and added and outlet so we can run it while driving. What's made the most difference though has just been running the heater in fan mode to keep air circulating. That's resulted in steady 40 degree temps on the bin floor by the reel and a very warm and toasty bathroom. Lows have only been in the lower 20s so Breck will be the real test.
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Old 01-19-2020, 11:25 AM   #6
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Oh and just be glad the utility transformer didnt blow at 3 am when it was -15!

Even when you think you're prepared things can still go sideways
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Old 01-19-2020, 11:29 AM   #7
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Oh here's my post as well

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...es-167927.html
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Old 01-19-2020, 03:31 PM   #8
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extreme temps

I want to thank you guys for posting this info. I also found that hanging a blanket backed with reflectix from the bunk cuts down space in the front cab area. I'm also going to test leaving the front slide on the sunny side in, or both during extreme temps. Should help.
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Old 01-20-2020, 12:41 AM   #9
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Thanks for the tips! For your wet bay space heater, where did you plug in? We tripped an afci breaker in the living room because we had the space heater there plus ran an extension cord from the wet bay to the opposite side where there is a plug in the bay. Apparently they are on the same circuit.

For the cab, where are you pulling power from?
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Old 01-20-2020, 09:48 AM   #10
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For the cab I have a short black 6' extension cord that I drop out of the AV cabinet. It's on the same circuit as the fridge and they dont interfere. If you use the one under the dinette or in the kitchen you have to be real careful as they're all on the same circuit. No heat during coffee making. 2nd choice is really the ones on the bed as they share the circuit with the bathroom one we never use.

For the wet bay you can either just run an extension cord to the pedestal and use the 20A circuit there, or if like me want to be able to do it while driving will have to add an outlet. I added on on the circuit for the bathroom/bed since it was so under utilized so I don't ever have issues. One word of advice though: dont add a GFCI outlet to a GFCI breaker. They wont play nice.
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Old 01-22-2020, 10:33 AM   #11
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Thanks for the tips!

Question: I’m not getting power to my Sanicon. Does anyone know where that fuse is located? I pulled all the fuses on the power bay fuse block but they’re all ok. Also, checked the precious Plex panel.
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Old 01-22-2020, 10:55 AM   #12
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All good lessons. Thanks for sharing.

One item I would mention for your wet bay is not just a heater but heat tape as well. It will require 120v power but would keep you from freezing up and it only turns on when freezing. I know they make 12v heating pads but not sure about heat tape.

Also may want to check your plumbing for leaks before letting it sit with water pressurized. You may have a few smaller areas.

Happy camping!
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Old 01-23-2020, 08:39 AM   #13
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OK, I was whining about not having a jacket last trip out, in 30 degree weather.
Kudos to you, you're a hardy bunch.
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Old 02-10-2020, 09:12 PM   #14
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I’ve been living in my little a frame for about a month at 8000ft in the mountains in northern New Mexico.
With four dogs.
We are in the process of building a house or at least will be come spring time.
The coldest it’s been so far is 0° one night last week.
The furnace works well and uses about 20lbs of propane a week depending on the outside temp.
I drained and winterized the water system before it got to freezing temps so I use a couple of six gallon jugs for household use. My daughter lives not far away so I shower there and do laundry too. The head is up the hill. That’s a challenge at 9° I can tell you.

The best thing ever put in a camper is the heated mattress that comes standard in this Forest River A frame.
I can keep warm in bed and keep the furnace set at 65°.
I was born in Canada so 65° is pretty warm as long as I keep my sweater on.

Before winter I put 2” foam insulation all the way round the bottom of the camper and that too makes a big difference. The dogs dish doesn’t freeze on the floor anymore.

I wouldn’t recommend this for everyone but for this 61 year old guy it’s not a bad life.

I went from living in a house that backed onto the freeway to a place where I can hear the coyotes almost every night and the birds almost every day.
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