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Old 01-25-2013, 11:35 AM   #21
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I have a Bionaire space heater from Wal Mart ($37) and it works great. The beauty of this unit is the whole grill face oscillates to distribute the heat evenly. The thermostat is pretty accurate too. I leave the furnace on about 72 because the space heater throws off the accuracy. During this cold spell we never had temps below 65 overnight. I forgot to mention we have never used our mattress heater. Not even in single digit weather. Don't think I would try it now. I'm about 200lbs and my side of the 3" mattress already has my body imprint in it possibly interfering with the heating elements. I have put a 4" memory foam topper and then a 2" imitation down fill mattress protector on for comfort and all of that keeps your body heat really well. Condensation on the windows wasn't much of a problem until we got down to 15 or so. I keep a towel handy and wipe it up in the morning which keeps it under control.
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Old 01-27-2013, 12:28 AM   #22
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I backpack here in the Smokies in the winter. The key to cold weather camping is layering with synthetic materials and having a good sleeping bag rated to 20 degrees or less. I took my kids backpacking on the Appalachain Trail two days after Christmas staying in the shelters in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The over night lows in the shelter were 17 degrees F. I could only dream of sleeping in a warm camper at 50. Point is some really nice polarmax thermal underwear and a nice mummy bag can make a cold night warm in a tent or camper or back country shelter. We enjoy winter camping almost as much as summer camping.
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Old 03-02-2013, 01:35 PM   #23
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Thanks everyone for your advice. Thought I'd give an update on our trip north from San Francisco up the 101 during freezing night time conditions.

Not only did we survive, we enjoyed every minute of it AND stayed toasty warm. We have a 4 year old, a 2 year old and a 3 month old baby and my wife was super concerned about the temps before we left. I purchased a Mr. Buddy Heater and packed an extra extension cord and splitter so that we could run two small electric heaters simultaneously. Turns out, after a 10 day trip, we'd only used one tank of propane despite the night temps ranging from 30-35 degrees. We only stayed in campgrounds with electrical hookups, obviously. It turned out to be a great trip, the kids loved it and the wife didn't complain about the cold once.

I'm not exactly sure how to post a picture, but you can see our adventure by clicking here. We started in San Francisco and followed the 101 north to Washington and then came down through Portland on the 5.
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Old 03-02-2013, 09:51 PM   #24
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We're waiting on our new Roo 17 to come in. However, for the last 15 years we've regularly camped in the mountains above 8,500' in our popup tent trailer commonly below freezing. It's almost always dry camping. We go through about 4 gal of propane and almost two 12 volt batteries on a cold weekend. We sleep in 20 degree rated sleeping bags and turn on the heater before we get out of the sack in the morning. We've never had lines freeze, but I can't say why. The mass of water in the fresh water tank is probably enough that it doesn't freeze under the camper. In campgrounds with hookups, we use an electric blanket and run the heater more. Can't wait to get our Roo.
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