3704bh in winter?
Hey everyone, so first of all I not new to the forum life, but definitely new to this one!
I recently purchased a 2012 3704bh, and can I say that I am most impressed by it! I have been living in it for around two months now. I am a single guy who works out of town a lot, but often has one or two guys staying with me. When I found this model it sold me right away. Being able to have two separate bedrooms with a shared half bath is awesome! I am a little disappointed in the entertainment center, mainly because there really isn't a nice layout for that. But it seems as if you either get a nice entertainment center, or you get a nice sleeping area. Never both.
The quality seems pretty fair in it, there are a few little minor things but nothing major. It is definitely better then some that I have seen.
Anyways I am looking at winter living in it, and of course I am living in AB Canada where we have pretty harsh winters. However I see LOTS of people that do it, so please keep the "don't do it" comments to yourself.
It has been hitting just below freezing the past couple nights, I have my 5er parked at an RV park where there are some other workers. It hasn't been cold enough to freeze the hoses running to the RVs but its close. Anyways, I have a 35k BTU furnace but it just doesn't seem to blow enough to the front and rear of the trailer. The two vents that are closest to the furnace are blowing nice HOT air. Now I don't have anything skirted in yet (mostly because of funds) but when winter really hits I will have that done. I think what is happening is because the furnace ducts are cheap exhaust dryer vent, I am getting to much heat loss before it ever hits the vent. It is blowing air just not warm. So I think what is happening is the vents closest to the furnace are closest to the thermostat. The ends of the trailer are "colder" so it keeps cycling on and off every 20 mins. The trailer is still warm but the furnace runs a LOT, doesn't really use much propane tho either. So I think most of what I am hearing is its cool off stage.
My question is are there any of you out there who have had this issue? If so how have you dealt with it? My thoughts are that this year instead of paying 4 grand for a skirt, I am just going to make my own with tarps and bails. I still want to be able to sit in just below freezing and still be comfortable tho. The underside of the trailer has a 1/4" plastic that are holding the vent ducts and a little bit of insulation stuck up in there. It is not much at all tho.
I have thought about purchasing some 1" polyboard insulation and gluing that in chunks to the plastic already installed. Of course this would be on the top of that plastic. That way that whole underside will be heated and I won't have that much heat loss from the vents, and the vents help keep the bottom warm. I have thought about sprayfoam, but with all my electric jacks and tank heaters I still think I want access to wires. I have thought about changing those vents out to insulated vents, but I think my polyboard is a better idea.
Any options on how to make this better for me? I know people have done it as I have seen them out in -40 still living. (they have big 400 pound propane pigs) This RV I am told is supposed to withstand to Canadian winters, it has the tank heaters, dual pane windows. It is supposed to have better insulated walls. Just wondering what people have done!
Thanks in advance!
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