345 full time during winter?

[Cameron1976]

How do you handle living full time during the winter in freezing temperatures? My main concern is pluming.

[John Woodrow]

If you keep the unit heated using it's built in furnaces (which supply heat to remote plumbing locations),they will tolerate nightly dips below 32 and a little more. If you are thinking about severe winter camping you will face challenges. Some folks have gone to considerable lengths to insulate under and around the units with some success. The best thing to do is drive to a region where the weather won't get too severe.

[Keyair]

Read up in the trailer section on winter living. Lots of stories and great advice there that will apply equally to Motorhomes.
We also have a thread here on cold weather use that yielded some good advice.
The big deal, it seems is to add a skirt, to maintain underbody warmth.
Keep us informed on your plans!

[mayco]

We have winter camped for weeks/months in our 310 every year for the last 4 years and we absolutely love it. We have been in extended temps of 0 degrees. Very doable. Search through some threads and see what you find and if you have specific questions on how we do it I'd be glad to answer. Biggest thing for us was keeping our dump valves from freezing up but that was solved with RV antifreeze in both tanks after we dump. The solitude in state parks is AMAZING!

[mayco]

I think this was Jan in Lyons Colorado

[Keyair]

The search engine on the forum is horrible...
I did a search on Google, and found it first shot..

Here is the Cold weather mods thread!
http://www.airforums.com/forums/f311...ds-145072.html

[tevake]

I've stayed in my 345 most of the last three winters here in central Az.
Some temps into the low teens, some blocks of sub freezing for 4or 5 days at a time.
This last winter I took a couple of steps to make it more comfortable and less hassle in the freezing times.

Very effective was building a skirt of foil lined foam board insulation material around the rear section behind the rear wheels, and kept a light on in there during the colder times. This not only kept the tanks and exterior plumbing from freezing, and also helped to keep the bedroom warmer.
This could be broken down and carried along to a winter destination, but I would'nt want to travel extensively with it aboard. Would have to tape all edges to keep the foam contained.

The other big improvement was installing clear plastic sheets over the interior of most of the windows. I got a kit from the local hardware store. This came with double sided tape and more than enough sheets to cover all the windows that I wanted and extras, for less than $20. This really made a big difference in maintaining manageable temps inside. And could still see outside and have light come into the interior. The Windows trim is perfect to taping the plastic in place.

These two changes were very significant in making the winter much more comfortable.
I did get a lot of ice building up under the Windows cause they were heated from the inside.

[tevake]

Here is a thread about installing the skirt. Another inexpensive effective winter setup.

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f311...rt-161065.html

Cheers Richard

[345bill]

Originally Posted by mayco

Biggest thing for us was keeping our dump valves from freezing up but that was solved with RV antifreeze in both tanks after we dump.

Hey Mayco- How often do you have to dump and how much anti-freeze do you pour in each tank? Thanks.

[mayco]

We try to wait till nearing full in the tank but it kinda depends on where your next opportunity to dump is gonna be. Probably a good 5 days but Ive never really kept track. I start with 1.5 gallons in each tank.

[Keyair]

Update us?

[Magnet18]

From what I've collected doing quite a bit of reading about wintering it the last few days is:

1. Find free shore electric
2. Electric heat everything, including underside pipe compartments, electric oil radiators inside
3. Keep out the draft
4. The antifreeze tip for after dumping

Utilizing free (included) electric seems to be the way to go from what i can tell, the furnace looks like it eats a lot of propane which can get expensive, but I have no first hand experience in an airstream

I too will be following this thread with much interest

[Lily&Me]

Finding unmetered electricity will take some looking, in my experience, but in state and federal campgrounds this is usually the case.

An important factor is keeping oneself adequately warm in the relatively uninsulated space of our rigs....keep your feet well covered, and indulge in some microfleece for your body, for during the day and to sleep in.

Maggie