Leaving furnace on to keep from freezing.

[kkdesigns]

Hello all,

I got stuck with the cold weather in Atlanta before I could winterize the trailer. there was some water in the fresh tank, but the grey and black were pretty much empty. Where I park my rig is on a slight hill at my house, so draining the fresh tank wasn't really an option without hooking up and driving around with the tank open. I didn't make that effort, fingers crossed..

I have a way to hook up power to the trailer, so my temporary fix was to start the furnace and leave it running on about 45 to offset the fridgid temps which were mostly night time drops below freezing. I know this is not the proper way, but do you knowledgeable people think I should be OK? The furnace does warm the belly with the holding tanks and lines so I hoping my attempts worked. It's warming this weekend, so I'm going to pull it out and try to properly blow out the lines.

Let me know what you think. Any responses would be appreciated...

Kyle

[Cyclist]

We've had our trailer in below freezing conditions more than a few times without incident. The most recent was early last November before we left when a cold snap hit Ontario and the east. We moved the trailer over to in front of our house and plugged it in so we could keep the furnace on. The temperature dropped to a low of around -10C (about 14F) with daily highs below freezing for a couple of days. I kept the furnace set at about 10C, opened all cabinets, etc. and made certain the hot water heater stayed warm (I even got up in the middle of the night to confirm). We've also camped in below freezing conditions although then, it warmed up during the day.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by kkdesigns

I have a way to hook up power to the trailer, so my temporary fix was to start the furnace and leave it running on about 45 to offset the fridgid temps which were mostly night time drops below freezing. I know this is not the proper way, but do you knowledgeable people think I should be OK? The furnace does warm the belly with the holding tanks and lines so I hoping my attempts worked. It's warming this weekend, so I'm going to pull it out and try to properly blow out the lines.

I just came home from almost 2 weeks of winter camping. For the first stop, at Vidalia, LA, the daytime highs were in the high 20s and overnight lows were in the teens.

What you propose to do is not much different than camping in your Airstream in below-freezing-but-above-zero temperatures, and it's eminently doable.

Your water lines are more at risk than your tanks, and they're located close to the trailer's skin behind cabinets. You want the heat to penetrate the cabinets. Leaving the cabinet doors and drawers open would help in this regard, as well as leaving the bathroom and shower doors open.