17-days in Utah

[OneMoBear]

I hope you're feeling much better soon and that you are enjoying being the only one of us out playing! BTDT!

I guess you can all guess where the money for our winter trip went this year I usually can't be trusted one little bit when Gene says, "Do you want this or that?" because I'll say "This" and then want "That" too. This year I think he's going to hold me to "This".

Malinda

[scrubjaysnest]

Hope your doing better.

I have attached two snow pics from Maryland, our daughter lived up there two years ago in our "other camper". She took these at here campsite there. Now we were told she was a hundred miles south of the snow line and they rarely get snow that lasted very long. This was a snow day from work. She was with the Maryland state parks system through Americorp. We were also told they never had more than a few days of freezing in a row; she had a week that it never got above freezing and night time temps were single digit. Now that is winter camping.

Originally Posted by scrubjaysnest

Hope your doing better.

I have attached two snow pics from Maryland, our daughter lived up there two years ago in our "other camper". She took these at here campsite there. Now we were told she was a hundred miles south of the snow line and they rarely get snow that lasted very long. This was a snow day from work. She was with the Maryland state parks system through Americorp. We were also told they never had more than a few days of freezing in a row; she had a week that it never got above freezing and night time temps were single digit. Now that is winter camping.

Winter camping boy that's for sure. Those are great photos of some very cold stuff!

I just was outside and took some photos of the TM before calling it a night and was getting ready to post them and saw your message and photos, thanks! It sounds like your daughter has a great job, especially if she likes camping.

It's actually starting to look pretty similar here in Moab (see below). This has been a great storm and so far the TM has held up very well, no problems...Knock on Wood!

It has snowed all day today (12/30/10) and according to the TV news, Moab received 12" so far. It is 25-degrees right now and is supposed to go down into single digits over the next couple days for the overnight lows and stay below freezing during the daytime.

Fun stuff!

[Barb&Tim]

Oh my, neat ice sickle! I must admit that does look cold there. Well i guess the single digits will be the ultimate test for you. Looks like you have thought of everything so far to keeps anything from freezing up on you.

Bob, You keep yourself and that Kitty toasty warm

Tim

Hello all,

Still in Moab, will be until the 3rd and tonight will be the coldest yet.

It finally stopped snowing last night but very cold air moved in behind the storm so today the high was 25 and the next few days the night time temps are to be below ZERO. Needless to day the snow isn't melting except where the suns warmth helped. The roads were wet today and very quickly turned to ICE before sunset. It is forecast to be -5 tonight and about the same tomorrow night, with the highs in the teens.

I was just walking to my friends RV to take photos for of the family in front of their RV and just about fell on my butt a few times when walking on the wet (now icy) roadway.

My TM grew a pretty impressive ice sickle (see photos). I decided to measure it and thought I would challenge TM owners to guess the length to the nearest 1/4 foot (3"). The winner gets...wait for it...bragging rights and I will post an answer to this thread when I get home, around Jan 10th.

So far the only problem I have had due to freezing temps was this morning the bath tub water wouldn't flow, the pipes had froze. There is plumbing for both the tub and outside shower in the space between the bathtub and the outside wall and the rear wall of the RV. This is the space behind the converter and is where the bathroom fan exhausts to. So I placed the small ceramic blower heater in the bathroom, turned on the bathroom exhaust fan and that was enough to thaw the pipes in about 1/2 hour.

That's it, again tonight will be the real test for a few things, the biggest is being able to stay warm without using the gas furnace...we will see, it's already noticeably COLDER but so far so good.

Happy New Year!

**********************************
UPDATE AREA for Ice Sickle length guesses:
Countrygirl 7' 4"
Tim (of Barb&Tim) 7' 1"

Cheers...Mr Geek (aka Bob) and PC (the cat)

[countrygirl]

That is impressive...I say seven foot 4 inches.

[Barb&Tim]

I think it's maybe 7' 1"

Tim

As most know who have been following this thread I am testing the effectiveness of using two 1500w electric heaters to heat my 2619 without using any propane for heating purposes during this 17-day COLD WINTER trip to Utah.

I have finished testing heating a 2619 using solely electric heat for winter temps with summary below. Obviously a larger model TM has more interior space and would have different results. Also I also kept the back bed curtain 3/4 of the way shut, the back bed was not as warm as the rest of the RV. Measurement notes are shown at the end of this post.

FINAL RESULTS:
I found it's possible to be very comfortable inside the 2619 in winter temps down to about 10 to 15 degrees using only two 1500w heaters to maintain 70-degrees (or higher) inside. Below this range another heat source is needed such as the TM gas furnace.

Notes:
Last night the temp dropped to 1-degree (one) and inside temp stabilized at 57-degrees using solely electric heat. It seems these two 1500w heaters at FULL ON can maintain approximately a 56-degree temperature differential. Sleeping was fine but once I got up I wanted a more comfortable 70-degrees for the morning routine so I finally used the TM gas furnace, but it's been off since that initial warm up. It's now 14-degrees outside and I had to turn DOWN my electric heaters and open a window to cool off a bit, back to about 70-degrees. Not bad at all. I found that 10 to 15 degrees outside temp is the range when additional heat would be needed to maintain 70-degrees inside temp of a 2619.

My temp preference is an inside temp of 70 during the day and 62 to 65 at night.

Also I did NOT suffer to see how long I could hold out. Either I was comfortable or I wasn't. Being comfortable was the test.

I really feel the combination of a 1500w ceramic and 1500w oil filled radiator heaters works well in the TM. I had no problems with overloading the circuit breaker except when using another high wattage appliance such as a microwave or water boiler. Normally I also use an LCD TV and laptop PC, and other routine items with no power issues.

A key for me was directing the abundant heat being radiated from the oil filled heater using a small fan to the areas that needed it, mainly where I was sitting. Also I normally sit up on the front bed, using the sloping wall with bolsters as a very comfortable large couch...it's warmer up there too, feet off the floor. The floor only gets uncomfortable when temps get into the lower teens. As I mentioned I prefer t-shirts, shorts and socks while in the RV.

Also in very cold weather like this (single digits), some areas where condensation occurs inside the TM turns to ICE inside the TM. It's not a problem but indicates just how cold it is just 1" away from nice warm inside air.

Test/measurement Notes:
Inside temp sensor located" from outside wall (on counter next to stove) with the sensor equal distance from both heaters.

Outside temp sensor is attached using Velcro to the metal roof support arm that is vertical (when TM is open) just outside TM near door.

Sole source of heat = TWO 1500w electric heaters. One small ceramic with built in fan located in the hallway blowing into both the hallway and the bathroom, using bathroom door to adjust proportion. One oil filled radiator heater located at the head of the dinette table with a small fan sitting on the dinette table blowing across the top of the radiator heater and moving heated air where desired.

Much better than I expected, Bob.

This has been a terrific thread, Bob. Thanks for being the guinea pig for all of us. Tonight is the coldest night we've had since I moved to Utah 3 years ago.

I'm anxious to hear if there are any issues closing up your rig.

Keith

Originally Posted by Bluegrass

...

I'm anxious to hear if there are any issues closing up your rig.

Keith

Me too!