Quote:
Originally Posted by jquarles
Sorry for what seems like a rant...but it is rather disappointing to pay a lot for a trailer than appears to be a sunshine and rainbows only toy..
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The furnace is safe to use.
It is perhaps possible to swap out the furnace for a very small one that does not require blowing a lot of air across it to keep it cool. Small fan means less noise, but less heat.
I mentioned the free standing catalytic heaters earlier, like the Mr. Buddy, because it certainly is an option. They do not have a fan, so they are very quite. They also do not move the warm air around. Just make sure you leave the windows partly open. I have never understood the logic of leaving the windows open while running the heater to keep things warm when it is very cold. But, it certainly is an option. I would be willing to use a Mr. Buddy in the evening or early morning while we were awake. But at bedtime I would turn it off and rely on the furnace. If you make it toasty warm with the Mr. Buddy then it will perhaps be several hours before it drops down to 55 where the furnace would kick in.
When the overnight low dips to around 40 my TM furnace cycles on about once an hour for 5 or 10 minutes, when I have it set at the lowest possible setting, which is around 55 degrees. I can live with the noise that long. It has never woken anyone up, including my nephew that was asleep on the converted dinette directly on top of the furnace. I have never camped anywhere colder than an overnight low of 40 with the TM.
I do not consider the TM to be a 4 season trailer. I would not camp in it when I was expecting it to snow on the roof.
I have tent camped when the overnight low was 18 degrees and I had no need for a heater in the tent. We sat around the campfire until bedtime. First one up starts the coffee and rebuilds the fire. We did wear jackets to keep warm.
Some trailers are built for 4 seasons. Many are built for 3 seasons. Besides designing to keep the inside warm in severe weather, a 4 season trailer has to heat the storage compartments so that the water in the lines does not freeze. You also do not want the holding tank to freeze because it might cause it to crack the plastic due to ice expansion. That would be a real mess.
Camping trailers rarely come with R19 insulation like a house has. The walls would be too thick.