Fulltimers, hook-ups in the cold?

[Dreamscape]

We taped some heat tape to our hose and covered it with foam. Works great!

Left our water on trickle during below freezing, just make sure you let the hot run, not the cold.

Electric heater in the bay next year, our bays need to be closed up better, door seals are rotten. Which means more work! Looking forward to warm weather!

Paul

[Hartley]

Well,

Since it was supposed to be in the 40's and instead has been way way colder I have had to resort to heat sources in the water bays on both sides. 150 watt lamp to keep the pump thawed and a 300 watt plate type heater on the fresh water tank side of the bus. ( No don't ask! ) 200 gallons of water is hard to keep warm!

What I can say is Thanks to PEX tubing I haven't ruptured any lines in the bus, Frozen up YES but thawed fairly easily. We have been holding at 22 degrees down to 5 degrees here where I am in Tennessee. Normally it doesn't get and stay this cold here. But the arctic blast seems to have found me.

My fresh water lines from 800 feet away are still working but where it comes up and the bus hooks up exploded about a week ago. ( I accidentally shut off a faucet for 10 minutes. ) My Full Time camper at the other end of the property insulated their water hose with the closed cell foam and has kept a faucet running so far without a problem.
They put a 500 watt shop light under the trailer aimed at the holding tanks and that seems to work good.

The One flavor of pipe that nobody should use is PVC of any kind. It doesn't forgive and usually just fragments when cold. Mine sounded like a gunshot when it exploded.

These 10 degree nights that have been with us for the last 2 weeks + are getting OLD!

No, I wasn't prepared as usual.

Suggestion: The Heat tape is a good idea, I have protected my water/well system, tanks and filters with them and they work. The ones I have have a thermostat that turns them on at 34 degrees and off at 45 degrees. Similar to the RV tank heater mats.

I have tank heat mats but they can't deal with days and weeks of sub-20 temps.

Ok, I will stop whining now..

Heat Tapes/ Closed cell foam/ Insulating tape/ Cube heaters as needed.

Dave...