Winter living in the bus advice

[captainkf]

Hello all, we have decided to keep the bus (yay!) and are having some guests staying with us for a bit this winter. I am in the process of having livable for the winter. I would like some advice from those who have or are doing some cold temp rv living. We live in a ski town in bc (cold and 25 plus feet of snow). The bus has a water tank inside, the water lines are inside and on the warm side of insulation. I am building an insulated box for the grey/black tank and the run to the sewer is pretty much a straight run. I thought a 60 watt light bulb inside the insulated waste box. I think that if i use heat tape taped to the fresh water line, wrapped in a foam tube should (?) keep it from freezing while sitting on the ground under the snow. If I keep the furnace on low and the temps above freezing inside the bus while no one is in it, it should be OK. It is a passive vented 18,000 BTU hydroflame, and I also have 1500 watt ceramic heater. What do you all think? Any advice? Thanks in Advance.

-Richard

[pete c]

25 ft of snow?

bury that sumbitch!!!!! snow makes a good insulator.

[captainkf]

Originally Posted by pete c

25 ft of snow?

bury that sumbitch!!!!! snow makes a good insulator.

Well, when we bought our house in febuary there was so much snow the dog who was tied up out front was sleeping at the level of the roof (11" off the ground) in the front yard. I didn't know what colour the house was until spring

-Richard

[phillbus914]

Originally Posted by captainkf

Well, when we bought our house in febuary there was so much snow the dog who was tied up out front was sleeping at the level of the roof (11" off the ground) in the front yard. I didn't know what colour the house was until spring

-Richard

We have to see some pictures of that! That sounds cool... I bet the "coolness" wears off quick though.

[captainkf]

Yes, I will try to find some pics, I have some somewhere. The plan this year was to buy a good shovel, and wait to see if I needed a snowblower. The locals I tell about my "plan" just laugh at me. I even met a guy who had the same plan who made it 3 weeks last winter before he went out a bought one. Oh well.

I have decided to wire up a 30 amp outlet so I can run two 1500 watt heaters in the bus. They put out 5600 btu's ea. So that's about 150 sq feet of heating each. And if I need a third I can run another 15 amp extension cord in somewhere. By my math I get between 3300 and 3600 watts from a 30 amp system. Running electric heaters seems alot easier than relying on the propane sucking furnace. It has runout twice in the middle of the night now and it's -8 C in the morning so I can only imagine how cold it is at 3 am. brrrr.

-Richard

[captainkf]

Well, here's an update. We have a younger couple living in our bus and they love it! The rental's here are sparse and mucho expensive, as we are a ski town. I have three heaters in the bus and with them on low to med it's as warm in there as my house. I just hooked up the waste system. I opted for no tank as it seemed a huge hassle and the bus isn't going anywhere soon. so it is the sink and shower (1.5" and 2") tee'd into the 3' toilet waste, then run into my sewer connection. Works great! Thank goodness. However while pressuring it up I discovered my faucet was leaking severely so had to put another one in, which in turn caused one of the pex conections to fail as to much flex was put on the joint. Good times. But, the electronic iginition 6 gal atwood hot water tank is super rad. I've never been able to fire it up before and it is so nice. Just flick a switch and 10 minutes later steaming hot water! No pilot lights, shivering in the snow and cold. Highly recomended. So now they have a shower, toilet, sink, hot warm bus, with a fridge, stove and a microwave. I just told them they had to stay for 3 weeks so I can pay for the trips to the hardware store .

Who knows, mabye this will turn into a regular thing. People in the bus during ski season that is, not freezing my but off for 2 days trying to fix stuff.

-Richard