Help! Winter is coming, what to do?

[Bon Voyage]

Not sure what your hook up situation is but if you leave the water running at a trickle it usually will keep the lines from freezing. There’s also those heated hoses you can buy but they’re pricey. Camping World there would have some.
One other thought to help seal things up is you could buy some of the spray foam in the rattle cans for like $5-$10 each at Home Depot. If there’s any cracks around that you can fill or in the ceiling it can make a difference. It’s messy though so be careful.

 

[Mudhutwarrior]

I feel for you but you need to work fast to cover for that lack of planning. Keep air out from under the bus, Cover windows and your piping all needs to be insulated. Even well insulated busses need lots of btu's to stay warm. Electric heat isn't your solution either. Any LP vented heater over 30k Btu will do, even a side vent Rennai. Use Construction cylinders you can transport to refill. I doubt any LP company will set a 100 gal tank on a temp install without permits. Does suck hauling them back in forth but I have done it. You can't get over 10kbtu out of a barbecue cylinder due to very little vapor area at such low temps. The liquid needs to boil off to produce gas and small tanks won't work. You will need larger tanks for more btu.
All this will take immense effort in a short period of time. If your not prepared or can't be then find shelter now. There is no such thing as unicorns when it comes to survival. Only common sense will work at this stage of the game.

 

[84chevyguyid]

Negative 2 here in Mud Lake this morning, brrr! Did you get straw bales around the bottom of your bus? Any way you can slide a 1/2 inch layer of foam or maybe that aluminum bubble wrap between your pipes and the wall of the bus? Years ago a friend spent the winter here with a bumper pull camper and he covered the entire thing, sides and top with little straw bales. He was able to keep it warm inside but the moisture was a problem. The attached pic was like how he covered his camper.

 

[Jsneeb]

Wow, the covering in hay bales is a **** of a solution.

I will mention that at 15 degrees outside, a single 1500 W space heater keeps its 45 inside my bus. That goes to show good insulation really helps.

The wood stove cranks out major heat, and deals with the moisture. Only time I get condensation is if I'm cooking or if I put my swimsuit and towel up to dry after swimming at the springs.

 

[Free Bird-SKO]

If I was determined to stick it out I'd shut my water system down and pack some jugs in. Surprising what you can do on a gallon a day.

Increasing the heat in various places by whatever means involves fire risk, overheated cords, open flames etc.. Turning your living quarters into something akin to a dark flammable mine shaft with little chance of escape somehow lacks romantic appeal. Just sayin!

 

[Bon Voyage]

Similar to what was said about the concrete curing blankets/tarps I saw some insulated tarps on sale at a store up here. You might find some at harbor freight down there or on Amazon. Throw them over the roof and tie rope around the bus and I bet they’d make a pretty big difference as long as they’re thick enough. Remember heat rises so the roof is where insulation makes the most difference.

This link is to a popular store in Canada but they’d probably ship down to you and there are different sizes, this is the biggest. It’s priced in Canadian dollars so with current exchange it’s roughly 30% less in USDollars.

https://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/12-x-24-ft-insulated-tarp/A-p8647877e

 

[MountainBiker]

I am hesitant to use hay bales for insulation because of mice possibly finding their way in to some wiring. Has anyone done this successfully? We like the idea of having some back up hay for the goats or using straw for straw bale gardens. I NEED to skirt my bus this winter as last year the floor got fairly cold. I was pondering if using greenhouse plastic for solar gain would work?

 

[Drew Bru]

I was pondering if using greenhouse plastic for solar gain would work?

That could work, worth a try. We thought about using pink foamboard for skirting, but the diesel heater was more than able to keep up with the winter temps in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina. Skirting the bus just wasn't necessary for us.

 

[o1marc]

Any thing to keep airflow from under the bus will keep wind from drawing heat awayf rom underneath. Mobile home skirting would work, but if aesthetics are not a concern, 2" rigid insulation would do. Paint it to blend with the landscape

 

[Brownish]

I ended up getting bales and stacking them around the bus, the only issue I had was trying to make sure the exhaust from the parking heater wasn’t going to set it on fire (or accumulate carbon monoxide under the bus or something). I think it worked pretty well! The bales fit almost perfectly stacked 2 high. We ended up moving out before the coldest part of the winter but it got below zero while we were there. We moved because we got off the waiting list for subsidized housing. We had one time the water line to the sink froze because at night we were only heating our room at the end of the bus. Once we opened the curtain it unfroze but it felt a lot like camping at that time. I loved the bus but it was nice having a thermostat when we had our baby!

 

[Brownish]

And they were straw bales by the way.

 

[Danjo-SKO]

The mice in the wiring is a problem. I don’t have my own firsthand experience with it. A friend has a trailer mounted generator. He puts Epsom salts in it to make it less nice. I’ve also heard of leaving the hood open to make it colder (counterproductive in this case) and putting LED lights in the engine bay to light it up as ways of making it less rodent-friendly. Blocking air intake with something, maybe steel wool, to keep them from making nests in your air intake. Oh oh oh! Recently, while replacing an intake manifold on a newer F150 I found a mouse nest in the valley between the intake manifold and the crankcase. Damnedest thing

 

[cadillackid]

Mice find their way into the tightest places.. Ive bought more than one old vehicle.. and while its common to find mouse nests in the Intake for the engine, engine valley, and esp the Heater Air Intake.. Ive found them Between the heater core and A/C evaporator.. how the heck they get there I have zero idea.. I cant imagine trying to completely seal up a Bus against them.. there are many places for Mice to find nooks and crannies.. and their Pee rusts the **** out of Metal..

 

[o1marc]

Not always an option, but used kitty litter keeps the mice away.