Winterizing the Cat for Winter Use

As I have mentioned before, we will be living in our Cat this winter. We have done a few tasks to prepare for the cold temperatures, but I am sure there is more that can be done.

I remember reading a post with a list of suggestions of things to do to make sure the Cat is insulated and stays warm during the cold winter months, but I am at a lost as to where it is on the forum or what it is called.
(examples - lights in the basement, insulating basement doors, etc.)

Please if any of you remember, will you point me in that direction??

Thanks so much!
Julie

I have used Plexiglas on the non opening windows in my Cat, only used it once since I have done this mod but I am very pleased with the results.
Sean

I think I got this info from Scruffy and Tater. Hope this helps.


We have survived two winters in the western mountains of NC. The temps here have not dropped below 0*F but have gotten pretty close. The low last winter at the end of January was 4*F. The winter before we only saw 17*F. Having lived in NH for over 30 years, I can safely say that the NC temps are probably the lowest I would want to go. I don't think that the WC would be liveable at -20*F.

That being said, here's what I've done to the Cat to make it liveable during a typical NC mountain winter.

1. Packed fiberglass insulation around the back of shower mixing valve. It's accessible through the small keyed hatch high up on the curb side of my 29RLBS. I think that the 28RKBS has the same bedroom/bath/watercloset floor plan, so it's probably in the same place on yours. It is not insulated and would be the first place to freeze.
2. sInsulated the inside of all the basement hatches with the foil faced bubble wrap insulation available at Home Depot. I used Liquid Nails to glue it in place and foil tape to seal the edges.
3. Purchased three of those roof vent pillows from Camping World.
4. Cut out inserts made from the same material used to insulate the backs of the basement hatches and placed them in the windows that open (they leak like sieves).
5. Installed a 120V/20A GFCI outlet wired to a seperate circuit that runs to the park's 20A recepticle on the power pole. (see my post on this forum that show's the installation.
6. I use that 20A circuit to power a 1500W oil filled electric radiator that I purchased at Lowe's. I also have a smaller 1200W oil filled electric radiator that I plug into the main trailer power. Both of these keep the Cat toasty warm in winter. The propane furnace supplements this heat source and runs for about 15 minutes each hour. That keeps the belly warm so that tanks don't freeze.
7. I insulated the exposed black & grey water plumbing, but I always dump the tanks dry before nightfall. I dump about 12 ounces of anti-freeze into the tanks after draining and flushing. This settles at the valves and keeps them from freezing. I also take in the water hose.
8. I keep 2 gallons of water handy in the watercloset for overnight visits to the loo so that we can flush the toilet.
9. Of course, it doesn't get below freezing here every night, but those are the precautions that I take for winter camping.

We won't be back here for the winter, as we're returning in late March to begin a new camping season as WorkKampers at the Asheville East KOA.

I think Schrowang gets the credit for that great advice.

Tater

[quote="Scruffy and Tater"]I think Schrowang gets the credit for that great advice.

Tater[/quote

2x here, Also what I did was cut that foil face bubble wrap for the window where we sit at night help keep the cold draft off form the windows.

Thanks for the suggestions.

So far we have:
(1) put plastic on the windows in our bedroom plus the foil bubble wrap, plastic on the windows in the slide, and foil bubble wrap in the little one's room upstairs.
(2) added the foil bubble wrap to the floor in the slide and covered with wool rugs, and plastic floor runners. (This also helps keep them clean from food droppings, which happens at each meal time around here.)
(3) Put insulation in the air vents, and foil bubble wrap in the skylights.
(4) Insulated and closed off the opening under the trash can access cabinet.
(5) Wrapped outside water pipe and water hose with foam insulation and tape and covered the connection to the camper with a water faucet cover.

We still have to add the foil to the basement access doors, and add carpet over the linoleum in the kitchen area.

We purchased a Duraflame Infra-Quartzelectric heater from Lowe's. So far it is not working as claimed, which was that it would heat up to 1000 sq ft for about $1.00 per day. We think ours may be faulty. We plan to exchange it and give it another try, but currently they are sold out from all the Lowe's around Nashville. We have already had temps below 30*. Tonight, I think we will just try to use a 1500w oil-filled radiator.

If you guys think of anything else we can do to insulate the Cat, please don't hesitate to mention.

Thanks!!

Does your Cat have an outside shower? What do you plan on doing there if it does? I need some idea about that myself.

Julie,

Yeah, that was me with the advice on winterizing the Cat for living in the cold. One thing that was left off of that list was to hang two 60W bulbs in the basement area. Even at 4*F exterior, the basement never got below 40*F with the bulbs going. That was important because all of our water piping runs throught the basement and we didn't want it to freeze.

Another item that I added later was to purchase one of those foam cones that are made to attach to the outside water faucets on a house and modify it slightly so that it fit over the fresh water and black water flush inlets. They never froze.

The only trouble that we did have during our winter experience was a frozen hot water line. Found that the "T's" that were installed for the low point drains were below the insulation and one night they froze. No harm done because they were PEX, and they thawed during the day. Needless to say, I insulated them very quickly.

Best of luck