Seneca Cold Weather Camping

[James AO]

We are taking our 2014 FS to Moab in two weeks for some boondocking. The night temps are getting into the upper 20’s. Any advice on how to keep our water from freezing?

[Mnwelsh]

I put a small electric ceramic heater in the water control bay and plug it into the post with an extension cord. I have a remote weather station temp probe in there so I can monitor the temp. In the summer I put that remote temp probe in my refrigerator freezer.

[James AO]

Originally Posted by Mnwelsh

I put a small electric ceramic heater in the water control bay and plug it into the post with an extension cord. I have a remote weather station temp probe in there so I can monitor the temp. In the summer I put that remote temp probe in my refrigerator freezer.

Thanks for the feedback! From reading other posts I’ve seen that some of you have opened a duct from your furnace to the basement. Those of you that have done this, could you please share some insight regarding how you went about it? Is the duct only to the basement wet bay, or elsewhere? Did you include a means of opening and closing it, or regulating the volume of flow? Thanks!

[RoWest]

We have our Seneca FS in Villanuevo, NM at 5,900' and 20ish degrees at night. The Girard water heater self-cycles to prevent freezing, a small desk fan in the wet bay to move air, and disconnect from a water source and use your pump. Depending on your elevation, the sounds of the gas heater, frig, or water heater will be different than lower elevations. At 6,500' mine sound like 'bear farts'. At 8,000', nothing wants to light.

[javamon]

Originally Posted by RoWest

We have our Seneca FS in Villanuevo, NM at 5,900' and 20ish degrees at night. The Girard water heater self-cycles to prevent freezing, a small desk fan in the wet bay to move air, and disconnect from a water source and use your pump. Depending on your elevation, the sounds of the gas heater, frig, or water heater will be different than lower elevations. At 6,500' mine sound like 'bear farts'. At 8,000', nothing wants to light.

I guess I have been extremely lucky so far....never been close enough to a bear to hear it fart....hahah!

[RVermont]

Originally Posted by javamon

I guess I have been extremely lucky so far....never been close enough to a bear to hear it fart....hahah!

If I ever do hear one, the temperature will be furthest thing from my mind.

In the ts there is a 2 inch duct teed off the vent line running to the bedroom vent. This 2 inch line dumps directly into the wet bay. The other duct runs under the grey tank to the shower room. So if the furnace is running it will put a little heat down there. I did the following to help. I added shut off valves on the water lines to and from the hot water heater. So if it gets real cold I can shut it off and drain them. I also added a gfi outlet in the wet bay to supply power for a heater. I installed a 700 watt heater to keep the sanicon from freezing up.

This fall (now ) I am going to try to insulate the stair well as this area is just a steel case and it acts like a heat sink.

[James AO]

Originally Posted by RVermont

If I ever do hear one, the temperature will be furthest thing from my mind.

In the ts there is a 2 inch duct teed off the vent line running to the bedroom vent. This 2 inch line dumps directly into the wet bay. The other duct runs under the grey tank to the shower room. So if the furnace is running it will put a little heat down there. I did the following to help. I added shut off valves on the water lines to and from the hot water heater. So if it gets real cold I can shut it off and drain them. I also added a gfi outlet in the wet bay to supply power for a heater. I installed a 700 watt heater to keep the sanicon from freezing up.

This fall (now ) I am going to try to insulate the stair well as this area is just a steel case and it acts like a heat sink.

Thanks for the feedback and the tips. Do you have an FS? How did you find the ducts to the basement? Where did you pick up the feed for the GFI breaker?

Thanks!

[RVermont]

I have a ts. In my unit the furnace is over the wheel well and the lines drop down there. I was in there adding some insulation to eliminate some of the heat loss and add supports to the mud flaps.

I added a twin circuit breaker into the power center and ran the power down in the wet bay. In my unit it is only about 6 ft of wire and is fed directly out the circuit box and then down into the wet bay.

[James AO]

Originally Posted by RVermont

I have a ts. In my unit the furnace is over the wheel well and the lines drop down there. I was in there adding some insulation to eliminate some of the heat loss and add supports to the mud flaps.

I added a twin circuit breaker into the power center and ran the power down in the wet bay. In my unit it is only about 6 ft of wire and is fed directly out the circuit box and then down into the wet bay.

Thanks! What year is your TS? Do you know if the ducts are typical across all floor plans in the 2014’s (albeit different locations)?

[RVermont]

Originally Posted by James AO

Thanks! What year is your TS? Do you know if the ducts are typical across all floor plans in the 2014’s (albeit different locations)?

Mine is 18. I would not know the config of the other units but would expect they would have similar setup.

[James AO]

Originally Posted by RVermont

Mine is 18. I would not know the config of the other units but would expect they would have similar setup.

Thanks. Does anyone else know if the 2014’s had heat ducts into the basement area to reduce the freezing risks?

[Rustynuts]

Well others have mentioned adding heaters but you say you are boondocking and that usually means no power or water so that isn’t an option. We started taking our RB boondocking while snowmobiling last year and I did a lot of prep work for it. I am not sure where your gas furnace is located in the FS but I would first look at accessing the heater location inside the coach and then see if there is any way to get a duct by either teeing off or adding a new one to the wet bay. Our furnace had 2 extra outlets I could use but no good was to get a hose to the wet bay. I did have a 2” hose that tee’d off a 3” duct but the air will follow the path of least resistance and you really need a wye for it to work....I found the air coming out the end of the 2” hose was cold so that wouldn’t work. I opened up under our bed and found a main line that was feeding the rear bath and tee’d off and had an outlet in the bed base, then while poking around found a 6” hole in the floor that went right to the wet bay that was only covered over by the vinyl flooring. Since both the DW and I like a cool bedroom, I simply removed the hose going to the bed base and tee’d off and cut the vinyl out in the hole and ran it into the wet bay with standard metal woodworking dust collection blast gate on the bay side, then flex hose to the center of the bay. I have an Accurite thermometer with 2 sensors and have one in the wet bay, one outside and one in the compartment crossthru that the WH is in. Then I went to foam insulating every pex water pipe I could find which included opening up the wheel well section and now have every pipe below floor level insulated except for the pipes in the WH bay as I could not get to them. Last year we camped several time and the lowest temp was 10 degrees and with the gas furnace set at 55 degrees, the wet bay stayed 42 degrees but the WH bay got to 28. We have the Truma but it has been upgraded to the Comfort model which prevents the unit itself from freezing but on the 10 degree night the short supply line that I couldn’t insulate to the WH froze enough to stop flow but cause no damage. Since the generator is right next to the WH, the heat from the generator that morning thawed it in less than 10 minutes and everything was fine. I just recently cut in a 8” access hole into the rear of the WH compartment to gain access, to insulate the pipes and pack insulation around the pipes and WH since the Truma is a 0” clearance unit.

So you just gotta start from the furnace and look for options for a new line or teeing off for heat to the wet bay check the floor from the bay side or feeling the floor inside cabinets or under the bed for access. Another thing when working on this, I found half crushed heat ducts and straightened and removed over 8’ of excess heat duct that is noting but restricting flow and heat loss off the excess metallic flex duct. I also found bare uncapped solar wired inched from the metallic duct which could have been bad news....

[SloPoke]

Originally Posted by James AO

Thanks. Does anyone else know if the 2014’s had heat ducts into the basement area to reduce the freezing risks?

I found mine... looking behind the wet bay control panel, looking straight up I can see the ductwork as it travels into the bedroom and bathroom vents.

[James AO]

Originally Posted by SloPoke

I found mine... looking behind the wet bay control panel, looking straight up I can see the ductwork as it travels into the bedroom and bathroom vents.

Thanks for the response. Is yours an FS? What year?