Seneca Truma Basic freeze question

[Gunfighter]

To all you Seneca owners out there with a Trauma AquaGo basic I need some advice. Heading in about a week up to the Tetons and Yellowstone. Weather at night will probably be around freezing or below in high 20’s. I have not had time to get my Trauma upgraded to the Comfort model to have better freeze protection. My question is, am I at risk of having damage to water lines or my water heater? Any advice n how to insulate or keep water lines and water heater safe for overnight temp in mountains? Thanks.

[Rustynuts]

Before I got our Truma upgraded to Comfort we were camping and two nights in a row it got down to 24° and I had totally forgotten about the Truma not being set up for that. We didnt have any problems at all on that trip as the temperature drop wasnt for that long of a period. After the Comfort upgrade and going through and insulating all the pipes, adding heat to wet bay we camped and it was down to 14° two nights but it was already below freezing before sundown and one night we did have a freeze issue. The freeze issue was not the water heater but the feed line to the WH as there is about a 12" section behind the WH that I could not reach to insulate. Being the generator is right next the WH, after running it for about a half hour, there was enough heat to thaw the blockage and no damage was done.

[Gunfighter]

Thanks for the good intel Rusty. I have furnace heat into the low bays. I will be in campgrounds so may put a trouble light in area by the WH. Hopefully won't be that cold but in the mountains you never know.

[Rustynuts]

If you look in the last compartment on the passenger side and shine a light across, you can see the lines that froze on us and the back of the WH. A little heat in this compartment would work fine. Our problem is we were boondocking and couldnt run electric heat in the bays. I picked up this thermometer off Amazon and its nice cause you can get 3 sensors and I put them in the compartments that I was concerned about just to monitor them.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[RVermont]

Before I upgraded I installed two blocking valves on the feed line and the hot line coming back to wet bay. When the weather got close I simply closed both valves and pulled the filter on the truma. Then the next day or when I needed it I simply reversed the process. Worked great and allows me to shut it down quickly if needed.

[McGintys924]

Keep in mind that their term “heated and enclosed underbelly” is a total marketing BS! That furnace, without the modifications Rusty did, will only keep your bays 5 degrees above ambient temperatures.

You will need heater in wet bay and water tank bay to keep those areas from freezing. Our TS did have a heat outlet from the furnace to the wheel well area where a significant portion of your water lines run; we insulated and heat taped those lines.

The basic Truma has no antifreeze capabilities unlike the third generation Girard. You have some options for this trip in that you could purchase the electrode that replaces the filter at night, turn the pump off and drain (similar to what RVermont is doing), or leave water running if that’s an option.

One difficulty is that the pex lines go into reinforced flexible tubing before entering the tank. This makes draining risky as the are curled up in that bay. To make matters worse I have had trouble getting heat over to the back of the water heater and the remote temp sensor revealed the low area behind the water heater as the coldest part of the bays. Any 10 degrees or less and I put antifreeze through. I did switch it to comfort on the cold nights to try and keep things warmer.

If we could upgrade to comfort plus this would allow be alleviated.

[Gunfighter]

Originally Posted by McGintys924

Keep in mind that their term “heated and enclosed underbelly” is a total marketing BS! That furnace, without the modifications Rusty did, will only keep your bays 5 degrees above ambient temperatures.

You will need heater in wet bay and water tank bay to keep those areas from freezing. Our TS did have a heat outlet from the furnace to the wheel well area where a significant portion of your water lines run; we insulated and heat taped those lines.

The basic Truma has no antifreeze capabilities unlike the third generation Girard. You have some options for this trip in that you could purchase the electrode that replaces the filter at night, turn the pump off and drain (similar to what RVermont is doing), or leave water running if that’s an option.

One difficulty is that the pex lines go into reinforced flexible tubing before entering the tank. This makes draining risky as the are curled up in that bay. To make matters worse I have had trouble getting heat over to the back of the water heater and the remote temp sensor revealed the low area behind the water heater as the coldest part of the bays. Any 10 degrees or less and I put antifreeze through. I did switch it to comfort on the cold nights to try and keep things warmer.

If we could upgrade to comfort plus this would allow be alleviated.

Thanks Rusty, RVermont and McGintys. All good advice. I am aware of Rusty's duct work from a previous thread. This will motivate me to finish it. My guess was that the area right below the WH would be the coldest as it it not really closed in. Rusty on the thermometer thanks, just ordered, thank goodness for Amazon Prime.