Another Climate Shield Question...

[Spower]

My rig is in my signature....it has Climate Shield, underbelly is fully enclosed and insulated. I was reading about the climate shield on the Jayco site. Below is the brochure.....my question is this, it says Heated Underbelly - Forced air and radiant heat protect tanks and lines from freezing.

As far as I know I do not have radiant heat! So I am confused. How is it I have the climate shield with forced air but not radiant heat which it sounds like you need??

Also, I like the enclosed underbelly but why would you not have some access "doors"?? There is no way for me to access anything without removing a huge area of the underbelly

[Spower]

So upon further investigation.....it says radiant barrier in the front cap. I wonder if that is what they mean for the underbelly? But it doesn't say radiant barrier, it says radiant heat. So......???

[ARoamer]

Radiant heat means heat from your RV escapes and radiates to the colder areas.
Radiant heat is a sales pitch meaning "Our floor isn't insulated very well so it radiates heat to the underbelly".

[LuckyDuck]

Originally Posted by ARoamer

Radiant heat means heat from your RV escapes and radiates to the colder areas.
Radiant heat is a sales pitch meaning "Our floor isn't insulated very well so it radiates heat to the underbelly".

Great translation of “advertising speak”! Well done.

[Bill Johnson]

Originally Posted by Spower

My rig is in my signature....it has Climate Shield, underbelly is fully enclosed and insulated. I was reading about the climate shield on the Jayco site. Below is the brochure.....my question is this, it says Heated Underbelly - Forced air and radiant heat protect tanks and lines from freezing.

As far as I know I do not have radiant heat! So I am confused. How is it I have the climate shield with forced air but not radiant heat which it sounds like you need??

Also, I like the enclosed underbelly but why would you not have some access "doors"?? There is no way for me to access anything without removing a huge area of the underbelly

I was reading up on this, it sounds like your insulation has a foil on both sides to reflect heat back to the inside. It says that the tanks and underbelly are heated by the furnace and the radiant heat is just radiating from heated objects in that area, it could be the heat coming form the outside of the ductwork itself or the warm floor. It also says the pex piping is rated to -40. I found that people on YouTube have taken pex with water in it and under pressure let it freeze over night and thaw it the next day and it works fine. This makes me think that even if someone screwed up winterizing the pipes wouldn't be damaged. I blow all the water out of mine and fill with antifreeze and blow the antifreeze out. (Can't freeze what isn't there) I also leave all the fixtures open. On this old house they froze a copper pipe and it burst but not where it was frozen it burst at the weakest point that could be 100 feet away. Their feeling was that with a faucet closed and they froze the pipe 10 feet away with a gauge on the pipe the pressure inside the pipe increased to thousands of pounds and burst the pipe because you can't compress a liquid. I think you are pretty safe going out Jayco said at zero degrees it held 68 degrees in the camper

[Spower]

Originally Posted by ARoamer

Radiant heat means heat from your RV escapes and radiates to the colder areas.
Radiant heat is a sales pitch meaning "Our floor isn't insulated very well so it radiates heat to the underbelly".

Hmm interesting!!

[Spower]

Originally Posted by Bill Johnson

I was reading up on this, it sounds like your insulation has a foil on both sides to reflect heat back to the inside. It says that the tanks and underbelly are heated by the furnace and the radiant heat is just radiating from heated objects in that area, it could be the heat coming form the outside of the ductwork itself or the warm floor. It also says the pex piping is rated to -40. I found that people on YouTube have taken pex with water in it and under pressure let it freeze over night and thaw it the next day and it works fine. This makes me think that even if someone screwed up winterizing the pipes wouldn't be damaged. I blow all the water out of mine and fill with antifreeze and blow the antifreeze out. (Can't freeze what isn't there) I also leave all the fixtures open. On this old house they froze a copper pipe and it burst but not where it was frozen it burst at the weakest point that could be 100 feet away. Their feeling was that with a faucet closed and they froze the pipe 10 feet away with a gauge on the pipe the pressure inside the pipe increased to thousands of pounds and burst the pipe because you can't compress a liquid. I think you are pretty safe going out Jayco said at zero degrees it held 68 degrees in the camper

Sounds logical! I'm spending the winter in Colorado (in my RV) forecasts say it's gonna be pretty cold. We'll se how it does! Fingers crossed it's as good as they claim.

[Thomson]

We have a fiver with the same BS. They say it's good to 0F. Our FW feed froze at 32F. We had a battle with Jayco where they said the test was done inside with no air movement, and they sent me a copy of their disclaimer. If I wanted protection from freezing, I should have gotten the all season package and skirt it. So good luck in CO.

[Bill Johnson]

Originally Posted by Spower

Sounds logical! I'm spending the winter in Colorado (in my RV) forecasts say it's gonna be pretty cold. We'll se how it does! Fingers crossed it's as good as they claim.

There are warmer places if you head south or keep going west. No need to worry about the cold

[Spower]

I'm comitted to stay for the winter unless it gets unbearable.
The furnace is doing its job so far and I also added a space heater in where the water pump is and an opening to inside the underbelly which I think is helping a lot!

[Bill Johnson]

Originally Posted by Spower

I'm comitted to stay for the winter unless it gets unbearable.
The furnace is doing its job so far and I also added a space heater in where the water pump is and an opening to inside the underbelly which I think is helping a lot!

A friend of mine in illinois was having a custom home built and had to stay in his trailer because it wouldn'tbe done till spring. He went through a 100 pound bottle every week

[Route 66 Traveler]

The PEX pipe may not freeze, it's the 90 degree elbows, straight couplers, and other plastic fittings that will freeze and crack.

[Thomson]

Originally Posted by Spower

I'm comitted to stay for the winter unless it gets unbearable.
The furnace is doing its job so far and I also added a space heater in where the water pump is and an opening to inside the underbelly which I think is helping a lot!

Ours froze in the back of the fiver starting at the low point drain.

[Spower]

Originally Posted by Bill Johnson

A friend of mine in illinois was having a custom home built and had to stay in his trailer because it wouldn'tbe done till spring. He went through a 100 pound bottle every week

What kind of rig was he in? What temperature did he set the thermostat too? There a lot of factors to consider for having used 100lbs a week. Was he parked out in the wide open prone to all elements of weather?

My thermostat is set to 65, I am in a very protected area backed up to a fence that blocks the wind. So we'll see how much propane I go through. Right now furnace only runs at night, but next week daytime temps start to drop. Fingers crossed I don't use 100lbs a week

[Spower]

Originally Posted by Thomson

Ours froze in the back of the fiver starting at the low point drain.

I built foam insulation boxes and put heat tape inside and put the boxes around the low point drains.

[Spower]

Originally Posted by Route 66 Traveler

The PEX pipe may not freeze, it's the 90 degree elbows, straight couplers, and other plastic fittings that will freeze and crack.

According to my pluming schematics my plumbing is all down the one side where I have the space heater pointed

[Bill Johnson]

Originally Posted by Spower

What kind of rig was he in? What temperature did he set the thermostat too? There a lot of factors to consider for having used 100lbs a week. Was he parked out in the wide open prone to all elements of weather?

My thermostat is set to 65, I am in a very protected area backed up to a fence that blocks the wind. So we'll see how much propane I go through. Right now furnace only runs at night, but next week daytime temps start to drop. Fingers crossed I don't use 100lbs a week

He had a Jayco 32 foot at the campground. We were on a river so all the campers we on concrete blocks 4 feet in the air because of flooding. No cover blocking the wind from underneath. He kept the temp set at 70 degrees and used a portable toilet covering the hole where the camper toilet would be and the trailer toilet was kept in the shed. He had two 100 pound bottles at the front. I tried one year keeping the house at 67 degrees, I'll never do that again it stays at 70 year round. I'm going to be comfortable I don't care what it costs. Hopefully you will have a warm winter. I wonder if you could put snow all around the camper as a wind block (if it snows) good luck I couldn't imagine staying in an rv all winter

[norty1]

The under belly has a sheet of foil insulation laying on it, like https://www.reflectixinc.com/ , that may provide some minor insulating. There are also some vents under the steps that allow the furnace to pull warm air from the cabin into the storage compartment which theoretically will help pipes and tanks from freezing. There is also a heat duct down there somewhere, make sure it is open.

Many rigs have accessible removable panels in the area of the slide out motors and gears. The underbelly will have to be dropped for access to any thing else.
If you remove the screws on the panels you can look around and see where you may need to cut or remove to access anything else.

[Bill Johnson]

Originally Posted by norty1

The under belly has a sheet of foil insulation laying on it, like https://www.reflectixinc.com/ , that may provide some minor insulating. There are also some vents under the steps that allow the furnace to pull warm air from the cabin into the storage compartment which theoretically will help pipes and tanks from freezing. There is also a heat duct down there somewhere, make sure it is open.

Many rigs have accessible removable panels in the area of the slide out motors and gears. The underbelly will have to be dropped for access to any thing else.
If you remove the screws on the panels you can look around and see where you may need to cut or remove to access anything else.

I'm wondering if the heat is set so low will it keep everything from freezing? I wonder if the fan should be kept running to keep the underbelly warm

[norty1]

Originally Posted by Bill Johnson

I'm wondering if the heat is set so low will it keep everything from freezing? I wonder if the fan should be kept running to keep the underbelly warm

The lowest temps we have camped in for extended periods was 28 or so. We just set the fan on the furnace on auto and let it cycle. All I know to say is to monitor it with a remote thermometer down there.