Winter tips

[AndyIlles]

Greetings from Pine Lake RV Resort, back in Loxahatcheee.. a W. Palm Beach "suburb".

As the "Faithful" may have noted, I spent a cool 3 weeks over the holidays in Winter Park, Co. with my Clip (and faithful guard dog, Jaws), skiing (LOVED it, thank you), and even passed another Clip going the other way on I-25, on the way up. No idea who.

Anyway, a lot of "ski bums" who work at the ski area live in their RVs, and I got a fantastic $29 tip... a plain 'ol K-Mart electric blanket!! Just spread one out, drive over it, and plug it in by the fridge.  Most of the "ski bums" had cut 2' "strips" from 4x8 sheets of foil-faced styrofoam building sheathing they taped around the bottoms of their rigs, but I just mounded snow.  The blanket was more than enough to keep the holding tanks comfy... plus, the floor stayed warm..  

Wal Mart sells a little $20 Honeywell space heater that looks sort of like an oversized black coffee can, which was enough to keep the inside a toasty 70-75, even on -20 nights. I only needed a sheet to cover for sleep. The LEAST bump or tip shuts it off, so I felt safe with it.

Though I had a 30 amp plug-in, the coach's 15 amp breaker couldn't hande the heater and coffee pot at the same time, so I pig-tailed a new outlet off the air conditioner circuit, right next to the fuse panel just for the heater, and that worked fine. My propane tank lasted the whole trip that way, I only used the coach furnace for a few minutes, first thing in the morning while the coffee was brewing (and I had to unplug the Honeywell), before I put the new outlet in.

I also got a set of 4' long drapes at K-Mart for the driver's compartment-to coach. That worked pretty well to keep cold air from that area out.

Another good tip was taping plain 'ol "bubble wrap" packing over all of the windows... just be SURE to use the blue masking tape, since even after weeks, it will pull right off without leaving a mess.  It lets light in, but not the cold, and you can even sort of see through it, though things look a little funky.  Nothing that would bother Cheech Marin or Tommy Chong though...  

[bigray]

Andy,

What? The 15 amp breaker will only allow you to use a coffee maker and the heater?
How many watts is each? I'm no electrician by any stretch of the imagination, but shouldn't you be able to operate about 1800 watts without tripping the breaker.

I'm about to put a microwave in my Clipper and I was trying to determine where to plug it in. I was thinking about simply plugging it in one of the rear sockets being mindful of what else was plug in when operation the micorwave.

[handyman]

Big Ray I don't know model you have but the microwave goes above the refer then you just drop the cord down the back and plug it into the plug in for fefer works great I just made some simple blocks to lock it in the cabnet  

[bigray]

Hi Jim,

Haven't heard from you in a couple of days. I have a rear kitchen model. My gauges are over my refrigerator. What model do you have? My guess is that you have the side kitchen model.

[AndyIlles]

Big Ray,

You may have an over-sized fridge.  Mine's a rear kitchen too, and my nuke's above the fridge like Jim's... there's about a foot and a half cabinet above it, below the water panel.  I installed an outlet in the back panel to plug the nuke into... it feeds from the fridge outlet "outside"... but Jim's way works too.

A 700 Watt nuke will pull 1,200 Watts... and the coffee maker, in brew mode, about 800 I think.  That's 20 amps... pop goes the (15amp) breaker.

[bigray]

Andy,

You are right. My frig is oversize in that sense. I have less than 12 inches over my frig. I'll either remove one of the storage compartments in the rear and mount it there or build a shelf for it. I have the party model with two swivel chairs; however, I removed the chair closest to the refrig for extra space. I just might build a built-in shelf there.

10-4 on tripping the 15 amp. At least my math is correct. I'll just have to be mindful of what appliances are running at the same time.