Thor Forums

[Korey & Tana Jackson]

We spent four days “snowed in” at Ellsworth AFB, SD, in our 24.1 Vegas during the April 2019 blizzard. Some things to consider to mitigate the cold:
1. Holding tank heaters don’t protect the pipes. Add additional protection and heat to the drain lines.
2. Minimize heated/living area. We retracted our slide-out, and separated the cab area with a moving blanket hung from the overhead bunk, draped to the floor.
3. Fill the water tank and propane tanks, if possible.
4. We used an additional small square 750/1500 watt heater and opened access panels to get airflow around pipes.
5. Adding overhead vent insulation cushions helps.

Granted, the temps never got much below 10F, but the wind howled, and drifting snow built up on one side (don’t want that melt running into compartments), and we didn’t have to worry much about snow buildup on the roof.

Remarkably, we used very little propane for heat. The electric heater, occasionally augmented by the propane heater, kept the interior well above freezing. While our neighboring RVs had water freeze up issues, our fresh water lines were fine. We kept our thermostat set for the upper 50s (a little lower at night).