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Old 09-05-2020, 02:27 PM   #1
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Strange weather/Winterization question

Fort Collins, CO: Ok, so 98 degree highs (Fahrenheit) forecast for today & Sunday, 89 Monday. THEN 32 degree low Tuesday morning, 36 degree Tuesday high, 22 degree low on Wednesday morning, then 52 for Wednesday high followed by more normal, well above freezing temps.

We would like to have one more fall outing before winterizing but concerned that maybe I should go ahead and winterize, maybe twice. BTW, we do have underside spray foam and extra interior insulation and thermal windows.

Whaddya think? Winterize or no?.
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Old 09-05-2020, 03:32 PM   #2
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Hi Ray
I just got an email from my brother who lives in Fort Collins with basically the same weather forecast as you posted. Wacky weather for sure. I’d drop all the water out of the trailer and put some kind of a canvas or heavy tarp skirt around the bottom if I couldn’t get it inside. Many others have camped in that kind of cold and might have some ideas. I’ve only camped down to 26F with full water on board and had no problems. Sorry I can’t be of more assistance. My brother spent the week Hiking in the snowy mountains and sent a picture of a forest fire
(Cameron Mountain ) in the distance. Good luck
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Old 09-05-2020, 04:57 PM   #3
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Hi Ray
I just got an email from my brother who lives in Fort Collins with basically the same weather forecast as you posted. Wacky weather for sure. I’d drop all the water out of the trailer and put some kind of a canvas or heavy tarp skirt around the bottom if I couldn’t get it inside. Many others have camped in that kind of cold and might have some ideas. I’ve only camped down to 26F with full water on board and had no problems. Sorry I can’t be of more assistance. My brother spent the week Hiking in the snowy mountains and sent a picture of a forest fire
(Cameron Mountain ) in the distance. Good luck
Iowa Dave
Yep, besides the oddball weather, we are burning up. Lousy air quality whenever the wind is from the NW, which is most of the time.

i am thinking I may just turn the furnace on to about 55 degrees for Monday night through Wednesday morning to keep traps from freezing. Our fresh tank is empty. If I feel paranoid, I may wrap a towel around dump valves. I winterized our exterior shower last year and we never used it this year, so I am hoping it still has some antifreeze in its line. Hopefully the time below freezing will be too short to cause damage.

Hope you are more or less recovered, at least as much as can be expected from that derecho. Sheesh, that was nasty! I would guess you will be fighting with your insurance company for awhile. We have been thinking about you! With your power outage, I hope you did not have to drink warm beer!
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Old 09-05-2020, 07:25 PM   #4
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I drove to Hobart Indiana the next morning and picked up 3 2200i Honda Generators and 6 5 gallon gas cans . Back home I had plenty of power to run the freezer, the refrigerator, my Tv at night, some lights. The overhead garage door etc. we had water as the association has a generator for the well pump and with the Honda I could fire the electronic ignition on the water heater. Had to wash clothes one day. Unhooked everything from one generator and ran the speed queen. Dried clothes on the line.
The guy across the road lost his house. Thursday a track type excavator came out and smashed it into kindling. Then they burned it on site yesterday. Crazy. Probably a $ 350,000 home. I hope he had good insurance. My adjuster is supposed to show up a week from tomorrow. Seemed reasonable when I talked to him. We will see. My damage is not that great. Winds were clocked at weather station two miles from us at 126mph.
We’re doing fine because I live the motto of the Boy Scouts every day and I was prepared. Knew where and how to get the generators (Fort Wayne) and had the money to handle it. 10 days and 22 hours without power and oh my, no air conditioning just like the first 22 years of my life. Had two real good fans though. Felt good.
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Old 09-05-2020, 08:11 PM   #5
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Wow. Can’t imagine wind like that.
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Old 09-05-2020, 08:23 PM   #6
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Wow. Can’t imagine wind like that.
I’ve been in a number of straight line winds that were in the 80 mph range but they only lasted a few minutes, built up, peaked went down. 10 minutes tops. The derecho covered 770 miles
There was only a breeze, you could see it coming across the field two miles away. We went in the house immediately the wind went to probably 100mph with side always rain. No hail, it blew like that for 42 minutes then gone as fast as it came. Estimated top winds about 8 miles SE of us was 140 mph.
Quite a deal. Linemen crews from all over the country came in, restored the power and headed for Louisiana. No looting as there was an immediate curfew imposed and enforced.
Tree damage was very disheartening to someone who spent 24years with Parks and Forestry in his home town. Many folks in apartment buildings are living in tents out in the yard, lots of food giveaways, and volunteer kindness.
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Old 09-06-2020, 05:28 AM   #7
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Amazing story! You are lucky to still have your house.

My plan for this cold snap coming Tuesday is to plug in the heating pads and run the furnace somewhere about 50° too. I have the spray foam insulation, which is starting to pit due to my tire throwing up small rocks and debris and sandblasting it. Probably do a post on that one.

Cpaharley has advised us that as long as you keep the heater running, you should be okay. Lots of people camp during below zero events (otherwise known as Winter) and they can do it. He does not even have heating pads in his current 21. A little searching should bring up some pertinent threads.

Indian Summer starts in three days!
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Old 09-06-2020, 06:01 AM   #8
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Not to repeat my self, but with the outside fresh tank empty and heat on inside, we were good down to single digits. Iowa Dave, keep your chin up, til we can toss a few.....
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Old 09-06-2020, 07:44 AM   #9
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Amazing story! You are lucky to still have your house.

My plan for this cold snap coming Tuesday is to plug in the heating pads and run the furnace somewhere about 50° too. I have the spray foam insulation, which is starting to pit due to my tire throwing up small rocks and debris and sandblasting it. Probably do a post on that one.

Cpaharley has advised us that as long as you keep the heater running, you should be okay. Lots of people camp during below zero events (otherwise known as Winter) and they can do it. He does not even have heating pads in his current 21. A little searching should bring up some pertinent threads.

Indian Summer starts in three days!
But two days of Indian Spring until then.
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Old 09-06-2020, 09:32 AM   #10
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Thanks, guys. I thought I’d be ok with just running the furnace, but I am the nervous type and needed reassurance.
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Old 09-06-2020, 09:58 AM   #11
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But two days of Indian Spring until then.

Har har, hardy har har!


You're gonna get blasted too! What are you gonna do? After all she's nice and shiny right now!
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Old 09-06-2020, 10:00 AM   #12
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Not to repeat my self, but with the outside fresh tank empty and heat on inside, we were good down to single digits. Iowa Dave, keep your chin up, til we can toss a few.....

Thanks for clarifying that. Forgot the empty fresh water part!
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Old 09-06-2020, 10:04 AM   #13
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Thanks, guys. I thought I’d be ok with just running the furnace, but I am the nervous type and needed reassurance.

A lot of us are going thru our first year with our trailers. I had the same question. It's all good!
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Old 09-07-2020, 12:03 PM   #14
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Okay I have the trailer ready. I connected it to shore power and turned on the heater strips (both fresh and gray). I emptied the fresh water last night. Currently they are drawing .43 amps and 42 watts.

I did not open the propane or turn on the heater yet. I am going to wait until this evening when the temperature is suppose to start dropping. The snow starts somewhere just after midnight. We are right at the foot of the mountains, so we should see some good action here. Usually we get about twice the estimated snow levels.

Got the snow shovel out and I will monitor the energy levels of the trailer all night (kind of). Monitoring the temperature inside the cabin and outside. I am thinking of sleeping out there tonight. First night snow for me!


p.s. It's gonna be soooo good to get all that particulate matter out of the atmosphere.
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Old 09-07-2020, 01:06 PM   #15
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Okay I have the trailer ready. I connected it to shore power and turned on the heater strips (both fresh and gray). I emptied the fresh water last night. Currently they are drawing .43 amps and 42 watts.
Hi Uncle Tim, When we hear about your forecast, we are amazed! What extremes! Anyways, just a quick thing. We have the heat pads, too and I'm not totally sure, but I thought we needed to have at least 'some' water in the tanks before we turned them on?? Where we live our winters are fairly mild, (so no need to 'winterize' like most) because our temps may dip to under 32F at night but it always comes back up during the day so I make sure we have at least some water in the tanks when I turn the heating pads on. Adding a little water may not be necessary - just wanted to share. Hope you and your trailer stay warm!! -Bea
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Old 09-07-2020, 01:11 PM   #16
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Since the heat pads are intended to keep water from freezing, why would you drain the water? If they tank was at least half full, the heat pads would warm the water, creating a thermal mass.
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Old 09-07-2020, 01:17 PM   #17
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These are good points and I want to say thank you to both of you. I do have a little water in there however, I am going to put 10 gallons or so in right now.

This has been bugging me since I started. Thanks guys!

I went to the 80% mark on fresh water. What the hell, this is suppose to work. I watched the amps go up to about 1.7 and the watts jumped to about 180. So I like the idea of at least a few gallons in the gray and more in the fresh. Now we wait! I think it keeps the temperature of the tanks around 50°. Does anyone know for sure?

They updated some parts of the forecast to 9-15 inches. They tell us 5-8 inches for in town. So 15 inches is not out of the question, hard as that is to believe.
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Old 09-07-2020, 04:27 PM   #18
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101F to 20F in 2 days

Quote:
Originally Posted by UncleTim View Post
Amazing story! You are lucky to still have your house.

My plan for this cold snap coming Tuesday is to plug in the heating pads and run the furnace somewhere about 50° too. I have the spray foam insulation, which is starting to pit due to my tire throwing up small rocks and debris and sandblasting it. Probably do a post on that one.

Cpaharley has advised us that as long as you keep the heater running, you should be okay. Lots of people camp during below zero events (otherwise known as Winter) and they can do it. He does not even have heating pads in his current 21. A little searching should bring up some pertinent threads.

Indian Summer starts in three days!
Quote:
Originally Posted by UncleTim View Post
These are good points and I want to say thank you to both of you. I do have a little water in there however, I am going to put 10 gallons or so in right now.

This has been bugging me since I started. Thanks guys!

I went to the 80% mark on fresh water. What the hell, this is suppose to work. I watched the amps go up to about 1.7 and the watts jumped to about 180. So I like the idea of at least a few gallons in the gray and more in the fresh. Now we wait! I think it keeps the temperature of the tanks around 50°. Does anyone know for sure?

They updated some parts of the forecast to 9-15 inches. They tell us 5-8 inches for in town. So 15 inches is not out of the question, hard as that is to believe.
I went to our storage area in Golden yesterday and set the furnace to keep it at 50F. Hoping for the best. Will go back on Thursday and see how it fared. BK and Gray are empty fresh is about 1/3 full.
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Old 09-07-2020, 05:02 PM   #19
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Just for giggles!

We will look again Tomorrow morning or so.
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Old 09-07-2020, 05:42 PM   #20
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Other forecasters are also calling for big snow – including the National Weather Service, which is calling for up to a foot in the Estes Park area and 11 inches in Boulder. I realize bolding is not necessary.

Oh hell yes! This could mean 20 inches!!! Better get out the tape measure on this one if it lives up to this hype!
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