Excuse my Ignorance

[lenny]

Although I,ve been into camping for many years in many forms ,I still dont know what is meant by a van being "Fully Winterised"
Put me in the picture please

 

[BedfordMJ]

Everything works in winter and you have heating I imagine.

 

[Deleted member 2636]

Everything works in winter ---

- allegedly

 

[guerdeval]

My grey water tank is a tank within a tank with foam insulation between the two if that helps and the fresh water is in the locker which is heated, hope that helps,rog

 

[Nosha]

Our Chausson is supposed to be 'winterised' as the fresh water tank, all pipework and the pump are fitted inside. However the grey tanks for the shower and sink are 'outside' but I guess if you ran with the drain taps open then there would be no water in them to freeze, mind you if it's THAT cold I think it's time to admit fefeat and stay at home!

 

[BedfordMJ]

The height that a vehicle is off the ground also will have some bearing on whether things freeze up - still dependent on how cold it is though.

 

[Belgian]

Although I,ve been into camping for many years in many forms ,I still dont know what is meant by a van being "Fully Winterised"
Put me in the picture please

Don't bother Lenny,
It only applies when hell freezes up, and that was a long time ago

 

[lenny]

Thanks all, this tells me that my van is not winterized as it has two underslung tanks that are not insulated and pipework exposed underneath
however the van is fitted with a carver trumatic space heater which we leave on most of the time in colder climates Last winter we were camping wild in Cumbria where the temperature dropped to -8 degrees overnight but we were warm as toast inside,and no problems with pipes freezing up, we also use butane gas (I,ll change to propane when I get round to it) again ,with no problems

 

[tresrikay]

My fresh water tank is inboard, and the waste tank is heated, they reccomend you leave it switched on when fear of frost but I just leave drain open above bucket.

 

[flashingblade]

winter

hi there. in my truck i had inboard tanks. the floor was about 3ft off the ground. on a few occasions, the fresh water tank, water pump, water lines and the taps were all solid. there was ice on the inside walls of my bedroom, where my breath had condensated. think i needed to leave the night heater on but that would be spoiling myself !

 

[lenny]

I think that you have been very lucky as I have seen many caravans (swear word I know) with frozen butane and water pipes.
Get on propane as quick as you can Lenny

Seems youre right ,Graham, I tried my heater on tonight to warm the van up a bit and found that the heater didnt perform well at all,(Temperature was 1 deg in the gas locker), I thought the bottle was close to empty so changed to a full bottle (Butane) and the heater worked fine although the other bottle was still about a quarter full. I seem to remember reading somewhere that Butane contains a certain amount of propane so I,m thinking that when in cold conditions,the propane is drawn off leaving the low quality butane in the bottle.
I will change to propane for this weekend to be on the safe side

 

[fencer]

I think that you have been very lucky as I have seen many caravans (swear word I know) with frozen butane and water pipes.
Get on propane as quick as you can Lenny

or,,, you could simply put a sleeve style wrapper around the calor tank to keep it snug.

 

[lenny]

or,,, you could simply put a sleeve style wrapper around the calor tank to keep it snug.

Thanks for that Fencer, but I,ve already converted to Propane , just in case

 

[messenger 2.5td]

Excuse my ignorance

This has got me thinking nowtime for me to change to propane i assume i will need to change the regulator can you buy clipon type for propane,Andy.