Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Settling the RV - Current Challenges

I'm basically settled in the motor home and have a good system working, but I have yet to figure out exactly how I'm going to solve a few of the necessities for the coming Winter.

First, I have to find a way to heat and insulate the water hose. There are commercial solutions available, but none are great. Heated hoses don't tend to be shorter than 20' and hose heaters tend to be a mixed bag of fire hazards and are often incompatible with soft hose. I'm now strongly considering making my own fixed pipe with PVC then using pipe heat tape and insulating it with either fiberglass wrap or with common foam insulators.

Second, I have to get heaters in place for the sewer compartment and under the bed where the water lines are. In this, I also need to come up with new insulation for these compartments, so my heat isn't just lost through the 1.5" thick Styrofoam walls. So far, it seems like light bulbs will be a good way to go, though I would like to find a thermostat solution that would allow these to come on and off automatically, as needed. Perhaps the technology hasn't caught up to what I'm trying to do here.

Third, I need to get a "skirt" on the beast. The park I'm in requires a skirt, which is actually a good thing to prevent tire rot and to prevent wind from whistling through the underside constantly. I'm considering everything from plastic/fiberglass corrugated sheets and a wood frame to modified canvas tarpaulins with snaps that go around the vehicle. I think the canvas option would be better for fitting to the ground and moving events, but might actually be more difficult since so many snaps will need to be set for it to work. A screw-snap will need to be set every 10" along the body and whether it will hold in the wind is another issue entirely.

I never thought this would be easy, but these items that aren't readily available on the market have proven quite time consuming and require quite a bit more thought and innovation than I had hoped for.

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