Heated Basement?

geodrake · 10-26-2008, 01:09 PM

We are fairly new to RVing. We started out a year ago with a 34 ft 1993 Airstream motorhome.. It provided a reasonable way to get in and decide if we liked RVing. We decided that it is something we enjoy, so we recently purchased a 2002 32ft Itasca Sunrise.

Is the basement heated on this unit? Any fear of pipes freezing as long as we are heating the coach?

geodrake · 10-26-2008, 01:09 PM

We are fairly new to RVing. We started out a year ago with a 34 ft 1993 Airstream motorhome.. It provided a reasonable way to get in and decide if we liked RVing. We decided that it is something we enjoy, so we recently purchased a 2002 32ft Itasca Sunrise.

Is the basement heated on this unit? Any fear of pipes freezing as long as we are heating the coach?

rvten · 10-26-2008, 04:38 PM

I will go out on a limb and say good chance it is.
The heating of the tanks only works if you are useing the propane furnace.

BBBEEBOP · 10-26-2008, 04:51 PM

I would agree my 2002 Adventurer had heated basement when on propane furnace. If you get into the real cold you could keep a 60-100 watt bulb burning in the water compartment.

skigramp · 10-26-2008, 05:15 PM

Your bays are heated by the duct from the LP furnace that runs under the floor.

I have used my motorhome for sking when the temperature was in the teens and nothing froze.

When I thought there was any danger of temperatures lower than that I put a trouble light by the dump valves and the water pump.

autofish · 10-26-2008, 05:35 PM

Had waterpump freeze in low teen weather. So put a small 400 watt heater in the basement proble solved. Never had a problem when heating with LP. Only when using electric heat at parks.

Finhawk · 10-26-2008, 06:26 PM

That's good to know. But where are the vents in those compartments?

rvcarpenter · 10-27-2008, 05:15 AM

Not sure there are any vents, I think it's just the fact the ducts run through the basement and give off heat. they are just thin sheet metal.

cannon man · 10-27-2008, 06:06 AM

if your pluged in use the bay lights.

Clay L · 10-27-2008, 07:19 AM

My 96 Winnebago had an extra duct that split and ran to two basement compartments.

My current one has holes in the bottom of the floor duct. The holes feed hot air into the compartment that encloses the waste and fresh water tanks.
That compartment is open to the service bay. I use a small 1500 watt electric heater in that bay when the temps are projected to get below 20 degrees.
A Winnebago customer service guy told me that the rig should be good down to 20 degrees with the furnace set at 72 degrees.

We turn the furnace down to 55 degrees at night and the heater in the service bay has enabled me to stay overnight at 9 degrees without freezing anything.

DAN L · 10-28-2008, 09:09 PM

I bought a small inside-outside thermometer and ran the outside probe wire down the wall just aft of the bathroom drivers side into the water service compartment to monitor the temperature there.
if necessary, i will use a small electric 700w box heater set on low in the fwd compartment that houses the water pump to keep the basement compartments from freezing when plugged in.
when not plugged in, the propane furnace ducts should keep the basement compartments from freezing.
at least now i can monitor the basement water service compartment temperature from the bedroom.

FrontRangeRVer · 10-29-2008, 03:41 AM

Winnebago says our basement is heated....and I believe they MIGHT have cut a couple of holes in the the bottom of the heat duct, but with my remote thermometers in both the water pump area and the sewer area, the temperature doesn't rise in these bays when I run my forced air furnace.

I use a metal covered trouble light with a 100 watt bulb in the water pump basement on one side of my motorhome, and another trouble light in the sewer basement area on the other side of the motorhome, and this works down to about 20 degrees outside ambient temperature. Anything below this, and I put small 600 watt heaters in both compartments.

These units severely lack insulation or good basement heating, and I will take this in account with my next motorhome purchase.

skigramp · 10-29-2008, 03:46 AM

Try a Taylor thermometer with a wireless remote sensor ... no wires to run

Taylor 1453

FrontRangeRVer · 10-29-2008, 03:55 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by skigramp:
Try a Taylor thermometer with a wireless remote sensor ... no wires to run

Taylor 1453 </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

These are the exact ones we use. I have three remotes...one in the sewer area, one in the water pump area, and one on the outside front air intake area. These work great.