Quoted from Gerald Farris

....As for installing a space heater in the basement, that can be dangerous. Just turn on the Hurricane and set the living room thermostat to 50 degrees so the Hurricane will not run unless the basement gets to cold and then the heater in the basement will turn on the diesel burner to keep the basement plumbing from freezing.

Gerald,

Just to be clear, I'm not encouraging use of space heaters for routine heating.  I think most of them are inherently dangerous.  My concern in this discussion is having a short term backup to a furnace failure in freezing temperatures.  

On separate occasions I've had a failures from a bearing, loose wires, coolant level indicator, a stir pump, the heating element, and the Webasto control box.  All failures have occurred in above freezing temperatures so it has only been inconvenient.

Odds are I will have another failure and I'm ready if it is cold enough to cause damage to me, my DW, her dog or the coach.

Bill

Quoted from Jeremy Parrett

Bill,
  Good work. It appears our 2000 Beaver Marquis has all the 120v outlets on leg 1 !!!   I have been using 3 small ceramic space heaters on the low setting to keep warm here in Las Cruces.NM.  
In the basement there are 2 more 120v outlets.  Would it be possible to reconnect  the outlets so they are evenly spread between leg 1 and leg 2 ??  I have a beer cooler running in the basement, which seems to keep everything warm enough.  We have not had a freezing problem yet, with temps down to 20 deg F at night, but it would be better to run a heater down there.    Jeremy

This will probably be kind of “long winded”.  But, it is cold outside and I have nothing to do besides type while I watch the sunrise on Fidalgo Bay near the San Juan Islands.  It is 30 degrees outside.  Mt Baker is clearly visible and there are a few pink clouds in the sky.

There are too many RVs that burn up.  One of the many causes is circuits overloaded with too many space heaters.  

I am a fan of using electricity when it is cheaper than diesel to heat with.  Sometimes it is even free with your site hookups.  I almost always have a baseboard style heater plugged in and always on low in the front.  But, I am not a fan of multiple space heaters.   This is especially true in a Beaver.  It seems the sometimes evil engineers at Beaver thought it was a good idea to put a dozen or more outlets on single circuit like Gerald describes above.  It is perfect for extra light fixtures, laptops, cell phone chargers, an alarm clock and the occasional use of a hair dryer.  It is tempting, not well suited for heating our motorhomes.

As you probably know, most space heaters draw about 900 watts or 8 amps on low and 1500 watts or 13 amps on high.  When all three of yours cycle on at the same time you’ll draw about 24 amps on your 20 amp circuit breaker!  With your beer cooler factored in it could be worse.  If the breaker doesn’t trip you can still be causing hot spots at any slightly loose connection or wire nut on that long Beaver outlet circuit.  I don’t know about everyone else, but I’ve found several connections that were either tightened by limp wristed Beaver workers Bend or shaken loose by California pot holes!

Short term, I would suggest you consider getting at least one of your heaters plugged in to the washer/dryer outlet (if you can reach it).  It has its own circuit breaker.  Another choice is the microwave outlet.  The microwave outlet is still on the inverter circuit but is not on the Big Beaver dozen outlet circuit.

There is one more independent circuit that may be convenient, depending on your coach.    Most of us have block heaters that rarely get used.  Somewhere back in the engine compartment is an outlet where the block heater plugs in.  You might find a relatively easy way to re-route that circuit into the bedroom.  I think I could do it in about an hour on our rig, but in reality it might take two days.  

Another unusual solution is to go straight to the shore power pole with an extension cord.  I like 12 gauge cords, but I think the typical 14 gauge is OK if you leave the heater on low.  You can run the cord through a window.  

I have a “trailer trash” fulltiming friend that cut a hole in the wall of his 30 amp trailer.  On the inside he put a nice looking standard household outlet.  On the outside, behind a typical RV plastic access door is a “pigtail” with male plug.  He runs an extension cord from the pigtail to the shore power post.  He has a permanently plugged in oil filled radiator style space heater on the inside.  He likes to say he has “45 amp hookups”.

Happy new year!

Happy New Year to you and yours Bill! I have a question for you. Our Beaver came from the factory with the space heaters option, one in the Kitchen area and one in the bathroom. Are these on a separate circuit? We rarely use the one in the kichen but regularly use the bathroom one. These are built in electric baseboard heaters. Never had a problem with them tripping out but just was not sure how they are wired.

January 1, 2011

From the “Doghaus” dictionary:

help•less  adj  \ˈhel-pləs; Southern often ˈhep-ləs also ˈheəp-\
1)     The feeling you get while driving your 40’ motorhome with toad attached – in the fog – and find black ice …

ter•ror  noun \ˈter-ər, ˈte-rər\
1)     The feeling you get when seeing the freeway centerline through the window on your door – and hearing the voice of GPS Jill say “Recalculating …”

Stun verb \ˈstən\ stunned stun•ning
1)     The feeling you have when you realize that you are still alive and neither the coach or the toad touched either guardrail on that overpass and nothing is damaged

1clean adj \ˈklēn\
1)     The feeling you have when you find a rest area, take a quick shower and change the pants you were wearing – {see helpless and terror above}

Wish I could say I was laughing at the time. Raylene had to pry my hands loose from the wheel. We decided to quit for the day and several drinks later i'm calming down.

Wadayaknow.  I figured out how to capture a still off my video.  Unfortunately, I didn't take video of the RV Park in Rawlins, but here's a couple just after the blizzard caught up with us, stuck on I-80.  We were stopped on this spot for about 5 hours.

-Joel

Note the pronghorns running west on the north side of the freeway, apparently escaping the commotion at the wreck site ahead of us.  Hard to see through the blizzard.

Quoted from Larry Fisk

....Our Beaver came from the factory with the space heaters option, one in the Kitchen area and one in the bathroom. Are these on a separate circuit? .....

I wish I had those!

I would assume they are on a separate circuit.  If not, they would bring your batteries to dead very quickly when dry camping.  Take a look at the breaker box.  

Ok, We head out of Seattle to enjoy the warmth of AZ, a great idea!

Then we get a white dusting in PDX then squeak through the Siskiyou with no chains , Yeah!.

Luck holds we miss the flood in Bakersfield.

Its 28 in Las Vegas for New years the fountains freeze and we bundle up for the celebration. Pulling out of Vegas we head to Happy Trails today
thinking its gotta get better, OK here is a photo 40 miles East of Kingman. I am thinking we have a weather magnet on the tail of our rig.

I know it's winter but I am not sure how far south we need to go??
Good news the rig is nice and warm

Happy New Years