NE Winter FWC

[Josh41]

Took the wife and 10yo out this weekend skiing and camping in our Fleet Shell (no propane). A great time was had and we learned and observed a few things worth sharing.
We stayed at a campground in central NH with electricity, we had a 1500 watt electric heater and an electric blanket. The heater was sitting on top of a cooler on top of battery box next to the door, basically only blowing up towards the bed.

Conditions

• 12 inches of snow 1st night.
• 11 degrees F 1st night
• -3 degrees F 2nd night

Observations

• We all slept warm, no cold toes or heads.
• The water bottles on the front dinette froze overnight!
• Snow on the floor never melted.
• Boots froze to the floor.
• I think the Arctic liner will make a huge difference.
• Every metal screw had ice on it. Every staple on the ceiling too. Everywhere there was framing under the skin on the interior had ice as well.
• Canvas has thin layer of ice (interesting when we closed), there were little flakes of ice everywhere the next night, almost like finely shaved clear parmesan cheese. Because it was frozen, we where able to sweep them up into a dustpan.
• It took two to open it the second night with some snow and ice on roof (we got off most).
• As it snowed, the roof melted the ice which dripped onto the front pistons and latches (this was a time suck trying to close the camper). The little groove for the latch had ice in it and the ice had to be removed to latch the camper closed.

Watching the Patriots!!

 

[codename607]

Looks like you had quite the adventure. Did you leave any of the windows open to allow air to vent? I normally leave my bottom access ports open and at least two windows partially open with a 4 inch gap. Even on the coldest of nights that I've camped (-23 out in Kansas) I managed to stay warm and keep condensation low. We use a Wave-3 heater and it does a great job keeping everything in the camper from freezing.

 

[grogie]

Thanks for sharing as your experience is educational. I’ve seen these now twice at Overland Expo East, and I really like them. I’ve wondered about how they’d work out in (for example) the Michigan U.P. which has a short summer?