My Phoenix Camper, Ski Area Parking Lot Edition, Part Two
Coyote RV is located in the Denver suburb of Commerce City, so after I took possession of the camper in January 2011, I went skiing at Keystone and Breckenridge with the idea of going back to see Robby at Coyote RV for any needed fixes or mods that I wanted.
In part one I wrote about factory installed extra insulation. I should also mention that while Robby doesn't supply inside storm windows, he did supply insulated snap-in-place covers for the window, door, and all roof vents. I will add rigid insulation between the window and soft cover and between the screen door and rear door.
I had the camper built on a 1-1/2" frame to raise it up to clear my 5th wheel hitch rails that are attached to the truck bed. In the spaces between the hitch rails and camper frame I have glued 1-1/2" rigid insulation, so combined with the factory installed insulation I now have 2-1/2" of insulation under most of the camper floor. I also covered a 1-1/2" thick piece of insulation with self stick shelving paper and glued it to the inside wall below the sofa.
My camper has a shower stall but no shower plumbing and no hot water tank/heater. I do not use the fresh water tank in winter so there is no chance of a frozen water system in winter. I have a porta-potti toilet and a portable shower called Hot Jugz which is essentially a 2 gallon pump up garden sprayer with a shower head and pressure release valve. I heat water in a kettle and pour it into the Hot Jugz, pump it up and I am ready to shower. The shower head puts out more water than a garden sprayer mist but less water than a standard shower head so I can shower using less than 2 gallons.
The amount of water coming out of the shower head is not enough volume to heat you up during a shower (but is more than enough to shower with). Instead I had Robby build a duct with an open/close grill from the furnace into the shower stall. This also turns the shower stall into a dry room for wet clothes and back up ski boot warmer if my electric boot warmers fail.
There is also a duct from the furnace that feeds the main cabin of the camper. It is located near the under the shower cabinet that houses the grey water holding tank. One of the later mods that I had Robby do was install a vent/grill near this furnace duct so I can direct warm air into the holding tank cabinet when needed.
Once I got into the mountains the grey water drain line started to freeze from the drain cap on the rear outside wall, up the drain line toward the tank. The simple solution was to have Robby install an on/off valve in the drain line about a foot in from the outside wall. This valve also works great in summer as it allows you to attach a drain hose without having the grey water gush out once the drain cap is removed.
I ordered the camper with 2 composite 20lb. propane tanks and a switch-over valve that switches tanks when one is empty. Robby for some reason couldn't supply the switch-over valve but it didn't matter because these composite tanks, made of fibre glass inside a frame, are not only very light weight but they are also "see thru". So before retiring for the night I just take a look at the fuel level in the tank in use and do a switch over if it looks like the propane won't last the night.
When I first looked at the furnace thermostat mounting position I thought that it was too close to the furnace but Robby said that it was in the standard position. I spent several nights at 0 degrees C/ -18 degrees F and it was warm in my sleeping bag and comfortable but not warm standing around in my underwear. At these cold outside temps the furnace would go on for about 15min. and stay off for 5 to 10 min. I wanted the furnace to stay on longer so I eventually moved it farther away from the furnace. It seemed to work better but I have yet to test it in the new position at really cold temps.
One of the standard features of the Phoenix camper is the fairly thick over hang with aerodynamic fibre glass front cap. This translates into slightly higher hard side walls and shorter height soft wall and higher 50" door when compared to some other pop-up campers. It also means under the bed storage which is a great place for extra winter clothing. The extra winter clothing under the bed also provides extra insulation under
the bed. The camper has narrow cabinets used for access to the camper tie downs that I will use for storing and extra sleeping bag on one side and extra winter jacket on the other side and these should help trap heat as well.
Some Other Problems and Fixes.
For combustion the furnace requires fresh air from both the outside vent and inside cabin air. Because of all the insulation, the small cabinet beside the furnace was not providing enough inside air to the furnace so a hole was cut in the cabinet door and a grill attached.
One unforeseen problem with the wide 2" side walls is that when the top is down and the soft fabric is folded in, the fittings on the end of the metal bar roof raising system pinch the fabric against the top of the wide wall. This chafing eventually caused a hole to wear though the fabric in a couple of spots. The 2" wide wall is essentially a 1" inner wood frame wall attached to an aluminum framed 1" outer wall, so I have chiselled down about 3/4" by 1-1/2" on the inside wall to alleviate the problem and it seems to have worked. The solution for future builds of similar design would be to have the top of the inner 1" wall to be about 1" lower than the outer wall.
Well that is about all I can think of to write about right now. I hope this helps give ideas to others who may be planning some cold winter camping.
Coyote RV is located in the Denver suburb of Commerce City, so after I took possession of the camper in January 2011, I went skiing at Keystone and Breckenridge with the idea of going back to see Robby at Coyote RV for any needed fixes or mods that I wanted.
In part one I wrote about factory installed extra insulation. I should also mention that while Robby doesn't supply inside storm windows, he did supply insulated snap-in-place covers for the window, door, and all roof vents. I will add rigid insulation between the window and soft cover and between the screen door and rear door.
I had the camper built on a 1-1/2" frame to raise it up to clear my 5th wheel hitch rails that are attached to the truck bed. In the spaces between the hitch rails and camper frame I have glued 1-1/2" rigid insulation, so combined with the factory installed insulation I now have 2-1/2" of insulation under most of the camper floor. I also covered a 1-1/2" thick piece of insulation with self stick shelving paper and glued it to the inside wall below the sofa.
My camper has a shower stall but no shower plumbing and no hot water tank/heater. I do not use the fresh water tank in winter so there is no chance of a frozen water system in winter. I have a porta-potti toilet and a portable shower called Hot Jugz which is essentially a 2 gallon pump up garden sprayer with a shower head and pressure release valve. I heat water in a kettle and pour it into the Hot Jugz, pump it up and I am ready to shower. The shower head puts out more water than a garden sprayer mist but less water than a standard shower head so I can shower using less than 2 gallons.
The amount of water coming out of the shower head is not enough volume to heat you up during a shower (but is more than enough to shower with). Instead I had Robby build a duct with an open/close grill from the furnace into the shower stall. This also turns the shower stall into a dry room for wet clothes and back up ski boot warmer if my electric boot warmers fail.
There is also a duct from the furnace that feeds the main cabin of the camper. It is located near the under the shower cabinet that houses the grey water holding tank. One of the later mods that I had Robby do was install a vent/grill near this furnace duct so I can direct warm air into the holding tank cabinet when needed.
Once I got into the mountains the grey water drain line started to freeze from the drain cap on the rear outside wall, up the drain line toward the tank. The simple solution was to have Robby install an on/off valve in the drain line about a foot in from the outside wall. This valve also works great in summer as it allows you to attach a drain hose without having the grey water gush out once the drain cap is removed.
I ordered the camper with 2 composite 20lb. propane tanks and a switch-over valve that switches tanks when one is empty. Robby for some reason couldn't supply the switch-over valve but it didn't matter because these composite tanks, made of fibre glass inside a frame, are not only very light weight but they are also "see thru". So before retiring for the night I just take a look at the fuel level in the tank in use and do a switch over if it looks like the propane won't last the night.
When I first looked at the furnace thermostat mounting position I thought that it was too close to the furnace but Robby said that it was in the standard position. I spent several nights at 0 degrees C/ -18 degrees F and it was warm in my sleeping bag and comfortable but not warm standing around in my underwear. At these cold outside temps the furnace would go on for about 15min. and stay off for 5 to 10 min. I wanted the furnace to stay on longer so I eventually moved it farther away from the furnace. It seemed to work better but I have yet to test it in the new position at really cold temps.
One of the standard features of the Phoenix camper is the fairly thick over hang with aerodynamic fibre glass front cap. This translates into slightly higher hard side walls and shorter height soft wall and higher 50" door when compared to some other pop-up campers. It also means under the bed storage which is a great place for extra winter clothing. The extra winter clothing under the bed also provides extra insulation under
the bed. The camper has narrow cabinets used for access to the camper tie downs that I will use for storing and extra sleeping bag on one side and extra winter jacket on the other side and these should help trap heat as well.
Some Other Problems and Fixes.
For combustion the furnace requires fresh air from both the outside vent and inside cabin air. Because of all the insulation, the small cabinet beside the furnace was not providing enough inside air to the furnace so a hole was cut in the cabinet door and a grill attached.
One unforeseen problem with the wide 2" side walls is that when the top is down and the soft fabric is folded in, the fittings on the end of the metal bar roof raising system pinch the fabric against the top of the wide wall. This chafing eventually caused a hole to wear though the fabric in a couple of spots. The 2" wide wall is essentially a 1" inner wood frame wall attached to an aluminum framed 1" outer wall, so I have chiselled down about 3/4" by 1-1/2" on the inside wall to alleviate the problem and it seems to have worked. The solution for future builds of similar design would be to have the top of the inner 1" wall to be about 1" lower than the outer wall.
Well that is about all I can think of to write about right now. I hope this helps give ideas to others who may be planning some cold winter camping.
