Keeping truckmount from freezing occasional freez conditions

[ruff]

Need your hard earned advise here:

We are building a new home in the California Sierra Foothills. It is not the crazy winter like Midwest or east coast. Normally slightly below freezing during 4 months winter and occasional colder days (down to 10 degrees.)
I have a dodge Sprinter with an Apex.
I'd rather not build a monster insulated permanent garage for Sprinter. On the other hand I'd rather avoid a costly mistake.

Will a portable heater left in truck work? What kind?
Will a carport help?
Will a carport with the ability to close sides with tarp do it?

 

[floorguy]

Re: Keeping truckmount from freezing occasional freez condit

did you insulate the van??

and yes a moderate ceramic heater will do the trick....i have a 16' box that all i use is the ceramic....i point it right at the machine....IF it gets really cold....I have a separate circuit setup to run a 2nd heater

 

[Becker]

Re: Keeping truckmount from freezing occasional freez condit

What is the lowest low you will be faced with?

 

[jcooper]

Re: Keeping truckmount from freezing occasional freez condit

"Will a portable heater left in truck work?" Heck yea it will work. I'm in IL(cold!) and did this for months.


What kind? Any kind with a t-stat.


Get yourself a remote temp sensor, so you'll know the temp at all times. Also get some thick moving blankets and drape them over the machine. Make a cave out of the blankets. Keep the side the heaters are on open.

There are MANY useful post on this, try the search feature.

 

[ruff]

Re: Keeping truckmount from freezing occasional freez condit

Doug,
No van is not insulated.

Becker,
There are like 6-10 days a year that may go down to 20. Other than that if there is a real freak cold spell every once in a very long time it may go to 10.

 

[Becker]

Re: Keeping truckmount from freezing occasional freez condit

You'll be fine with just a small heater.

If it happens to get near 20 and is very windy you might want to shelter the van from the wind.

At the very least insulating the ceiling alone will keep the inside of the van so much warmer.

It won't be much of a big deal for you.

 

[Jimbo]

Re: Keeping truckmount from freezing occasional freez condit

Hey Ofer!...Here are a couple of posts I submitted on keeping vans from freezing...the last thing you want to have to spend money on is a well frozen cleaning van...

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35850&p=394885&hilit=heating+truckmount#p394885

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=46480&p=520020&hilit=heating+truckmount#p520020


So where is your cabin going to be?- Jim

 

[ruff]

Re: Keeping truckmount from freezing occasional freez condit

Thank you Jim, those are good helpful posts.
It ain't a cabin, it's our home. It is between Auburn and Grass Valley in Nevada county.

Trying to avoid building a special ugly garage for it, as the sprinter is so tall. We do have the land though.

Trying to figure if a heater in the van and a car port, with one side walled, will do OK?

Becker thanks. Two of the van's sides have plywood (not totally covered though) driver side has a metal wall, I can hang a blanket or some insulation on, not sure how much help that would be. How would you insulate the roof?

 

[Ron Werner]

Re: Keeping truckmount from freezing occasional freez condit

Moderate insulation on the sides and roof will help a lot. I've a box truck and the roof is insulated with 1" styro covered with 3/8" plywood and painted. The temp on the island drops to -10C (14F) at worst and I have an oil fin heater with a small fan. With the box insulated and closed and the heater near all the sensitive parts (ie the tm), should be fine. Insulation also helps to keep the noise down.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Re: Keeping truckmount from freezing occasional freez condit

Ofer 20-degrees is pretty cold, what about a shop heater in the garage that you only light when it gets down below freezing or in the teens?

You can certainly do it with heaters, but they have limits and are not always the most reliable. When we have to have a truck outside in that kind of cold we will put two heaters from two different circuits in the unit. With temps that low you can still freeze gauges, accessories link wands and stair tools, hoses. I think we've even lost a preheater to the cold even though we had heaters in the unit.

With a shop heater you can work in the garage when maintenance or repairs are needed.

 

[ruff]

Re: Keeping truckmount from freezing occasional freez condit

Ron, is the truck parked in a garage or is it left outside?

Richard, if I'll build a garage, it will be insulated etc.
I am trying to decide if I should build one (getting ready to build a new home) as it costs $$ and it will have to be tall to fit the Sprinter.
Having the luxury or working only in San Francisco, we get spoiled as far as the weather, it never freezes. (OK it does once in every 20 years.) So I never had to deal with those issues.

I am trying to decide if heating will do the trick without it being a constant drag or should I bite the bullet and build that large ugly garage.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Re: Keeping truckmount from freezing occasional freez condit

Build "Big Ugly" and give yourself a little extra room for a rug pole step. Might as well take advantage of the extra height.

My experience with building is, I've never wished I'd have built something smaller.
Hindsight I always wished it had a little more space.

 

[Mikey P]

Re: Keeping truckmount from freezing occasional freez condit

Super nice area..

but...


unless you do ofer water damage you may find it hard to stay busy sucking rugs.


hopefully that's your goal though..

 

[ruff]

Re: Keeping truckmount from freezing occasional freez condit

Keeping the Bus in San Francisco working. Business is good.
That's what I've been doing for the last two years, and the year and a half before that when I was a week in SF and a week in TX.

In the Grass Valley area I will tinker with opening a bus and see how it goes.
Water damage is definitely not for me.

Richard, that's an idea I've been toying with as I generate more bus for oriental rugs than the building will cost me yo build. I've done it in the past though and it is a lot of work. Not sure I miss it.

 

[Mikey P]

Re: Keeping truckmount from freezing occasional freez condit

Ofer, did you have a Vortex at one time?

http://www.expertcleanandgreen.com/why-choose-us

 

[Desk Jockey]

Re: Keeping truckmount from freezing occasional freez condit

Not sure I miss it.

Who misses wrestling with pissy rugs?

Rug cleaning is hot, hard, under appreciated work.

I hate it!