RV Heating while moving

My Bighorn is winterized and we are leaving the UP of MI the day after Christmas. Plan on traveling south to warmer weather. Can I travel with my heat on at some point? I do have a generator to recharge batteries.

My biggest concern with having the furnace on while driving is during refueling stops. You don't want open flame anywhere near gas pumps, and you'll have that from the furnace (and from the refrigerator) when you pull up to a pump. Gasoline vapors can travel pretty far and are very explosive. Diesel is less of a problem, but before pulling into either type of pump area, safe practice would be to shut off the furnace (and maybe also the refrigerator).

Why does the heat need to be on? Once you arrive it will not take long for the heater to get the rig comfortable, 30 min, tops. We travel TO winter weather, and have not had a problem. We stay winterized until we arrive at our destination, dewinterize and crank up the furnace. In about an hour we are happy campers!


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TravelTiger said:

Why does the heat need to be on? Once you arrive it will not take long for the heater to get the rig comfortable, 30 min, tops. We travel TO winter weather, and have not had a problem. We stay winterized until we arrive at our destination, dewinterize and crank up the furnace. In about an hour we are happy campers!


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I agree. In all of our years RVing, we've never had the need to run the furnace. We do run the fridge on LP and have had no issues under normal situations. On real windy days the fridge may blow out otherwise we'll start the furnace on arrival if needed.

First, I don't think it would be a very safe idea. Secondly, I doubt it would stay lit. There is a sail switch that has to be made for the flame safequard to allow the burner to light and stay lit. Between the air turbulence on the inlet and exhaust of the combustion chamber changing the airflow through the burner, and the inertia from the road and suspension bouncing would keep it from staying lit for very long. Third, the furnace flame safeguard locks itself down on a failure, unlike the refrigerator. It has to be manually reset at the thermostat.

Lastly, your vehicle would maintain the 12V supply to your RV so, no you wouldn't need a generator running.

Thanks everyone! We will stay winterized until warm weather. Just retired, 1st time heading south.

There is another think to consider while running the furnace while traveling down the road and that is the vents will be covered by the slides when the slides are in the 'in' position. Blocking the airflow could cause the furnace to overheat.

We have traveled in our previous rig and will with this with the furnace on at times in the winter months. Have never had any problems doing this. If we are traveling and are not winterized, leaving a park to come home as example, keeps everything from freezing up. Some times if we are going to do a lunch stop in a hour or so, will do it so we are not freezing while eating. Also, makes the bathroom break more comfortable. Seats can get cold in the winter time. We will travel with it set to around 50, didn't have digital on previous rig. As far as the furnace blowing out, has never happened to us. Also like coming to a park when it is in the 20's outside, I finish the set up outside, walk in and rig is already at temperature and not having to wait.