Cyclone 3110 Winterization

I'm going to taking delivery of an ordered 3110 after the first of the year. Obviously, the unit is currently winteized from the factory, and the dealer will be dewinterizing for a proper inspection and overnight stay. The plan had been for them to then winterize the unit for storage after the inpection is complete. I have an unoccuppied building -- with plenty of electrical capacity -- where I plan to keep it when not in use. It would be fairly simple to add a 50 amp recepticle for the Cyclone, and keep it under power. The building itself is unheated, but it is fully insulated.

Would it be better to store the unit under power (and dewinterized) with the furnaces on a low setting? Should the slideouts be in an in or out position? Any pros or cons, other than an increased electrical bill? I like the idea of being able to begin prepping/outfitting the unit for my first trip in March while it's under power.

Thanks in advance for any advice or thoughts.

You don't say what your location is, but I assume it will be below freezing there. Indoor storage is awesome. Slides in or out, either way is fine with indoor storage. But, if you won't be getting into it at all during storage, I'd close them up.

As far as keeping the furnaces on, that's going to be an exercise in propane usage and for no real gain - unless you will be in the unit often during storage and want it warm in there.

My suggestion is to store it winterized, slides in but if you can/want, powered up with all breakers off except for the one that controls the converter. With the converter on, your batteries will stay topped off and your lights will work, in the event you do access the unit over the winter.

Another suggestion is to ask the dealer to winterize with compressed air instead of anti-freeze. They may not want to as you really need to know what you're doing with that method. I like it as I never have to rinse the anti-freeze out. Which is nice if you winterize/dewinterize more than once per season.

I store my RV inside in my RV garage, which is part of my home. It was 52 in the garage the other day. Not freezing, but a little chilly to work inside the RV comfortably. Because I have full-hookups in the garage for the RV, I turned on the fireplace and the 110 volt ceiling fan and the heat from the fireplace, being stirred around by the fan, really heated the interior of the RV up to a comfortable point that I was able to work inside. And no propane used Same could be done with 1 or 2 small ceramic or similar heaters.

Congrats on the CY 3110 purchase and welcome to the Heartland family.

Jim

The beiggest con would be the fact that your heat is propane powered so leaving the furnaces on will deplete your two tanks in about a month. Remember electric heat does not get down into the underbelly so those pipes would freeze when the temps got low enough.

Side concern: when the 50 amp service is installed, make sure it's by someone who is 1) licensed and insured and 2) understands you need 50 amp 110V service for an RV. It's easy to make a mistake and get 220V service that destroys the appliances in your RV.

Great info. Looks like I'll be plugging in while winterized. Thanks!

danemayer said:

Side concern: when the 50 amp service is installed, make sure it's by someone who is 1) licensed and insured and 2) understands you need 50 amp 110V service for an RV. It's easy to make a mistake and get 220V service that destroys the appliances in your RV.

Click to expand...

I thought we had this discussion elsewhere and decided that the two hots on the 50A outlet in fact are 240 in relation to each other, but that the coach is wired in a way that it only uses one or the other, plus the neutral to make a balanced 120 load. So, the 50A outlet is wired like any other.

http://www.ehow.com/how_7258647_wire-50_amp-rv-receptacle.html

oscar said:

I thought we had this discussion elsewhere and decided that the two hots on the 50A outlet in fact are 240 in relation to each other, but that the coach is wired in a way that it only uses one or the other, plus the neutral to make a balanced 120 load. So, the 50A outlet is wired like any other.

http://www.ehow.com/how_7258647_wire-50_amp-rv-receptacle.html

Click to expand...

Actually - The wiring of the 50Amp for an RV is not that much different - except there is no 220 service in the RV.

There are 4 wires on an RV 50 AMP Service.

A, B, N, G

A = Hot
B = Hot
N = Neutral
G = Ground

A - 110V in relationship to N
B - 110V in relationship to N
A to B can be either 0V or 220V depending if they are in or out of phase
N to G should always be 0V Anything other than that says there is a floating N or G ( REALLY BAD )

Since no breakers in the RV span both the A and B there can not be a 220V Circuit. SO you do in fact have two 50A 110V services.



Kevin

I think that's what I said, but you said it more completely.

In for updates

Building electrical had an open 50 amp breaker. Bought the 14-50r RV box at Lowe's. Took the guy less than 30 minutes to wire it. My surge protector/tester arrives Monday.