Late Attempt to winter camp

[badshotlal]

:o Good day/evening,

We own a 1990 Travelmaster, Class C, motorhome, and have no RV experience (although we've now owned it four years!!).
I belatedly decided to use it for some hunting trips, but quckly learned a number of hard lessons: 1) Can't believe monitor, 2) Don't know whether to use furnace on the road or not (seems to depend who you talk to -- and mayb noe really know Class C RVing, 3) Not sure of my propane capacity, but must be 30 lbs./or just over nine gallons., 4) without a valid monitor, how do I learn (other than waking up with icecikles on my toes!), how much I'm using, 5) Is there a "rule of thumbs" on how to actually use your furnace i.e. should I expect to go to town each day to top my tank, running 65 to 70 degrees for perhaps three to four hours, then down to 55 or 60 for the night, warm up in early a.m., turn it down to 50 for the day, and so on... 6) Is carrying aux. fuel tanks a good (to be read "safe") idea? If so, outside or inside, any special rack or device to hold them, and how large is practical (for a 64 year young man).
If anyone has some input, would be surely appreciated. Hope you and yours have a very merry Christmas.

God Bless:)

[whodo]

Being no one else has attempted to answer your questions I will give it a try.
:o 1) Can't believe monitor,
Yep monitors are the most unreliable thing there is on a RV.
2) Don't know whether to use furnace on the road or not (seems to depend who you talk to -- and mayb noe really know Class C RVing, As you already mentioned everyone has a opinion on having the "Propane" turned on. If it is cold enough when traveling we will run the furnace, been doing it since they started putting them in RV's, never have had a problem.
3) Not sure of my propane capacity, but must be 30 lbs./or just over nine gallons., If you read the nomenclature plate on the propane tank it will have its capacity stamped on it. More than likely in weight (4.2lbs per gallon)
4) without a valid monitor, how do I learn (other than waking up with icecikles on my toes!), how much I'm using, Most MH propane tanks have a level indicator on the tank itself, although I have seen a few that didn't. (warm water poured over a cold tank will cause a frost line at the propane level in the tank)
5) Is there a "rule of thumbs" on how to actually use your furnace i.e. should I expect to go to town each day to top my tank, .. Rule of thumb, use it when you need to, turn it off when you don't. Now as far as refilling the tank, that will depend upon how much you use and how large the tank actually is vs. how much you use each day.
6) Is carrying aux. fuel tanks a good (to be read "safe") idea? If so, outside or inside, any special rack or device to hold them, and how large is practical (for a 64 year young man). We prefer to boondock when ever possible so we always carry a 5 gallon spare tank. A milk crate (like the ones you see around stores) is perfect to carry the tank in. A 5 gallon tank will fit perfect inside one and this prevents it from tipping over. On our MH we had a small storage compartment right next to the on board propane tank that I changed the door on to a vented louvered door (placed propane tank stickers on the door for the benefit of emergency personnel in case of a emergency).
Now as far as where you should carry a spare tank, here is some links to propane safety information;
http://www.flameengineering.com/Propane_Info.html
http://www.amerigas.com/consumer_guidelines.html
http://www.propane101.com/sitemap.htm

[bukhrn]

Looks like Whodo has given you some good advice, as far as carrying aux. tank, If I know that i'm going to be running the furnace quite a bit, I carry an extra 20 pounder, (I guess thats 5 gl), If you don't already have one, you'll need an Extend-A-Stay, or Extend-A-Flow, (I have the latter) to hook the aux tank into your system, that way you can run off the aux. first, then when that gets empty, you simply go fill that one while you're running off the onboard tank, (If you have someone else with a vehicle, or if you'll have a toad),when you return, you can run off the aux. again.