Ski RV's, who's sleeping in parking lots?

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

I have a little "clothesline" and just hang stuff close to the vent of the diesel heater.

I pulled the trigger on a WeBoost roof dildo today. Since I don't have a current verizon account the cheapest JetPack + MIMO antenna I could get would cost me $90/month. That's stupid.

[simple]

Going snowmobiling gets you significantly more wet than skiing. I'll have gear in front of the heater and on hangers along the shelf above the front seats. It takes hours to dry everything and rotate. Some heavy days I'll use a Mr. Heater buddy to dry out the boots I swapped out mid day.

My partner has two heaters in his hard side. It he has a full corner dedicated to drying area. His radiant heater is the best but generates lots of moisture

[shera]

Hello phish, how you doin?

[Dromond]

This is what I use:


https://buckmans.com/product/9515/dr...and-pre-warmer.

Plugs into an inverter and is more reliable than 12v. No fan means no moving parts and no noise. Each tube draws about 8watts.

I have had a set of "drystix" which appear identical to those for approximately 1 million years, so I can second the durability claim. They definitely don't dry quickly - I think a PNW-wet ski boot liner takes a full night to dry even in a heated room. Not sure how the power usage stacks up against the above 12v option.

[Bobcat Sig]

I'm surprised by all the responses and so quickly. Love it.

I put my liners under the passenger seat floor area.

I Try to avoid swampy damp areas. Baker this year may be damp.

Gloves and hat on the dash

Also will just wear my shit for a bit apres to dry in the lodge while I pick up all the honeys.

Yah, that's my move when I'm road-tripping between ski areas. But for a parked rig for a few days, I suppose idling the engine is likely required as to not kill the house batteries of the camper or van.

I use a 12 volt boot dryer that works well and doesn't use too much power. If you are in a truck camper, with split living, dry as much as you can up front to keep the moisture out of the living space.

https://dryguy.implus.com/product/dryguy-travel-dry-dx

I am in a truck camper. Though a quick hit to the Google Machine tells me that extended idling with my Duramax isn't a good idea. I think toting the generator along and making use of my camper fans will be the solution to keep the power up and the moisture vented.

In the process of building a diverter/ drying closet to sit in front of my diesel heater as a kind of pass-through dryer with an exit vent at the top. Not sure how it'll work out but it looks great on the back of the napkin.

Interesting. I'm curious to hear how it works out for you.




I should've clarified; how do you dry your gear overnight in your parked van or camper? My thought when I winter camp is to park the truck+camper and base out of there for a few days, not moving or driving the truck. But what I'm hearing is that most of you run idle the engine to dry the gear each night. Is that the case?

it's looking like I need to look at ways to tote some gasoline along to run my Honda generator. Running my Duramax for extended amounts of time is a no-no.

[altasnob]

I am in a truck camper. Though a quick hit to the Google Machine tells me that extended idling with my Duramax isn't a good idea. I think toting the generator along and making use of my camper fans will be the solution to keep the power up and the moisture vented.

What I meant by that is if you are driving after skiing, put all your wet stuff in the cab. Jackets and pants hanging from the seats, ect. Take advantage of that driving heat to dry as much as you can. But doesn't apply if you aren't driving anywhere.

Just run your heater in your camper and stuff will dry. If it's getting really moist in there, you can run your heater, and overhead vent fan, at the same time, to exhaust the moist air and bring in drier air from the outside. Doesn't work as well when it is puking wet, heavy snowflakes outside.

[Norseman]

Couple points from a soggy pnw camperite...

1. Intuitions don't need to dry, being closed cell. Just dump out the water and change socks.

2. You can just change into dry duds if the stuff doesn't get dry enough overnight. Or if you don't feel like steaming yourself all night, just bag/box the wet shit to dry at home later. Don't forget to put the ski pass on the other pair of pants or whatever.

[powdrhound]

A Second on the DryGuy. Love mine.

The key for me is Spares and Backups.
More gloves, more clothes, more socks.
Backup heat, generator and finally solar.

[apex dave]

I made a manifold out of built in vacuum pipe. Main pipe with four branches stuck together with aluminum tape and put against one of the heater outlets

[Conundrum]

Sneak into the local condos common area and use their dryer and sauna while you poach the hot tub?

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Hello phish, how you doin?

Sup Mir! I'm good!!! You?

[MakersTeleMark]

Sup Mir! I'm good!!! You?

Having an awe moment.

[~mikey b]

right?

[Backward_Banana]

In my experience in a van a clothesline hung inside with the heater on full + one of the roof vents partially cracked is a good system, even in really heavy precip. I have a little valve installed on my heater output to direct the flow, I usually send ~70% into the cabin and 30% into the rear, where I have the liners and jackets and bibs hanging up. A bonus is that the warm air comes up from under the bed making the person sleeping closer to the rear door even warmer.

Sometimes having the roof cracked can make it a bit cool inside if it's really cold and windy, so you gotta make the decision to either be warm and slightly damp or wrapped up in a sleeping bag.

It gets dark at 5 and lifts don't spin until 9, usually plenty of time for everything to dry off.

[nickbokhoven]

it's snowing! Well, in some parts of the world. So let's talk gear management strategies and in particular, drying out the gear. I'm curious how you RVers and #vanlifers are drying out your boot liners, gloves, and the like when you're out getting rad, sleeping at trailheads and in ski lots. Bonus points for showing pictures for the visual learners in the audience.

A couple of things we have learned
- carry a fine bristle hand brush/broom and get as much snow off before getting in
- same is true for boots and skis. Get a scraper and clean everything off
- a daisy chain works great to clip things to and keeps spacing. Gloves get hung up to dry.
- Get a tub or two of damprid or similar desiccant material. Tuck under a seat and forget about it. You will be surprised how much it absorbs.
- you have to get the moist air out. For us that means opening the exhaust fan on the roof at 10% and running it. Crack a window just enough for make up air.
- 12v boot heaters/fans work well to dry things out. Running the engine in the morning with all 8 boots for us in the front seat helps too.

Good luck.


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[Trackhead]

We built in extra space around our diesel heater to use as a boot/glove dryer. We use our bathroom/shower as a coat/ski pant drying area. I piped a vent into bathroom to hot box it, pop the roof vent, shut the door. Clothes dry very quickly. Wake up to warm boots.

[El Chupacabra]

A couple of things we have learned
- carry a fine bristle hand brush/broom and get as much snow off before getting in
- same is true for boots and skis. Get a scraper and clean everything off

A windshield ice scraper / snow brush combo works well for this.

[subtle plague]

it's snowing! Well, in some parts of the world. So let's talk gear management strategies and in particular, drying out the gear. I'm curious how you RVers and #vanlifers are drying out your boot liners, gloves, and the like when you're out getting rad, sleeping at trailheads and in ski lots. Bonus points for showing pictures for the visual learners in the audience.

Well, We've got a heated Garage, so we place gloves and boots close to the exhaust ( vent? It's a vent...is it?)put up some drying lines im there. No wet stuff in the rv.

[subtle plague]

Pics:
We've got plenty of space. You can see the vent in the second pic. Warm air vent.
Permanent Surfboard and ski rack on the ceiling. Still enough space for three crashpads and stuff.

[Falcon3]

My 2kw diesel heater with a 3’ dual output hose still melted my foam roller that was near the output. Be careful putting ski boots too close. I just carry the 12v DryGuy travel heaters, they don’t use much energy.

@WRG, I’d try using a fresh batch of diesel, crank it up on high and it should burn off the soot. Otherwise, cutting your existing diesel with 50/50 ratio of kerosene should work fine. Lots of folks use that to clean out the heaters. Just don’t go 100% kerosene as it doesn’t have the lubricity of diese to keep the fuel pump running long term. 50% or even a little higher shouldn’t hurt anything though.

[Bobcat Sig]

What I meant by that is if you are driving after skiing, put all your wet stuff in the cab. Jackets and pants hanging from the seats, ect. Take advantage of that driving heat to dry as much as you can. But doesn't apply if you aren't driving anywhere.

Just run your heater in your camper and stuff will dry. If it's getting really moist in there, you can run your heater, and overhead vent fan, at the same time, to exhaust the moist air and bring in drier air from the outside. Doesn't work as well when it is puking wet, heavy snowflakes outside.

Yup, all good. As a day-tripper, I'd employ the dry-while-you-drive technique for years. When in Montana, my stuff would be dry by the time I got down the hill.

I was curious about stationary/parked camping. No worries there. The biggest issue I have with that style of camping is enough juice to run the heater blower and Fantastic Fan top vent. After two or three days, the batteries are about toast with normal use, necessitating a need for a generator.

Couple points from a soggy pnw camperite...

1. Intuitions don't need to dry, being closed cell. Just dump out the water and change socks.

2. You can just change into dry duds if the stuff doesn't get dry enough overnight. Or if you don't feel like steaming yourself all night, just bag/box the wet shit to dry at home later. Don't forget to put the ski pass on the other pair of pants or whatever.

I can dig it.

A couple of things we have learned
- carry a fine bristle hand brush/broom and get as much snow off before getting in
- same is true for boots and skis. Get a scraper and clean everything off
- a daisy chain works great to clip things to and keeps spacing. Gloves get hung up to dry.
- Get a tub or two of damprid or similar desiccant material. Tuck under a seat and forget about it. You will be surprised how much it absorbs.
- you have to get the moist air out. For us that means opening the exhaust fan on the roof at 10% and running it. Crack a window just enough for make up air.
- 12v boot heaters/fans work well to dry things out. Running the engine in the morning with all 8 boots for us in the front seat helps too.

Good luck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Much appreciated.

A windshield ice scraper / snow brush combo works well for this.

[apex dave]

I was curious about stationary/parked camping. No worries there. The biggest issue I have with that style of camping is enough juice to run the heater blower and Fantastic Fan top vent. After two or three days, the batteries are about toast with normal use, necessitating a need for a generator.

That's exactly right. No way around needing battery power to run the furnace, fan etc.
Some folks try wood stoves, Buddy Heaters, catalytic heaters but none are as good as the RV furnace. Solar won't be sufficient in the winter so charging with a generator is the best (only?) option if you can't plug in for a few hours. We use a Honda EU 1000 and a Progressive Dynamics 30 amp charger with Charge Wizard for two conventional 6 volt deep cycle batteries
https://www.progressivedyn.com/rv/

[Trackhead]

^^^same, for more than two days of winter ski camping we use our generator in the evening/early morning when the parking lot clears out, sometimes at lunch. We turn the diesel heater on low and never turn it off for three days (2 amps per hour). Fantastic fan (about 2amps per hour).

Warm, dry, cozy. I don’t have the fortitude to buy a million amp hours in lithium.

[apex dave]

Warm, dry, cozy. I don’t have the fortitude to buy a million amp hours in lithium.

Plus isn't lithium a problem charging below freezing?

[DanoT]

Plus isn't lithium a problem charging below freezing?

Lithium batteries that are made for winter use will have a built in Battery Management System that includes a battery heater and it will shut itself down when it gets below a certain temp or state of charge.