Advice on ne 5er

[dcscott]

Advice on new 5er purchase

My wife and I have had it with city living. We are putting our house on the market and moving to some acreage over in Northern Idaho. We own a small older Terry 5er that we picked up used about 3 years ago. It is going to take us about a year to build a house and we don't think the little 27 footer is large enough or well insulated enough to live in through the winter. We are thinking we need to get something a little larger. What brand(s) should we be looking at if we want something that is reasonably well build, well insulated, and not too cheesie looking on the inside? I only mention the later because some friends of ours just bought what could be a nice rig except the inside has so much bric-brac it makes one sick.



Thanks for any suggestions.



Dale

 

[chazj]

I am currently living in Carson City, Nev. in my 28' Arctic Fox. Lows this winter averaged in the low 20's with lowest temp around 10 degrees. I had no problem keeping warm although the heater did a fair amount of running.



I had planned to move it to Minnesota where I have a farm and, like yourself, live in it for a year. More winterizing would be necessary though. Probably would have to skirting around the base of the trailer & also put some insulation in the fan/skylight areas to help stop heat loss. Although my tanks are also heated, I imagine I would need to enclose the valve area that operates the open/closing of the tanks and put a heat lamp in that area so they don't freeze.



Hope this helps.

 

[dcscott]

Charlie,



Thanks for your comments. I figured that whatever I get I'll skirt it and box in and heat the water/sewer connections. The problem I have with the little Terry (aside from it being small (no slides) is that the windows are single pane and very drafty and even the smallest amount of cooking or a quick shower and there is condensation everywhere. It's been okay for the occasional winter weekend but I can't imagine what it would be like with two adults and a black lab fulltime for an entire winter.

 

[chazj]

Dale: Although I didn't intend to live here full time, I did a lot of research on what brands of trailers did well in winter climates and were affordable. My Arctic Fox 27F is "4 Season Rated" and has 2 slides. Plenty of room for me and my lab. I did order it with dual pane windows which probably helped keep the condensation non-existent. I think it also helped that I always left the vent in the bathroom "cracked open" even during the winter months.



I also did notice that because the bottom is enclosed and tanks are heated, the main floor space was always warmer than the slide area that was exposed to outside temps. I think the skirting would help that situation and also perhaps adding a layer of insulation under the slide portion during the winter months.

 

[RJOL]

Here is what we got:



http://www.nuwa.com/cgi-bin/dbsql-2...ach_year=2006&mh=1&uid=default&template=coach



Order it with the dual pane windows and skirt it and you should be okay. We really like the "open" area in the living room.