Pluging your Coach while garaged ?

[leskorcala@hotmail.com]

Hello,
have question regarding storing your coach ?
I ran in to small problem! we are about to sell our home and hit the road full time , but mean time & need to find place to store our coach ! everyone I asked said you need to plug in to 50 or 30 Amp outlet.

We just bought 2001 Newell and learning great deal about it!

Anyway, I know Fridg runs at all the time, we can not find the power switch to turn it off , we have Amana brand fridg/freezer sideby side type.

Also if we can run say 30 Amp what electronics should be turned off or turned down! we are storing outsite for say 2-3 months here in Northwest where we can get some cold weather.

We are so glad we found thsi side and so many great people with lots of tips on thsi amazing coach.

Best,
Les
Newell 2001 # 582

[rheavn]

Les,
Your Newell really needs 30 amp service minimum. On my coach when I plug into 30 amp service I set my invertor control panel to 30 amps so the battery charger doesn't take all the power. On my coach the refrigerator can be turned off two ways. Inside the refrigerator & freezer boxes there are round knobs that can be set to off. Or you can shut off the circuit breaker which on my coach is located in the 5th basement bay back, rear wall on the driver's side. If your coach will be in freezing temperatures and you only have 30 amp power you may need to run the diesel burner to keep the coach warm as the biggest BTU electrical heating element is 220V and requires a 50 amp hookup. Two other things won't work on 30 amp service. Cooktop is 220V and your dryer is probably 220V. Everything else should work fine.

[prairieschooner]

We have a much older coach ('82) but maybe some of the practices that I use could be helpful. We have been able to survive on 15 Amps! although our coach isn't as power hungry as the newer ones.
The Batteries would be the 1st concern so I choose 5 amps incoming power at the HEART Inverter Panel, the Battery Charger function really uses up the juice.
I turn the Water Heater Off unless we are going to take a shower or another job needing it.
I would suggest looking at an amp meter to see how much power you are really using. You could also create an adapter to use say the 230 Volt clothes dryer Receptacle and a 115 Volt Receptacle on a separate Circuit to help boost the Amperage going in.

[leskorcala@hotmail.com]

Hello,
Thsnk you both for helpfull tips on the storing my coach.
I did find the kill switch under the fridge in one of the bay; my qestion is : is the water pump , air compresor can me turned off? since that would turned off the leveling sytem.as well as water pump need to be on to pump the warm water durring cold spills! thsi switch will kill also, microwave, tv,some lights etc.

Again thsi is only to store temporary our coach for say 2-3 months till we sell the house , we would not use it at all.

Les

[RussWhite]

Les,

My idea of how to winterize the coach is to live in it in Key West. Has worked great so far, so take these thoughts with that in mind

I think number one is to keep water from freezing and bursting very expensive things. If you have no plans to try and remove the water and replace with an anit-freeze you will then need to keep things somewhat above freezing. Seems to me Newell has some pretty good options for doing that. Our coaches are about the same vintage. In my basement utility compartment with the tanks and pipes that are two heaters. One is electrical and the other is off the AquaHot system. Since it sounds like you may not have very good electrical options you might want to consider having a full tank of fuel and running the AquaHot. It should keep everything warm both inside and in the utility compartment if you set your thermostats correctly. No need to keep things tosty, just above freezing. The AquaHot does need electrical power to run the blowers and circulating pumps and it gets that from batteries, but you will need to provide some method to keep the batteries charged. Be sure you inverter has a low setting for current consumed to avoid tripping the breaker feeding power to your coach. Once setup I would arrange to visit often, or have someone do it for you, to insure fuel levels and battery charge levels are where they should be, as well as to check temperatures. You can get very inexpensive thermometers that will store the max and min temperatures and I suggest putting a couple of those in places of interest and checking after a very cold period. The cost of say a burst heat exchanger in an AquaHot will justify taking extreme measures to be certain you keep things warm. Good luck. Russ

[rheavn]

Les,
I turn off that circuit breaker when I store the coach for winter, although I do think that Russ White's winterizing method of putting the coach in Key West has merit. Drain the water. The water pump has nothing to do with keeping the coach warm. The coach is kept warm by the AquaHot system & some electric heaters. DON'T let the AquaHot system freeze as it is very expensive. You also won't need the 110V air compressor. You could put the 12V compressor on, but what is the point as the worse thing that will happen is the coach will drop as the system loses air pressure. Also I drain the water from the toilets. Check the battery water(if wet cells) and top off prior to storing.

Hope this helps.............................

I thought of one other thing that may need some thought. If your coach has an air operated entry door, and you don't know how to open it without air, then I would leave the 12V air compressor on.

[Wally Arntzen]

For the first time I am not going south for the winter and do not have heated building that I used to have. I am going to leave it outside in the below zero weather and will only have 20 amp to keep my batteries charged. I am putting 30 gallons of anti freeze in the system and flushing it through all of the pipes and water heater, fill the traps and let er go. I put mouth balls under the coach to keep the mice from finding a home and suspect I will be alright. I have slept in it several at 20 below zero at Green Bay with full water and nothing froze. My gerator started with no problem and after heating the engine with engine heater that started as well with no problem.
If something changes for me around January or February and I can get out of hear for a few monthes, I suspect that I can get it started and drive it out of the snow.
I will turn everything in the coach off and have a full fuel tank, lp gas tank and a lot of trust in the good Lord that this buggy will do what I expect it to do if I need to get on the road.

[leskorcala@hotmail.com]

Thank you all for the tips!

I did find indoor storage for 2-3 months , that is all we need before heading back on the road! I spoke with the person at Newell and they did sugested full 50AMPS hook up , 30 would do it but to keep the seals tight of the all the air doors etc, and air compressor needs to kick in to keep it tight as well as heater to 50-55F that is what he sugested ! we wont take chances and ruin our coach and do it right and plug in in under roof storage, I can sleep well after all!

[Barry Rooker]

I was worried about winter storing our 2001 Newell on just 30 amps, using the coach's room heaters to avoid freezing.

Would the "super-sized" Aqua-Hot (Newells have an extra heating element) blow the storage facility's 30 amp circuit? Not to worry, per John Clark at Newell, on 110volts, only the primary element draws current, not the secondary element.

[leskorcala@hotmail.com]

Originally Posted by Barry Rooker

I was worried about winter storing our 2001 Newell on just 30 amps, using the coach's room heaters to avoid freezing.

Would the "super-sized" Aqua-Hot (Newells have an extra heating element) blow the storage facility's 30 amp circuit? Not to worry, per John Clark at Newell, on 110volts, only the primary element draws current, not the secondary element.

Thanks , yes Aqua - Hot its super solid build , well wired to protect things .
We still have few days to find the storage ( we actually did find it ) with full 50Amps outlet,
I do have qestion to you, would you mind tell me what settings would you set the heater, any settings on teh inveter ! we are som new and its so much to absorb! going from 26' coach to this complex machine its make you think twice each time you live the coach , I will be about 1 hrs from storage and dont want to miss anything regarding of storage our coach.

Thanks you in advance,
Les

[rheavn]

Les,
You never mentioned what temperatures your coach will experience. When temperatures stay above 20 degrees I set the heater temperature at 50 degrees. When temperatures go below 20 degrees I bump it up to 55 degrees. Remember there are several thermostats in the basement that need to be set. I shut the inverter off. I drain the water out of the tank & empty the black tank. Shut water pump off. I leave the 12V air pump on to keep slide seals inflated. NOTE: If electricity goes out in storage building coach is subject to freeze.

Good luck.......................

[Barry Rooker]

I'm envious of your 50 amp storage facility. On 50 amps, you're good to go. Or stay.

As you've discovered, unlike a gas-fired home hot water heater, there's no thermostat to set on the Aqua-Hot. It's either off or on via elec or diesel.

Occasionally upon start up for travel, my inverter is off, don't know why, but I believe you want it turned on, stored or in motion.

Oh yes, most of our "winter storage" is in Palm Springs, January thru April.

[leskorcala@hotmail.com]

Thank you all for great input what to look out for storaging your coach.
We ended up fnding covered storage ( 60 miles away ) its has only 30 AM hook up.
We called Mike at Newell to get some info on how to store. Mike gave us good info and after we hang up the call we had another call from Pro Sine ( Inverter expert ) nie of Mike at newell to verifie with the another company on their proper solution!

Anyway , we are only storing for few months till we sell our home, living in Seattle area we dont get to many 20F days , but can happen!

So both of them sugested:

Turn the the termostad heaters to 55F , Turn the inverter Off turn the Aqua Hit to dielsel ( 30mp outlet ) since outlet is to small!
Both of the air compressors on 120 & 12V on

We cameback 2 days later to check it all out and found all in perfect order!


So, No winterizing for us , case soon as we sell the house we are hitting the road! hope it happen soon! ha, ha! that is another story!

Best,
Les