Using Etty in cold weather

Hi I was wondering how many people continue to use there Duettos' or similar van conversions through the winter. 
We use ours for odd days out if it's a nice bright day, but not for going away ( my husband is a cold mortal at the best of times) also if it's frosty at night are they insulated enough to stop water pipes etc from freezing up.
Would like to hear anyone else's experiences of holidaying in the winter and how they cope with the cold or are Van conversions not designed for cold weather use ?

We used our Symphony through the last three winters. We have a full week away in February but also have been away for two new year breaks. We took a small oil filled radiator as we only go on club sites in winter. Never had the water freeze. We intend to use the Nuevo similarly this winter.

Hi  

Joony wrote:Hi I was wondering how many people continue to use there Duettos' or similar van conversions through the winter.

We do!

No the vans are not designed for cold weather use but many of us still use them in the winter.  Have a look at this thread.  

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Brod

Thank you for replies, the info from the links is very usefull x

I notice that all the photos of Duettos in this thread thus far are those built on the MK5 Transit. We had a MK5 and took it to the North Cape of Norway (3 times) and on one of those visits the water pipes froze-up 'overnight' and we had to come down to sea level for the day in order for them to thaw out.

When the pipes froze, the water must have been water that had not drained into the waste tank. Even with the heater running all the time, the effect of the wind blowing under the van froze things up, so that even the trick of leaving the waste tank drain open and letting the water run into a bucket did not help at all (because there was ice in the pipes before the tank and this blocked the escape route).

Our present Duetto is on a MK7 Transit and this looks to be more vulnerable than the MK5 because the water pump is behind the fridge and is thus exposed to the draught coming through the vents. We have been to the North Cape with this van, but the weather was mild and did not have any problems at all.

My conclusions are that winter use is possible with care, but with the MK5 version you may need additional heating as the gas heater is not very powerfull, the MK7 heater running on diesel seems OK (but watch out for the water pump freezing if there is wind on that side of the van).

I hope this is of some help  .......  Michael

symbol-bath wrote:We use our van all year round but generally use gravel or tarmac hard standings in winter, to avoid the embarrassment of being towed off soggy ground!

Hi there,

I've owned three Transits and they were terrible on snow, mud or even wet grass!  

We use "Petal" year round and although it can get a bit chilly we carry a Dimplex 700 watt Chico for when we are on EHU and if that isn't enough the blown-air heater warms everything up in a matter of minutes!  (We often leave just the fan blowing so that the heat from the electric heater gets circulated better than using convection alone.)

Up until now we have managed okay on butane as a fuel because we are on EHU most nights in the winter and the warmth from the van keeps the butane boiling enough for cooking.

When it looks like the temperature will drop below zero we drain everything down and go on to a "bottled water" routine for everything.  This is not all that difficult as you soon learn to conserve water when you have to hump it around in 5 gallon cans!!  

Best regards,