The HARDEST THING about winter in our camper - Bigfoot 25RQ
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- We share our winter experience, tips and tricks. Plus, what were our top three biggest challenges of spending a Vermont winter off-grid in our Bigfoot 25 RQ fiberglass four season travel trailer?
We left behind our careers in Dallas Texas for life off the grid in the woods of Vermont. Here, we experience new rewards and challenges, living in a travel trailer while setting up water, power, and a yurt on the side of a mountain. Charles plans and executes our DIY projects. Jill is our UA-cam videographer. #offgrid #vermont #rvlife
![Tour our Bigfoot 25B25RQ Travel Trailer [4K UHD]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/P8ydjLwCTQY/mqdefault.jpg)
I think you have one of the best if not the best trailer out there. Another one that comes to mind is Northern Lite. The mud room idea is brilliant. Thank you for sharing.
How is the clearance from the axle brackets to the ground?, have you had any instances of dragging?
Hi Jeff, I think this trailer has excellent clearance. I have heard of people doing a lift on it, but it is already better than most travel trailers. We've never had it drag, but we also haven't traveled just a whole lot yet. Personally, I don't think I would want to go anywhere dragging would be an issue.
@@OvertheRiverandThroughtheWoods Charles, Thank you for the information!, I'm about a year away from ordering a 25' rear twin, with previous travel trailers I have been on some forest service roads that I've scraped the bottom on.
Do you think an Oliver would be as good?
Olivers have a reputation for being equally well built. But for us it came down to the floor plan. We never even considered an Oliver after looking at the floor plans because we wanted the dinette in the front (out of the way of foot traffic) and we really like the walk around bed in the 25 foot Bigfoot (which is slightly longer, but also wider than the Oliver). Those things were especially important to us because we would be in it for an extended period as a home base.
Hay bales work really well for skirting too
We have a 25RT and wintered on Vancouver Island. We experienced lots of snow and cold weather for a good month (between - 11 to - 20 c) . We had a big dehumidifier but still experienced lots of condensation on the windows. Sometimes it would be dripping. We also had issues with the twin beds matresses being wet on the side that touches the wall and underneath the bed started to develop mold. We ended up purchasing Hypervent to place along the sides and bottom of the mattress. This material creates an air gap. It's pricey but it works great.
Thanks for sharing your experience. We have a mat under the bed too (looks very similar to the Hypervent).
Hi Eva. Thanks for watching!
We also got a vent pad for under our mattress, and have not noted any moisture under it.
When it gets really cold, I don't believe you can really prevent some condensation. Our humidity indoors was down around 40%, which is pretty low and a dehumidifier won't really help a lot to lower it further. We just have to do our best to manage it.
You need to consider a Dickinson marine solid fuel or diesel heater. They both put out great dry heat.
Place little pot holders in each corner of trailer with half & half mix of baking soda and rock salt (natural dehumidifier) and this will capture the moisture..change every week and you'll notice a big difference in your condensation issues :)
Thanks for the tip!
I have a northernlite truck camper, pretty much the same construction and also have condensation in a couple of cabinets what I have done to get rid of the condensation build up is to get four clip on usb rechargeable fans to circulate the air inside it gets rid of condensation 100% in single weather
I'm surprised more people don't use rotary desiccant dehumidifiers. They do an amazing job of keeping moisture down in the trailer during winter and add some heat to the space at the same time. They are also small and inexpensive and don't use much power unlike compressor dehumidifiers.
Valuable information thank you!!
Great choice on the bigfoot for winter camping it's hands down the best. Also wanna say you two are an adorable couple ❤
Awwwww thank you :)
Wow, you two did a phenomenal job staying warm, -20°F below, I couldn’t imagine. That was a bit extreme, should have been on a reality show 😅. And I agree the Big Foot trailer was an awesome choice! We have owned a 19’ Airstream Bambi for 24 years and I can tell you it would of been a dramatically different experience 🥶 The lowest we’ve been has been in 10° F (Rocky Mtn Nat’l Pk) and our Mister Buddy has kept us very comfortable. The furnace is too big/powerful for 16’ interior space, it would cook us alive 😱 and drained the 30lb. tank in 5 minutes. Since 98% of all the plumbing is inside of the camper we just crack all the drawers and cabinets so the heat seeps in. We also keep both roof vents sightly open, in addition a small dehumidifier helps tremendously with the condensation, and we do keep a few rags to wipe the condensation off the windows. Your video is a testament to how well Big Foot builds their trailers. Thank you for sharing. And lastly with no disrespect I love your wife’s wavy/ curly hair, it was beautiful.
Great overview! Thank you.
We're considering Bigfoot...
We have been living in our Bigfoot for one more year since this video came out (including six months away from the property) and we are still very happy with it.
@@OvertheRiverandThroughtheWoods That's great to hear!
Thanks to let us know how it worked.
Bonjour! very interesting information. We do not do winter camping but we do fall camping and have problem with condensation. I will try opening the roof vent next time, thank you. I must say that at 10m33sec both of your smiles are beautifull!!! take care! Bonne journée!
Thank you Michel! Take care :)
Love the mud room. We camp in our BF 25 RQ, not live in it so haven't spent as much time as you, and we are out west where it is much drier. We spent a nite at 23 degrees and yes the window frames are heat wasters. We have some reflectix cut to put over the windows, mostly at night and slide them behind the cushions so we can see out during the day. And we have a couple of Camco RV Vent Insulator and Skylight Cover with Reflective Surface that fit perfectly in the front skylight to reduce heat loss.
Cool! Thanks for sharing your experience.
Interested if you could do a video getting into the details of the trailer - underside, behind cabinets and so forth.
Hi Dan, if you have some specific questions about the trailer details, please feel free to e-mail (under "business inquiries" on the "About" page when you visit our channel).
Have you found the filter material to be adding stress to the motor of your heater?
We were a bit worried about that too, but when we put the filter on, we monitored the current draw on the furnace motor and saw no appreciable difference, so I think it is probably fine. It has been working fine (seemingly) for a few weeks now.
thank you for the bigfoot review. its nice to know that there is still an rv manufactured that is capable of winter living. you mentioned that you have a heat strip on your air conditioner. since bigfoots do not come with a heat strip on the ac provided im assuming you replaced the original (also, saw the clip of installing a different one). are you completely satisfied with the choice you made? how low can the temps go before the heat strip is no longer beneficial and you have to switch to propane heat? does it take rewiring to install an a/c with a heat strip and, if so, is there a trick to connecting it to the tstat?
Hi Cindy. Our A/C is actually a heat pump, so no heat strip is necessary, but it will only produce heat down to about the freezing point outside.
We ordered our Bigfoot with no A/C, one because we weren't positive we would need it any time soon, but secondly because we wanted to research our own to try to find a reasonably quiet one. We went with a RecPro heat pump. No rewiring was required; just used Bigfoot's prewire. We are very happy with it! And, we don't really use it much for heat. A small electric space heater is actually more efficient, so we use that when we have extra power instead.
Lots of food for thought. Very helpful. Thank you. The mud room obviously contributes a lot towards maintaining the cleanliness of the trailer and reducing the moisture and off odors from outdoor gear. I think I'd want to build a "carport" type structure to keep the rain and snow off the trailer. That would surely increase the efficiency of your heating, wouldn't it? And it would reduce the weathering of the outside surfaces and components.
That would be ideal, for sure! We were only planning to spend one winter in the RV, though, and our mountaintop is pretty limited in terms of semi-level places where we could build a carport and still maneuver the trailer in and out of it.
(This year we intend to winterize the trailer and put a soft cover over it).
Really helpful info. Thank you
im wondering if there is any real advantage of a Big Foot over a Lance Travel Trailer? for winter camping that is? i mean it seems like if you need to skirt a Big foot you would need to skirt ANY trailer. I understand the big foot wall thickness is a little thicker than a Lance but at what point does an extra 1/2" of insulation really make a difference? thanks for your video.
Hi Ron, we could have survived just fine without skirting the trailer. We were just trying to do everything we could to save on propane. I would have skirted any trailer for that reason. I am not real familiar with the Lance, but I do know they are supposed to be 4-season. In our eyes, the Bigfoot advantage comes in other forms, mainly that it is a molded fiberglass trailer. This makes it inherently more resistant to leaks and it will retain its value better than stick-built trailers.
thanks for the response. I just saw a brand new Bigfoot 25B25RQ in person and WOW was I impressed.@@OvertheRiverandThroughtheWoods
I hate cold weather so I would never stay The winter
Ha ha! This past winter we actually took off and spent most of it in Arizona. ua-cam.com/video/C9SgDh-UfeY/v-deo.html
Thanks for the video/info. We have an Escape, which is only 3 season, and have not winter camped but have had similar issues with moisture during early spring trips.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
I'm loving the mud room!
We did too! Although I'm ready to see it go away now for spring.
Me too, that was a brilliant idea!
Do you know the insulation r-value and or thickness on the walls, floor, and ceiling?
I believe a diesel heater would resolve your problem of heating and colt
First of all replace at least one of your crappy 3 speed Fantastic Fans with a 10 speed Maxx Fan. With the speed on low run the fan all night. You'll have minimum heat loss, eliminate most of your condensation and won't have to crack a window for air exchange. If you replace the one in your bedroom you'll stop the dripping on the bed and remove the moisture from your breathing, the biggest moisture producer during the night.
We're on our second 25RQ and some time before next winter the Fantastic Fan in our bedroom will be replaced with a 10 speed MaxxFan. FYI, the MaxxFan with the remote has a high failure rate, so get the one that you manually crank open and closed. If you have lithium batteries also install a voltage regulator in the fan housing. It's easy to do.
Thanks for the ideas. But how does the fan not result in much heat loss? Is it a LOT slower than the slowest setting on the Fantastic Fan?
We took a closer look at the fans. They are both Maxx fans.
(and they came that way from the original build, although we were expecting Fantastic fans).
@@OvertheRiverandThroughtheWoods Are they 10 speed or three speed? Huge difference!
The lowest speed on our three speed Fantastic fan is equal to probably speed 5 on the MaxxFan in our Escape. Too fast and would suck the hot air out of our Escape (or now Bigfoot 25RQ).
We ran our MaxxFan 24/7 when camping, even at 5 F. If you build up moisture with your breath it either can go out the vent or condense on your windows or outside walls. We NEVER had condensation in our Escape as long as we cracked a window 1/4" or less and ran the MaxxFan on low.
We currently have had two days in the last month with temps over freezing and a numer of nights into the teens with our 25RQ, but I just crack the Fantastic Fan in the bedroom at night to reduce the moisture on the windows. Problem is, without a fan running a couple of nights moisture condensed on the lid and that moisture dripped on our bed. Again, at some point in the next year I'll be ripping out that three speed Fantastic Fan and install a 10 speed MaxxFan.
Burn a few more btu's of LP or put up with condensation. Your choice.
Great info 👍
Just curious Charles why you haven’t hooked the trailer you your main solar system?
It is! When our on-board trailer batteries get down to 75%, it automatically turns on our shore power which is plugged into our main solar system.
Great information than you.
Wouldn't a dehumidifier work for the condensation?
A dehumidifier is quite large and noisy for such a small space, but might be a last resort if the problems were tenacious.
Do have any experience with the Bigfoot beast travel trailer
We don't, sorry!
What’s that? I can’t find anything on the Bigfoot website about it. Thanks
A dehumidifier would help. Not sure if you can get propane delivery in your area. We have two 100 gallon tanks at our Rv pad.
Hi Bob, we have a dehumidifier in storage, but would be hard pressed to bring it into such a small space and try to run it off the solar system on a regular basis. Maybe a last resort... Do you happen to know one more appropriate for an RV?
Plus, we do plan to get larger propane tanks on the property. If the delivery trucks can make it up our driveway, we may even get a 400 pound tank for the yurt and one up at the shed for RV use.
Sorry 120 gallon not 400 pound.
@@OvertheRiverandThroughtheWoods not really ours is large in size,
❤😊❤😊❤
Get a Dehumidifier!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Off-grid in a small space, that would be a last resort. But the humidity in the RV is actually not that high. The condensation is pretty localized.
Nuguns: Spoken by someone who has no idea what it’s like to get down to -20°F. At those temperatures, you would be lucky to not get condensation around 20% humidity and a dehumidifier will never get it that low.
Why not plumb one of those little pot belly stoves to heat your home with wood? You have an unlimited supply of wood all around you. Save a ton on propane. Godbless.
Hi, we will be building a rocket mass heater (which burns wood efficiently) for the yurt. Overwintering in the RV was definitely a temporary arrangement.