12/4 Hello all. If this post doesn't make you shiver nothing will. I just got home from work and was watching the outside temp readout in my Ranger on the way home. I have found it to be very accurate as long as you are moving. It was reading -18C in the city of Calgary but dropped quite quickly to -27C (-16.6F) as I got west of the city limits. There is a valley just east of me where I saw it hit -30C (-22F). It was only 7:15 when I got home so I fully expect it to drop to at least -30C tonight here at my place. Maybe even colder. It's warm in the coach. I left two thermostatically controlled electric heaters running inside and, of course, the aqua-hot is doing it's duty as well. It's been working great---hasn't missed a beat. The weather is supposed to warm up some this coming weekend so I think I will bring home some diesel and see how much the big tank will take. I had it quite full (partway up the filler neck) on 11/20. I just dumped the tanks and topped up the fresh water last weekend before the storm so I should be good until early next week sometime in that regard. Blocking off the air flow around the engine compartment has helped keep the master bedroom warmer for sure. I had also stuffed pink insulation in around the bottom of the engine compartment. Now, get this. I also flipped on the Aqua-Hot engine preheat before the big storm and cold weather came and have left it on ever since as an experiment. I figured that big iron motor would hold it's heat pretty well after warm-up and would help keep that bedroom warmer still. Sure, the AH is probably cycling a bit more often keeping that engine warm but it was doing that anyway trying to keep the bedroom warm. I figured with blocking off the air flow and insulating inside that engine compartment warming up that big mass of metal in there might be an advantage. I couldn't think of how it could hurt anything. I know Monaco forum folks are visiting this blog now so maybe somebody will tell me different. I checked the bedroom tonight and it definately isn't as cold as it was before and remember how cold it is right now.
