Small RV Tailer Questions?

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Fordiesel69

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I am not interested in joining a full feldged RV forum as I do not consider myself an RV / Camper person. So a deal came to me from a friend that is moving and needs to sell his small rv trailer, and I just so happen to urgently need sleeping quarters for my camp so I can do a very intense remodel to carry out mold / mildew abatement.

It is a 20ft very small bubble trailer. The questions I have is that I will be using it on weekday back and forth to a jobsite to serve as a break / lunch shelter, and come spring it will get parked at my camp to serve as sleeping quarters

1.) Will the propane furnace run 8-12 hrs on 12volts, or do they need 110V?
2.) How shall I heat the interior when the trailer is at home and unoccupied?
3.) The floor is soft due to poor construction which is a forest river in house 3 layer laminate. People document even new ones were soft. I did not find water damage or mold or mildew in this trailer. It smells neutral and is uncleaned.
4.) It is a 2014 model, is there any risk of the dreaded formalhdahyle / benzene off gassing like what you read about on youtube?
5.) Will pulling it back and forth to jobite in the winter ruin the undercarriage?
 
I lived in jayco 195 for 6 months while building our house and depending on how much you run the furnace and if it has dual batteries you will probably be ok for 8-12 hours. they heat up pretty fast and the furnace does not run all the time. If you have access to 110V that is the way to go and you can actually use like ceramic heaters....I live in Montana so there were some pretty cold weather and it did fine.
 
I have a 2011 28ft Jayco ultra-light I'm using for comparison.

1. Furnace question is one you'll have to figure out by trial and error. Answers will vary wildly based on temperature and how well insulated your particular camper is. My furnace runs pretty minimally even in the 20's so I think I could make it 8-12hrs on a deep cycle, but that's probably it.
2. I drain all the water out of mine and leave it unheated when its at home/unoccupied. Granted I'm in GA. Be careful plugging in space heaters as they can draw enough to melt camper wiring, but not trip a breaker.
3. Same floor in mine and the original owner I got it from said it was soft when it was essentially new. I'm just living with it and try to keep the kids from doing jumping jacks on the bad spots. On the Jayco's they went back to plywood in 2014ish..
4. I think this is a non-issue personally.
5. The undercarriage on mine is completely enclosed so I wouldn't worry much about winter towing. I wouldn't sweat it much on your 12yo camper either.

Reseal the roof and every joint on the side asap. Leaks are what will kill the camper first. If you can get it under a carport at your camp it should last a long time.
 
As said the furnace may or may not run 12 hours on 12v, all you can do is try. You don't have to keep it heated when not in use but you can run a small electric heater if you want. Pulling it on salted roads will do what you expect or worse RVs aren't rustproofed.
 
Voltage isn't the issue for furnace run time, it's battery capacity. With enough battery, you could run it indefinitely on 12V. With that said, RV forced air propane furnaces are generally pretty electricity hungry.

You might be better off looking into a diesel heater - plenty of examples on YouTube relating to RVs/vans/truck camping. If I knew I were going to use a trailer for days on end in the winter, this is the way I would go.
 
AC power will definitely make your life easier; there's probably a gizmo that charges the battery when its plugged in. I lived in my RV in November for five days due to covid and things were peachy. The furnace worked perfectly. (I was plugged in.)

RV stuff is poorly rustproofed, worse than cars. The manufacturers just don't care. Consider fluid film or similar.

I would consider adding a LifePo4+ 12 volt battery; they handle discharge down to zero better than lead acid. I say "add" because they don't charge below 32'F, and don't discharge below -20. I'd also throw 100-200 watts of solar panels on the thing.

I wouldn't run a ventless propane or diesel heater, the air quality is not good with those.

I hope you're getting this very cheap, mold is no joke.
 
1) IMO you’re going to need shore power. You’ll need a pretty big battery bank to be able to run the blower of a furnace all night long in your cold environment. Plus a way to recharge them afterwards.
2) If it’s winterized, don’t.
3) Sounds like water damage to me
5) You’ll need to crawl around underneath and look it over really good. My aunt just bought a new 2024 Forest River last year and they use what’s basically a Harbor Freight tarp underneath to stop splashes to the wood underneath, and it was ripping within months. Exposed wiring that’s hacked together right under that too that if moisture/snow gets in won’t be good.
 
Nick1994 said:
My aunt just bought a new 2024 Forest River last year and they use what’s basically a Harbor Freight tarp underneath to stop splashes to the wood underneath, and it was ripping within months. Exposed wiring that’s hacked together right under that too that if moisture/snow gets in won’t be good.
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In other words typical RV construction.

OP, are you planning to drag the thing to work and back every day through the winter? Sounds like it and sounds interesting.

There's a learning curve to RVs, they're simple but have things unique that need attention. The suggestion to reseal any suspect looking joints on the roof is a do it right now thing. You can learn a lot on manufacturer specific forums and can probably find YouTube videos to address anything that needs corrected. RVs spend their life trying to self-destruct.
 
A RV propane furnace uses 6 to 10 amps at 12 volts while running, depending on size. A 30,000 BTU furnace will get 20 hours of burn time from a 30 lb tank of propane. I put an hour meter on mine to monitor gas consumption.

With any combustion furnace make sure you have a working CO detector.
 
So I found out it is a 2018 Forest River R-Pod RP-179.

So does anyone know if this is a true statement as if it is I will almost not beleive it. Many youtube videos are telling that if I pull an RV made by forest river, it will fall apart. It is designed bargain basement and best suited for towing from the dealer to its final parking spot and that is it. People go overboard and joke around and say that often their RV's are worn out after traveling to and from an RV EXPO show, due to the distance, and the foot travel inside them.

I plan to tow it 30 minutes each direction to a jobsite 5 days a week with a paved parking lot. It will not get beat up on gravel or dirt but will be towed in winter salt. Then in april, I will be parked at camp till late may to serve as sleeping quarters.

Also another video says all RV's are 3 seasons and should never be used in winter as they will delaminate and the interior layers of the walls and roof will grown mold just from the temp swings.
 
I'm looking to get an A-liner pop up camper. Pretty sure I'm going to find a used one that I like. From what I've read they're very high quality. Have you check them out and is that a design that would work for your application?
 
With that much towing, ensure the date code on the tires shows them newer than 5 years old. If they are old, they are a blowout risk. Most trailer tires are completely worthless. Don’t get Goodyear endurance tires. Far too expensive for their poor materials and construction. Hankook Vantra tires are fantastic. Check, clean and repack your wheel bearings before you tow it. Also check the brake linings and magnets while you are there.

For waste tanks, treat them with Happy Campers Extreme and hot water then tow it around for an hour on curvy and bumpy roads. It’ll ensure your tanks are clean. After that, use regular happy campers treatments. How large is the fresh water and waste tanks? Nobody has mentioned these yet and it sounds like you are boondocking without hookups.

I tow my 31ft KZ bunkhouse to coach motorcycle classes and boondock with it using an inverter generator and load my fresh water tank prior. I’ve got quite a bit of camping experience and would be glad to help and discuss. The build construction of KZs equipment is far superior to FRs.
 
Oldwolf said:
I'm looking to get an A-liner pop up camper. Pretty sure I'm going to find a used one that I like. From what I've read they're very high quality. Have you check them out and is that a design that would work for your application?
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they are not high quality..but are easy to tow and set up..I had plenty of issues..probably the biggest is the hot water heater melted the side of the camper and ultimately Aliner admitted that was somewhat common as they heater does not get set in place correctly...they send you a piece of aluminum to cover the melted side....all the water lines leaked after the first pull...literally bought it drove it to a campsite and turned hot water tank on and the turned on the pump and water leaked at ever connection actually spurting out at the hot water tank....every single screw needs to be pulled out and wood glue needs to be put on the screws and put back in...It took me a couple camp trips to finally figure I needed to glue the screws in because they worked themselves out....my buddy has a Chalet and it is built better but I didn't like the floor plan for two people and a dog..it would be nice if they had a holding tank of some sort we ended up rigging up a 5 gallon bucket. heater worked well A/C not so well.....super easy to pull tho..

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jadmt said:
they are not high quality..but are easy to tow and set up..I had plenty of issues..probably the biggest is the hot water heater melted the side of the camper and ultimately Aliner admitted that was somewhat common as they heater does not get set in place correctly...they send you a piece of aluminum to cover the melted side....all the water lines leaked after the first pull...literally bought it drove it to a campsite and turned hot water tank on and the turned on the pump and water leaked at ever connection actually spurting out at the hot water tank....every single screw needs to be pulled out and wood glue needs to be put on the screws and put back in...It took me a couple camp trips to finally figure I needed to glue the screws in because they worked themselves out....my buddy has a Chalet and it is built better but I didn't like the floor plan for two people and a dog..it would be nice if they had a holding tank of some sort we ended up rigging up a 5 gallon bucket. heater worked well A/C not so well.....super easy to pull tho..

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Man I’d be pissed about all of that
 
Fordiesel69 said:
Anybody?
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I have seen many R-pods being pulled across the country...an hour a day on the highway is not going to hurt them...In very cold weather they will sweat on the inside so mold can start but I just wiped everything down if it started sweating...how cold does it get where you will be using it? there are literally millions of campers parked out all winter long....
 
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