Monthly Archives: November 2021

Alaska, Cold Weather Life, Off-grid living

Generator maintenance…

I had a calendar reminder pop up just a bit ago. Generator maintenance. I put that in for every two weeks so we wouldn’t lose track of our oil change schedule. This week it is hardly necessary. We have been forced to maintain the heck out of the thing! It has been bitterly cold lately, with highs of -15° and yet slightly humid. This causes frost to build up in the air intake, choking the engine to death. Friday it happened every 4 hours until we stayed up past midnight and completely took the thing apart to even clean out the fuel tank. It lasted two days. Last night it added hose pop-offs and oil spewing to its bag of tricks. We are starting to look at our budget to see where we will fit in a new one.

Look at that, no frost! Will it last?

With our current lifestyle electricity is the cornerstone of everything. If we lose power we have no way to heat this RV. Without heat we cannot stay in here. Our water and food will freeze. It is an actual life-threatening situation when the overnight temperatures dip to -35.

We are fine so far. Maybe a little bit sleep deprived, but the only casualty of the cold has been a bag of potatoes that froze solid. And a truck battery. (I might have jinxed us with that last post.) This cold is testing us but we haven’t broken yet.

I will say, though, this is the last winter I spend in an RV.

Alaska, Cold Weather Life, Off-grid living

The truck started!

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The last few days have been a bit chilly. Temperatures dropped below zero and kept falling. This morning is colder than we have seen since last winter.

Friday morning was -22° and the truck would not start. These temps are hard on diesels. We plugged in the block/oil pan/battery heater to warm it up and let it sit all day but still it wouldn’t start. The batteries got low, which can be the end of even a new battery when it’s this cold. So Chris brought the battery inside to sit by the heater. It spent almost 24 hours warming up. Then yesterday afternoon he put the battery back in and the truck started up. What a relief! We were down to the last bit of generator fuel and the heating oil was getting low.

Typically we use 1 gallon of gas for 8 hours of runtime on the generator. We even have a schedule we keep. 8am, 4pm, midnight keeps it running. Plugging in the truck goes through more fuel. It has to be filled every 5 hours instead. Good thing we picked up a couple extra gas cans.

Indoors is colder than most people would like. I’m finding it hard to leave my nest of blankets this morning, and even the dog has come to appreciate his sweater. (It’s a blanket you can wear!) But the Toyo keeps it 70° warmer than outside. Using the oven to make dinner helps. We would use the propane heater as a booster, but the blower went out just in time for this cold snap. I’ll have to find a replacement soon.

This was last night, comparing indoor and outdoor temps. At least 60° warmer inside!

We shrink wrapped the windows yesterday and that helped a lot with the draft. Lots of hot beverages and soup helps too. Honestly, a cabin would be easier to keep comfortable, but we’ve mostly got this figured out. We’re ahead of last year by a longshot. All systems are working so far. The only thing to do is improve.