Transcend 32BH

[ArizonaNewbie]

Hello,
My wife and I are new to the travel trailer world, we bought a 32bh because we are a family of 6 (4 kids under 8) so far we love our trailer and we try to use it at least once a month. I guess one thing i didn't think about before buying is whether of not these trailers have a snow load rating for the roof? I want to take the family on a trip to northern AZ in the mountains to play in the snow but i am wondering if this is a problem if we get stuck in a snow storm and have to wait it out? I believe that i have the closed in insulated bottom but my next question would be do i need to do anything special to prevent water lines and tanks from freezing? As i live in AZ most of the time the concern is heat but now that we have this amazing home on wheels we want to branch out.

Thanks for any feedback!!
Jameson

[TucsonJim]

Welcome to the forum Jameson. I'm from Arizona (Tucson) myself. Congrats on the new camper. I looked at one at the Southern California rally and it was soooo nice.

1. Snow Load. The roof is made with wooden trusses that are spaced at approximately 16" on center. It is topped with 3/8" oriented strand board, which is similar to plywood. Then it's covered with a rubberized roof membrane called TPO. The roof will hold quite a bit of weight, and workers stand directly on it when assembling it. It should handle a reasonable snow load very well. If it were me, I'd consider scraping the snow off it it starts to get much over 8-10 inches. Just be very careful that you don't gouge the rubberized roof or damage any of the fittings like vents, pipes or skylights.

2. Water lines and tanks can freeze if it gets below freezing for a considerable amount of time. Your model has a heated and enclosed underbelly which will help greatly. There are heat ducts that discharge into the underbelly when the furnace is running. In order to keep things from freezing, make sure that you run your furnace every hour or two to keep it warm in there. You'll go through quite a bit of propane, so be prepared to refill as necessary. Also, when it gets below freezing, I'd run a little bit of water at all the sinks, shower and toilet to keep the water flowing.

3. You didn't mention it, but your batteries are something else to consider. I assume since you have a travel trailer, your battery is exposed to freezing temperatures. If the battery gets severely discharged, it can freeze. But if you keep it charged up, it will be much less prone to freezing.

4. Another consideration is humidity inside the trailer. People, pets, cooking, showers and other sources of moisture can really cause a lot of condensation when you are camped in cold weather. It seems counter-intuitive, but opening a vent will help greatly with reducing humidity and condensation.

Enjoy your new trailer, and maybe our paths will cross one of these days.

Jim

[ArizonaNewbie]

Jim,
Thank you for the feedback! I too am a Tucson native and i dont think i will ever live anywhere else! I noticed the condensation issue on thanksgiving when we were at Roosevelt when the storm blew threw....at least the kids had fun drawing on the windows in the moisture lol . You confirmed my thoughts about the roof, though i imagine paying special attention to keeping snow of the slide out is more critical than the roof itself. I did not think about the batteries freezing over, thanks for the heads up! I do find myself wishing that i had on on-board inverter to at least the TV outlets the only time the wife and get to catch up on TV shows is when we go camping and the kids are in bed. Im going to look and see how i can cheaply/safely attend to this, i welcome any feedback on this if you have any experience. I went ahead and bought a matching battery to run in parallel for more capacity, smart tv's these days dont draw a whole lot of power so im thinking this should be fine for a few hours with one tv/dvd player.
Jameson

[Yoda]

I have asked GD with the same question, They have no specific rating. As the roof is walk on you could assume about 150lbs per square foot (space of a typical person standing). I have seen over 3 feet on my reflection with no issues. Even at 3 feet your not close to 150 lbs per square foot if my thinking is correct. I SF by 3 ft high is 3 cubic feet @ 20 lbs/cf weight for snow = 60lbs