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Old 02-28-2021, 12:13 PM   #1
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Default How do you tell if you have basement or tank heat?

I have a 2000 Tourmaster. There's no access to the tanks from beneath the motorhome because the area is enclosed. That suggests to me that part of the reason is to prevent damage from cold. How would you know if the area is heated - either by forced air from the furnace or by electrical coils? Could tank heat be retrofitted if it wasn't originally installed in the factory?
What about temperature sensors? Has anybody installed them in the basement or tank areas?
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Old 02-28-2021, 02:28 PM   #2
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Ken,


There is a brochure on the GS archive site you can access here:
https://www.gulfstreamcoach.com/medi...Tourmaster.pdf


..and I have taken a fragment of it to post here to show your basement is heated...


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Old 03-04-2021, 06:45 PM   #3
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Hey Chuck. Thanx for your pointer. I have that brochure, but missed the pertinent info. I note your helping lots of folks on these sites. Is there anything you don't know about this stuff? :>) Do you know if the heated tanks in these Tourmasters works off an operating furnace? If so, is there always heat going through the ducts to the tanks when the furnace is running, or is there a temperature activated valve? Or maybe there are electric pads?? Is access to the tanks difficult if one wanted to install temp controlled pads?
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Old 03-04-2021, 07:55 PM   #4
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Ken,


There is plenty I don't know, but I have had some direct experience on these coaches. I lived in mine full time for several years just before retiring, since I was working in a state some distance from my real residence.


The heated basement does depend on the running of the coach furnace system, so it needs propane and electricity to get the heat to circulate in the basement compartments. If your coach is unoccupied over the winter, you might want to winterize or take some additional actions. In my case I did not want to keep moving the coach for filling my on-board tank so the park I was renting in allowed the rental of an external propane tank that they took and filled periodically. Even with that, I used small ceramic electric heaters to heat the basement (and oil filled electric heaters in the living space...) just to avoid the noise of the furnace fans.


One thing to be aware of is that the basement heat of any type is not going to be evenly distributed -- particularly if your basement is rather full. I found that the water manifold was in an area that was not getting much heat, so I placed a 'goldenrod' heat stick in that bay to ensure that no water branches got frozen and the pump would work properly if there was a brief power failure or we lost park water service.


Another trick is to turn off the water to the ice maker on the fridge -- that plumbing is in the exterior wall near the access cover and not much heat gets there either.


I have never looked into adding heating pads to teh tanks but know it must not be very easy to do since they are between the floor of the coach and the ceiling of the basement for the most part. And you won't need to do that if you occupy your coach year round (or winterize properly if you don't...)


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Old 03-07-2021, 09:45 AM   #5
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Ken,
I have a 2000 Tour Master (M11). I can see ducts going to my basement and I have a thermostat that in the fresh water valve station I haven’t figured out yet.

Well, I am in North Alabama if you’re ever in the way swing by and we can do a little show and tell and compare notes.
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Old 03-07-2021, 10:10 AM   #6
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Hey, Ron, thanx for your input. I'll have to take a look at mine and determine if there's something similar. Does the thermostat look like original equipment or and add on? I'd love to participate in a show and tell. Would be really interesting to compare notes, but given that I'm in Victoria, British Columbia, and the Canada/U.S. border is closed, that's probably not likely to happen any time soon. :>(
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Old 03-07-2021, 01:49 PM   #7
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Although I have never used it, there is a rocker switch in my bathroom that says “Tank Heaters “
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Old 03-07-2021, 02:24 PM   #8
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Aha....... I'll check that out in mine. Is yours a Tourmaster?
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Old 03-07-2021, 02:27 PM   #9
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Ken

Just like Chick, I kept a space heater in the basement set at around 40 degrees to maintain the tanks from freezing. I also wrapped heat tape around the water manifold, water pump, and intake water hose. I bought a wireless thermo-hygrometer set with 4 transmitting sensors (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1) which I placed throughout the basement to monitor the temperature. Doing the above served me well (and gave me peace of mind) during 3 winters in Washington State, not as necessary now that I moved to Florida.

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Old 03-07-2021, 02:54 PM   #10
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Good info, Vic. Thanx.
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