Keeping Your RV Safe During the Storm | Video

Chris Williams | 1/10/2013

Dan Dunford lives in Nevada, but he came to Williston to help his son fix a problem with his RV. "While away from the trailer they ran out of propane, so when something like that happens the regulator for the propane freezes the tanks all freeze and nothing flows nothing works properly."

If the RV`s furnace isn`t working properly, and temperatures are 35 below some people might use heating sources they probably shouldn`t. "You don`t want to use your stove top. You don`t want to use any kind of open flame: buddy heaters, sunflower heaters. All they do is consume oxygen. They are not a safe heat source inside a trailer," said Coats RV general manager Tim "Dutch" Deick.

Deick says using those heaters inside your RV is a great way to start a fire, but using them incorrectly outside is just as dangerous. "You don`t want to use any type of a propane heater underneath the trailer cause that is absolutely, that is where you can start a fire."

If you are adding more heat to your camper having a few extra propane tanks around isn`t a bad idea, and installing them correctly is extremely important. "We just recently had someone come in here, and their tanks were actually upside down. That can absolutely create a catastrophe. That could explode, not only the destroy the camper and who`s in it, but campers around," Deick added.

Dunford and his son learned a valuable lesson by running out of propane, and it most likely won`t happen again. "You point an arrow at the tank that you`re using, and there`s a monitor on top if the arrow that tells you when that tank is empty. That`s when you turn that arrow to the fresh full tank and you disconnect the empty tank."

The bigger your propane tank is, the less chance something will freeze during colder temperatures.

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