[alank]

Can you get away with just wrapping pump boxes etc in coats sleeping bags etc if you can't heat the vehicle overnight.

[dazmond]

Can you get away with just wrapping pump boxes etc in coats sleeping bags etc if you can't heat the vehicle overnight.

if its a pump box cant you just disconnect it and take it inside if your that worried?

[Smurf]

You just beat me to it as that what I was just going to say.
That's the whole ideal of a pump box it's portable surely?

[Smurf]

Also if there is no water left in any of your kit it will not freeze. To be on the safe side if you don't want to bring anything in simply drain all vulnerable kit down and cover all of it up should do the trick. 

[alank]

Not easy to remove due to where they are fitted normally just reach in to turn on and charge etc the reels are fitted in front fitted to floor of pick lack of room.

[Smurf]

If getting power to your van is not an option you could also consider to get a diesel or lpg type night heater installed instead.
This type of thing http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Propex-Heatsource-HS2000-Blown-Air-Heater-12v-Single-Outlet-LPG-Gas-Motorhome-/282267503280?hash=item41b8744ab0:g:fe4AAOSwB09YNyAV

[DeLuce]

You could buy some thermal board (1" thick) and make a box out of it, then, when cold weather strikes, you just slot it over the pumps to save freezing?

[Spruce]

The problem is that insulation will slow the rate of heat loss but your pumps will still freeze in time. To stop that you need a heat source. The trouble with insulation is that it will slow the warmth getting to the pump inside.

[Smurf]

If there is water left in a system ice can form in the hoses too and travel along inside them and will knacker any vulnerable kit. As already mentioned the simplest and cheapest form of frost protection is to drain the system down so there is no water to freeze inside the kit in the first place.

[Spruce]

The pump on my son's current van is situated above the level of the tank.

We just run the pump, remove the pump filter and empty it. The pump sucks air and pushes the water out of it and clears the line from the pump to the van port at the back. When we stop the pump we screw the filter bowl back on and leave it.

The water in the hose on the suction side runs back into the tank to the same level and the water in the tank is.

In bad weather we try to keep the water level lower than the baffles in the tank. If that water freezes it should do any damage.

.

[Smurf]

Both my main van tanks are top fed that go through the pump and then an lpg water heater. I just remove the quick connects from the top of the tanks and run the pump until it's runs dry. In doing so all the pipes are drained down including the water heater, pump etc. 

[nathankaye]

Sometimes i miss the old school. Come home, put ladders away, stick scrims in washing machine and simpky relax till next day..

[Ladders]

just start van up 30 min before departure and and put a fan heater on in back of van, defrost no problem.

[p1w1]

Sometimes i miss the old school. Come home, put ladders away, stick scrims in washing machine and simpky relax till next day..

i dont 

[Smurf]

Sometimes i miss the old school. Come home, put ladders away, stick scrims in washing machine and simpky relax till next day..

i dont 

Nothing like trying to climb a ladder with knackered out knees is their 

[DeLuce]

The problem is that insulation will slow the rate of heat loss but your pumps will still freeze in time. To stop that you need a heat source. The trouble with insulation is that it will slow the warmth getting to the pump inside.

Good point Spruce. Although I'd imagine it would have to be a prolonged, seriously cold spell to do that, -4>
I've got an insulated panel section I made up from left over thermal boarding over my pumps which are by the side sliding door on my ford transit connect, it covers top,bottom and sides and works really well.  It looks neat. Saying that though, I also have an immersion heated tank which would help the fight against the frost problem. 

[Spruce]

The problem is that insulation will slow the rate of heat loss but your pumps will still freeze in time. To stop that you need a heat source. The trouble with insulation is that it will slow the warmth getting to the pump inside.

Good point Spruce. Although I'd imagine it would have to be a prolonged, seriously cold spell to do that, -4>
I've got an insulated panel section I made up from left over thermal boarding over my pumps which are by the side sliding door on my ford transit connect, it covers top,bottom and sides and works really well.  It looks neat. Saying that though, I also have an immersion heated tank which would help the fight against the frost problem. 

We have a fridge and a separate freezer in the outside shed. It was particularly cold in 2012/3 in the North East that year.

The vegetables started to freeze in the fridge and my wife , who goes in there regularly, pointed out that the thermostat had gone and I needed to fix it. She just couldn't work out why the fridge wasn't broken. She was convinced I was 'pulling her leg' and wasn't going to be hoodwinked with that one. 

I ended up putting a heater in the shed to raise the temperature inside above freezing. I opened the fridge door to 'warm' it up a bit quicker. She found the fridge door open a little later and closed it.

.