How Extreme Have You Been?

[zeratul]

So on our skiing trip in austria at the beginning of school holiday, and to avoid traffic jams, we decided to drive friday night from right after school in Belgium to the skiing resort in Austria in Pitztal and camp on the mobile home parking spaces near the glacier at about 1500m. We got there by 11pm and it was -5.5C at the time. It was -15C at the coldest point during the night. Because we were 5 (2 adults, 3 children) in our Beach, we had to sleep with the top up. We have a Cali cozy and the heater was on all night at the lowest setting with 2 windows open as well for ventilation. Usually the children sleep upstairs, but this time it was me with our youngest, while my wife and the other 2 slept downstairs.
Downstairs it was very nice temperature, of course. Upstairs however was a bit cold (the right sleeping bag can of course solve that). The air from the heater is not spreading to the upper part well enough. I am thinking of building a solution.. e.g. a small pipe (like the ones you can attach to a clothes dryer) with a fan on both sides to propel the hot air from downstairs near the heater output to upstars above the heads of whoever is sleeping there. Anyone thought of similar thing? Or are there better solutions?
(I don't want an external topper. Not fun to set that op in freezing cold.)

Surely we can get better sleeping bags, but we don't have the room for two sleeping bags per person when travelling around.

 

[bvddobb]

I am thinking of building a solution.. e.g. a small pipe (like the ones you can attach to a clothes dryer) with a fan on both sides to propel the hot air from downstairs near the heater output to upstars above the heads of whoever is sleeping there. Anyone thought of similar thing? Or are there better solutions?

@zeratul, see this thread on the german forum, we have built the same solution.

You don't need a fan in the hose, the heater fan gives enough 'push'. We now push the entry of the hose between the right hand front seat and the side vent to heat the top, and the rear vent to heat our 'salon'. Works better than attached as shown here, here the 'salon' doesn't get enough warmth, in our opinion. Works like a charm.

We're off again this weekend. Promises to be cold, again!

 

[zeratul]

@zeratul, see this thread on the german forum, we have built the same solution.

You don't need a fan in the hose, the heater fan gives enough 'push'. We now push the entry of the hose between the right hand front seat and the side outflow to heat the top, and the rear flow to heat our 'salon'. Works better than attached as show here, there the 'salon' doesn't get enough warmth, in our opinion. Works like a charm.

We're off again this weekend. Promises to be cold, again!

That is soooo great and exactly what I was looking for!
How do you attach it to the top? Would be great if you could make 2 more pictures of your current setup the next time you use it.
Thank you very much!

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

[bvddobb]

How do you attach it to the top?

We stuck a curtain hook through the fabric of the hose, and simply hang it on the little eyelet in the ceiling of the poptop. Also, we usually tie a little cord around the hose around the top of the seatbelt, to keep the hose in place.

 

[RobSWBeach]

View attachment 30517
So on our skiing trip in austria at the beginning of school holiday, and to avoid traffic jams, we decided to drive friday night from right after school in Belgium to the skiing resort in Austria in Pitztal and camp on the mobile home parking spaces near the glacier at about 1500m. We got there by 11pm and it was -5.5C at the time. It was -15C at the coldest point during the night. Because we were 5 (2 adults, 3 children) in our Beach, we had to sleep with the top up. We have a Cali cozy and the heater was on all night at the lowest setting with 2 windows open as well for ventilation. Usually the children sleep upstairs, but this time it was me with our youngest, while my wife and the other 2 slept downstairs.
Downstairs it was very nice temperature, of course. Upstairs however was a bit cold (the right sleeping bag can of course solve that). The air from the heater is not spreading to the upper part well enough. I am thinking of building a solution.. e.g. a small pipe (like the ones you can attach to a clothes dryer) with a fan on both sides to propel the hot air from downstairs near the heater output to upstars above the heads of whoever is sleeping there. Anyone thought of similar thing? Or are there better solutions?
(I don't want an external topper. Not fun to set that op in freezing cold.)

Surely we can get better sleeping bags, but we don't have the room for two sleeping bags per person when travelling around.

Have you tried a sleeping bag liner or bivvy bag (think cali topper but for a sleeping bag) these usually add a season onto a sleeping bag and can stay in/on the bag when put away.

 

[Gazellio]

EXTREME -ly nice spot in Glaris Davos where you can park right next a Mountain stream with electric and a cafe/shower block and next to the station with regular trains to St Moritz via an amazing switchback pass plus free bus service up to Davos Centre and free use of all the cable cars in summer. View from van...

 

[Tony Beretta]

Do you think you could use this type of tyres instead of winter tyres? I mean, I was about to invest in winter tyres for my new cali 4 motion and I do have iceland offroad plans (my fourth visit, but first time with cali), so I was thinking can I invest in good all terrain tyres that also good in winter (snowy roads, alps, ..) or is that a totally different thing.. (then I would need three sets?!.. )

I use those in my Wrangler. I would not recommend them for a cali as winter tyre. Poor results on wet roads.

 

[Amarillo]

Nordkapp, furthest point north that you can drive in Europe.

I can do three better than that.

Nordkapp - furthest north you can drive on the European mainland.
Nuorgam - furthest north you can drive in the EU
Virmajärvi - furthest east you can drive on mainland EU.
Cabo da Roca - furthest west you can drive on mainland Europe.
Tarifa - furthest west you can drive on mainland Europe.

And I have visited the most northerly, easterly, westerly and southerly toilets on the EU mainland.



Follow my blog: www.au-revoir.eu

 

[WelshGas]

I can do three better than that.

Nordkapp - furthest north you can drive on the European mainland.
Nuorgam - furthest north you can drive in the EU
Virmajärvi - furthest east you can drive on mainland EU.
Cabo da Roca - furthest west you can drive on mainland Europe.
Tarifa - furthest west you can drive on mainland Europe.

And I have visited the most northerly, easterly, westerly and southerly toilets on the EU mainland.



Follow my blog: www.au-revoir.eu

And what type of toilets were they?

 

[Amarillo]

And what type of toilets were they?

Nordkapp - plush luxury. We used the parent and child loos in the main building.
Nuorgam - I don't clearly remember. We stayed in a 60 Euro per night mosquito infested cabin with no loo, so used the campsite"s facility. It was in Finland so would have been orderly.
Virmajärvi - delightful composting toilet in the middle of nowhere, close to the Russian border. I took a photo of it.

Cabo da Roca - public toilet in the visitor centre
Tarifa - public beach toilet


Follow my blog: www.au-revoir.eu

 

[flying banana]

tha

Our most extreme, mates Bongo in front. Wouldn't try this again.

that's the most boring bongo video I've ever seen

 

[bigmac77]

I went to Hull.