Freeezing night at the fort

[ob1quixote]

i have camped with temps in the teens OUTSIDE my tent. Now, my tent is a bit out of the norm...

It is a 12X12 canopy, with an 11X11 tent accessory hanging inside. I use a tarp between the tent and the canopy roof to block the huge screened inner roof and hold the heat in.

For heat, I used one of those round kerosene heaters, and an electric space heater to "fill in" the extra heat needed. The thermostat on the space heater kept the temps even. Tents leak enough fresh air to keep the CO from being a problem. I would sleep with my head at a screen opening and crack the zipper a bit, and let thermal convection do its job, drawing fresh air in.

Would I suggest this to most tent campers? ONLY if you have a tent with a very tall ceiling, such as mine.

Smaller tents, I would go with an electric space heater and electric blankets, sleeping bags and blocking the ceiling screens to hold the heat in.

End results for my cold weather rig, in the teens outside, in the 60's inside!

 

[DisneyBishops]

I have been reading your weather comments with great interest. We are set to arrive at FW on Thursday. We got rid of the TT as part of our massive scaling back, and are preparing to return to tent camping. I know another front is coming through, and I believe that temps should stay about the same through the weekend. We have all tent camped many times, but I know there will be some adjustments we are probably not anticipating after years in a RV with forced air furnace and a hot shower.

Tony Thursday, Friday and sat nights will be cold 20's and low 30's. By sunday the night time lows will be in the 40's

u are definately tougher than I am. No way I would tent camp in this weather. Now when I was young and stupid I would've but not anymore. Heck I didn't even enjoy last week that much and I had heat every night. But just hate not being able to get out and do much. Anyway take plenty of warm clothing and adult beverages. Have fun

 

[TBoss68]

We were there Thursday through Monday and all I have to say is brrrrrr!!!! Too bad Disney is so hard on the whole campfire thing. We did actually have a very small wood fire in the grill for most of the night on Saturday. All of the kids just stayed in the camper.

We did unfortunately have a power failure on Saturday - early Sunday. Those of us in approx. 2000 - 2020 are well aware of, we all lost power at about 3:00 am and the temp was hovering around 31 degrees. I was asleep when my wife woke me up to inform me that the breaker had popped. I checked our converter. No tripped breakers. Then bundled up and headed outside to check the power pole breakers.

At that point I heard the click, click click of everyone checking their breakers at the pole and realized we had a much more serious problem on our hands. My neighbor in site 2004 ended up calling the issue in and some electricians arrived at about 4:00 am and reset a breaker at one of the distribution panels. I overheard one say "Well I'm not really sure how long those breakers are going to last".

I was just happy to get the power restored and the heater functioning once again. Then back to bed I went....... Until about 4:45 and it went out again. This time it appeared to be only our site since the groups to my North and South appeared to be running fine.

Another electrician finally made it out to our site at about 9:00 am. Keep in mind we have 3 small children in the camper and the inside temp was reading 42 at this point. I didn't bother with the furnace since we never had any issues with our Dometic Duo Therm heat pump.

Anyway, the electrician opened the distribution panel for sights 2005, 2006, 2007,and 2008 and discovered that the breaker switches had literally melted to the bus panel thus requiring a full replacement of the actual circuit bus. He revealed to me (which he probably should not have) that these buses and breakers are old and that they should have been replaced a long time ago. They simply couldn't handle the load of all of our heaters.

To make a long story longer, armed with the information from the electrician, I called the manager on duty and received a full credit for that night. Other than that we had an absolute blast as we always do at our beloved Fort Wilderness.

P.S. The deer are extremely active right now. We saw some every night during our looping adventures. I even spotted a buck (about a 4 point).

 

[Born 2 Fish]

TBoss68,
it was nice of Disney to give you a nights credit,.
Glad ya'll had a good time.
I too build a fire in the grill on site (sometimes ya just don't feel like going to see Chip n Dale). I cut and split the wood special size for the grill and bring it with us to the Fort.

 

[ynottony99]

We have finally succumb to what most of my friends would consider to be better judgment. I called Reservations last night and we canceled our trip for this weekend. Like I said earlier, it is our first time back in tents for several years and the forecast just doesn't look too good. One of the girls is still coughing after a bout with pneumonia a few weeks back as well. We may make a day trip over and grab breakfast at AK, or TE then spend the day watching Nemo, and Idol.

Since it was too late to get a refund if we canceled, I modified our reservation for a date in April. It should be warmer, and gives us that special feeling that comes with knowing another trip is on the books!

 

[Born 2 Fish]

Tony, under the circumstances it sounds like you made the right choice on the ressie transfer to April. With the weather at Disney now, I think ya'll will have a much better time in April.

 

[stacktester]

Tony I think even if you still had the trailer it would be miserable. Been there in this kinda weather and it sucked.

 

[Millermouseketeers]

We were at Angie's site NYE and looked for you but it was dark at your site so we figured you were at a park. I think Annie saw M at DHS if she was with that group. The last time we went when it was cold was last MLK Weekend. It was miserable and we spent most of the time inside. Looping was rare because it was so cold you didn't want to be outside.

Might I suggest everyone check their Carbon Monoxide batteries since the propane heaters will be used a lot. I really need to get a space heater as I remember burning a huge amount of LP that weekend.

I am sorry we missed you Donnie. We went to Epcot. The fireworks were awesome! We will not have to worry about cold on the 4th!

 

[stacktester]

I am sorry we missed you Donnie. We went to Epcot. The fireworks were awesome! We will not have to worry about cold on the 4th!

Nope just trying to keep the beer cold lol. If God will turn the heat back on I won't complain how hot is is again.

 

[Millermouseketeers]

Heat would be good right now. We are getting ready to be hit by an arctic blast that will put us in the teens, wind chill 4 below. To think I was complaining at the fort when it was 37! Patty and Scott are probably laughing at all of us!

 

[LONE-STAR]

If God will turn the heat back on I won't complain how hot is is again.

Yes you will I know I will

 

[stacktester]

Yes you will I know I will

OK OK, please just turn the heat back up. If I see Al Gore I'll throw a snowball at him.

I went to Wally World tonight to get a heater for the camper since it drinks LP quickly when u use the heat and I got the last one. There was a couple little tiny one's but they wouldn't heat a closet up. A guy came up after I grabbed it and said he had been to Lowes and THD and both were sold out.

 

[DisneyBishops]

OK OK, please just turn the heat back up. If I see Al Gore I'll throw a snowball at him.

I went to Wally World tonight to get a heater for the camper since it drinks LP quickly when u use the heat and I got the last one. There was a couple little tiny one's but they wouldn't heat a closet up. A guy came up after I grabbed it and said he had been to Lowes and THD and both were sold out.

Donnie you camping tonight? I know the feeling my moho drinks the LP quick with heater on. I do have a couple of ceramic elect. heaters that i use. I use them until time to sleep then i turn on the furnace. Don't like to sleep with the elect. heaters running. Dang moho only has 4 circuits and i think all the recept. are on the same circuit. don't want to overload it while sleeping. 2 of the elect. heaters are 3000 watts so that takes almost 20amps and my circuits are 15 amp.

But it does save LP during the waking hours.

 

[krimi]

I run separate extensions directly from the box for things like outdoor cooking and indoor heating with my popup.

 

[agame2323]

Thank God for May

 

[clkelley]

I think we all need to go to Anaheim. They are the only ones having nice weather!!!!!

How about a Fort Fiends Caravan cross country!!??

 

[DisCamper]

Check the temp at 4am it was 27 at the Fort

 

[LORNADUCK]

When are we leaving? What is the reason I moved to Florida?
Remind me of this when I am saying it is to hot in July!!!!!!!

 

[cerberus]

Talked to our friend that works at Disney, she said it is suppose to be in the 20s again tonight Sure hope it warms up a touch before our trip in a couple weeks!

 

[k4dcf]

Yep it needs to warm up some. We are going to be there the last week of January and while I like it to be cool to keep the crowds down this is taking it too far.