New owmer 2004 chinook Concourse 4x4
New owmer 2004 chinook Concourse 4x4
Thanks for letting me join your forum. New ownwer beleive it's Manitou's old Concourse 4x4. Love snowboarding and plan on using it hear in Colorado this season. Any advice about winter would be appreciated. Have been reading forum posts and am very excited. THANKS
Re: New owmer 2004 chinook Concourse 4x4
I went snowboarding with it in Utah and Tahoe. Colorado is another level of cold sometimes though. Will you have electric where you sleep or no? 1 night weekend warrior or week long trips?
I was fairly comfortable sleeping in a 20 degree sleeping bag. (interior couldn't go over 50 or I would get too hot). Sometimes just used the bag as a top blanket.
Kicking g on the hot water heater for a hot shower was awesome. The microwaves is nice for a quick hot meal. I had a problem with the generator only running for a minute at altitudes over 5000 feet. it would kill d of pulse and die. Not sure if the previous owner fixed it. A carb rebuild (specficly the altitude adjustment seemed sticky and inoperable) or replacement should fix that. It was rock solid below 5000 feet.
It's a heavy rig, so careful in the snow/ice. I had a slow speed slip in a parking lot the put my off into a small snow bank once. Flipped the hub lock switch, put in neutral, put in 4x4, and backed right out of it. (all while blocking traffic for 2 min haha.. could have been a lot worse). You have more aggressive tires then I did. Which is even better of course.
I was fairly comfortable sleeping in a 20 degree sleeping bag. (interior couldn't go over 50 or I would get too hot). Sometimes just used the bag as a top blanket.
Kicking g on the hot water heater for a hot shower was awesome. The microwaves is nice for a quick hot meal. I had a problem with the generator only running for a minute at altitudes over 5000 feet. it would kill d of pulse and die. Not sure if the previous owner fixed it. A carb rebuild (specficly the altitude adjustment seemed sticky and inoperable) or replacement should fix that. It was rock solid below 5000 feet.
It's a heavy rig, so careful in the snow/ice. I had a slow speed slip in a parking lot the put my off into a small snow bank once. Flipped the hub lock switch, put in neutral, put in 4x4, and backed right out of it. (all while blocking traffic for 2 min haha.. could have been a lot worse). You have more aggressive tires then I did. Which is even better of course.
Re: New owmer 2004 chinook Concourse 4x4
Welcome, Chivo! Glad to have you here. And congrats on your new-to-you Chinook! We all "know" your rig because it was the featured header-photo rig for quite awhile (not that Manitou was being a show-off, but rather it was because it was so hard to size photos for the old forum software version that no-one else ever submitted a photo - now that's fixed we can see a variety up there).
Bring on the trips, fixes, tinkering, improvements.... and more trips!
Bring on the trips, fixes, tinkering, improvements.... and more trips!
1999 Concourse
Re: New owmer 2004 chinook Concourse 4x4
Thanks for the welcome. Both of you guys seem very knowledgeable. Decided to take the winter to work and snowboard the winter. Planning on being plugged in most of the time. No it's going to be a challenge when temps can dip well below 0 degrees. I'M UP FOR IT!
Re: New owmer 2004 chinook Concourse 4x4
Being plugged in it won't be so bad to make it work - especially for this first winter when you don't have it all tweaked up specifically for your style.
1) Plugging in will give you unlimited furnace usage (although you'll need to be able to either drive to propane fill place, or set up an "extend a stay" type auxilliary tank).
2) If you have tank heaters you can run them when plugged in.
3) You can run electric space heaters (just mind the amperage if you also want to run microwave or other big draw) to keep the living room comfortable and also to blow under the sink (to get to the vulnerable lines back there and behind the shower/toilet).
Now, that said, if getting down to 0ºF, I think I'd consider just put the water supply system to bed. That way you don't have to worry about those little, vulnerable pipes behind the shower. You would use jugs at the sink (and you can also just flush the toilet with jug water), but you could probably keep the waste tanks up and running (although be careful of the dump valves, which are likely not heated).
With the space heaters, one of the 1500 watt heaters on full will be around 12.5 amps (AC), so that will pretty much use up whatever outlet it is on (and you only have 30 amps total). So if you have two, you'd likely want to run them both on a lower setting. Then turn off as necessary if you are using other high draw items (microwave, heat strips).
They take up a lot of space, but the winters I lived in a small trailer, I found I VASTLY preferred the electric "oil" heaters that look like an old fashioned radiator. SO much more cozy than the little blower space heaters. Also silent. Even though the open floor space was tiny, I gladly gave up a chunk of it for that heater. At one point it gave up the ghost, and while I waited for a new one to arrive I fell back on the electric space heater. No comparison! I was freezing! And that was same wattage heaters: 1500 for both. (The radiator has three settings, low, medium, high.) My low temps were around 19ºF, with 20's being more common. I just ran all my water manually (even just using a bucket for the sink drain) so I had nothing to worry about but just my own comfort (no pipe freezing worries).
1) Plugging in will give you unlimited furnace usage (although you'll need to be able to either drive to propane fill place, or set up an "extend a stay" type auxilliary tank).
2) If you have tank heaters you can run them when plugged in.
3) You can run electric space heaters (just mind the amperage if you also want to run microwave or other big draw) to keep the living room comfortable and also to blow under the sink (to get to the vulnerable lines back there and behind the shower/toilet).
Now, that said, if getting down to 0ºF, I think I'd consider just put the water supply system to bed. That way you don't have to worry about those little, vulnerable pipes behind the shower. You would use jugs at the sink (and you can also just flush the toilet with jug water), but you could probably keep the waste tanks up and running (although be careful of the dump valves, which are likely not heated).
With the space heaters, one of the 1500 watt heaters on full will be around 12.5 amps (AC), so that will pretty much use up whatever outlet it is on (and you only have 30 amps total). So if you have two, you'd likely want to run them both on a lower setting. Then turn off as necessary if you are using other high draw items (microwave, heat strips).
They take up a lot of space, but the winters I lived in a small trailer, I found I VASTLY preferred the electric "oil" heaters that look like an old fashioned radiator. SO much more cozy than the little blower space heaters. Also silent. Even though the open floor space was tiny, I gladly gave up a chunk of it for that heater. At one point it gave up the ghost, and while I waited for a new one to arrive I fell back on the electric space heater. No comparison! I was freezing! And that was same wattage heaters: 1500 for both. (The radiator has three settings, low, medium, high.) My low temps were around 19ºF, with 20's being more common. I just ran all my water manually (even just using a bucket for the sink drain) so I had nothing to worry about but just my own comfort (no pipe freezing worries).
1999 Concourse
Re: New owmer 2004 chinook Concourse 4x4
Welcome Chivo. Sounds like you have a fun winter planned. Glad to have you here. We like pictures!
Steve aka SMan
2004 Premier V10
2004 Premier V10
Re: New owmer 2004 chinook Concourse 4x4
I ran an electric space heater sometimes. Would shoot it under the bed area. I don't think they draw the full rated watts unless cranked up to max. I did it as well as the furnace for 2 reasons. 1) I'm a light sleeper and the furnace kicking off and on sometimes woke me up 2) Less furnace time made the propane last longer.
I did have a problem with the furnace when I first got the rig. The "flag" sensor switch thingy would stick sometimes and not kick on the heat. The more I used the furnace, the less it happened. When I sold the rig, it always worked as expected. Have multiple sources of heat is nice if one is acting up. Oh, that reminds me.. you have another source of electric heat in the roof A/C. It has a heat strip rather then the original heat pump.. so it will work even in 0 degrees.
You do have grey/black tank heaters, but some pink antifreeze in the tanks works too. You could winterize the whole water system and just use bottled water.. but then you can't get a hot shower. Pros and cons..
I did have a problem with the furnace when I first got the rig. The "flag" sensor switch thingy would stick sometimes and not kick on the heat. The more I used the furnace, the less it happened. When I sold the rig, it always worked as expected. Have multiple sources of heat is nice if one is acting up. Oh, that reminds me.. you have another source of electric heat in the roof A/C. It has a heat strip rather then the original heat pump.. so it will work even in 0 degrees.
You do have grey/black tank heaters, but some pink antifreeze in the tanks works too. You could winterize the whole water system and just use bottled water.. but then you can't get a hot shower. Pros and cons..
Re: New owmer 2004 chinook Concourse 4x4
Thanks for the info. Headed up today, already snowing (6"-8" above 9,000ft). Plan on using oil filled electric, ceramic electric, and furnace. Going to skirt when parked and add someting in rear of fridge to keep amonia from gelling up. Going to roll the dice for early and use water system at least for early season. I AM VERY STOKED AND BROKE FROM MAKING THIS PURCHASE. Thanks Manitou for the upgrades you made they should really help considering I have no money for upgrades. I will post plenty of pictures.
Re: New owmer 2004 chinook Concourse 4x4
If driving in snow, try to find some way to confirm those front hubs are locked. You can lock them manually if the switch activated vacuum system isn't working. I've heard they are problematic with time. The E350's are known for a vaccum leak that affects the van A/C (cold air cuts off during a hill climb).