How is the heat in a Columbia Northwest Aliner?

Over Thanksgiving, we hooked up the A-Liner and headed “home”. One reason (excuse) we used to justify thus purchase of the A-liner was that both of our parents have recently downsized, leaving us without a free bed in town. (Please don’t tell us about the math, as I ignore it consciously.)This was our first try at parking it in a driveway and treating it as a “spare room”. Wow! A private place (beats the living room floor) for some peace and quite after a hectic day of eating, drinking and communicating.

We also got to test how warm it was, as the temperature dipped into the 20s the second night. We ran the heater most of the time we were there, keeping it at about what we describe as 40%. So how was it? My mother-in-law described it best when she stepped in to get a look at the camper: “It’s warmer than my house!” We had taken our warmer sleeping bags to place on the bed anticipating being cold, but we didn’t need them. Standard bedding would have been fine. We did take a big old blanket and push it along the wall, the length of the queen bed to keep draft from coming in. I would probably continue this practice, as it would be too easy for cold air to come in under the covers there. I may look for some type of bolster to put there that we can just keep in the unit.

Condensation did form in places on the inside, but nothing too major. It was also quite windy and even snowed. Sleeping in the A-Liner, we didn’t even notice until we woke up.

Note to self though, be aware of where you park so that the door doesn’t face a very public place. I learned this the hard way. My mother-in-law lives along a main street next to a restaurant. I opened the door to run inside first thing in the morning, and was greeted indirectly by about 25 runners in the annual YMCA Turkey Trot 5K race!

Advertisement