Heading south freezing temps

I don't have to deal with the level of cold you guys do but I just leave the furnace on 65 all the time (even while towing) and the trailer stays nice and warm. I don't have to worry about getting it warmed up when I stop and the expense of propane is not a show stopper. Just wondering why folks don't leave the furnace on while towing?

When we lived in Alberta we left for down south in -35 celcius a couple times with our truck and fifth wheel. It is not ideal but we stayed in it 2 nights in cold weather on the way down with our 2 dogs. We left the slides in and made due and were quite fine. The worst thing we experienced was a frozen memory foam mattress. The following year we pre warmed our trailer for a couple days and that solved that problem. Having the slides in I think is easier to heat and less potential for things that may freeze up. Some RV's are not useable with the slides in though so that is another thing.

We stay ahead of the storms , last year we left at 1:am in the morning to beat a snow storm coming in, better to be ahead than behind it.

jergeod wrote:
The_Painting_Teacher can you fill in the places you stop by name and location?

I've sent you a PM with details.

We too travel south once Christmas is past us and we've had a month or so of skiing.

The hydraulic slides work fine in the cold (hydraulic landing gear and jacks too), they just run slower.

What we do is heat the trailer up a couple of days before we go, get the fridge going, and load 'er up.

The first night we stop where the temps are usually still below freezing. Last year they also had about 3' of snow on the ground so had to plow out a site each time someone came in.

For that night's stop we stay hooked up, we don't put down the landing gear, we put out the slides, crank the furnace and a couple of ceramic heaters. Then, because the next night's stop will be significantly warmer, we'll de-winterize as the underbelly stays warm enough overnight with the furnace running, as does the basement and the universal docking station. For water, we'll \put enough water in the fresh tank to do us for that night.

For us the biggest issue is the weather. We try to give ourselves a wide window so we can adjust our departure date as needed, based on the forecast. We had to delay a day last year, in fact. And even then, though the forecast was good, we had about five hours of towing on heavily snow covered roads.

Thanks Dutch. Every positive experience eases the stress. We have travelled south several times in cold weather but these temps are frigid. We have a new rig and the hydralic stuff is new to us.

We leave upstate NY for Florida after spending the holidays with our kids. We fill the water tank and refrigerator a couple of days before we leave, and just keep the two furnaces set at 50 deg.F until the morning we leave, running on an external cylinder that gets left behind. We've never had a problem with the hydraulic jacks sticking or the gear drive slide not working, and we've been quite comfortable in weather as low as -4 deg.F. We do watch the weather and change our travel plans to avoid snow or high winds, adding or subtracting a day here and there as needed until we reach warmer weather.

Thanks John and Joey good reminder about the Jack's freezing to the ground!

The_Painting_Teacher can you fill in the places you stop by name and location?

Thanks all for replies. We have decided to stay at Indianapolis camping world the first night. 50 amp hookups and help right there for anything that goes wrong. Feeling less stressed.