Cold Weather Camping

Are your water lines exposed? If so, heat-taping them may be your only choice.
Since your under-tanks are also exposed, I will guess your lines are exposed.

May not be feasible, except winterize the rig and just sleep in it (although a bucket of water may make the "facility" flushable.

Personally our rig is enclosed and heated and have had no issues in temps into the mid teens, well, other then the supply hose (outside) froze up.

I know of an owner of the same brand (he is here on this forum) that winters over in North Dakota, but he also takes a bunch of extra steps.

If you start out above freezing you should be ok. We camped through several winters with a 07 Jayflight. The only times we ever had issues were on Friday nights when the daytime highs didn't get above freezing. After 24 hrs we never had a problem. We also did not use the propane furnace, just 2 electric heaters. 1 heater was one a 15 amp cord run around the slideout to the pedestal, the other ran on low up in the bedroom. We also ran a fan clipped to the shower, with the cord run across the top and over to the outlet above the sink. Our 285RLS Jayflight was the same floor plan as your 281RLS. If you run the propane furnace at least some, you should not have any problems. When we did freeze up I took the access cover for the slideout motor loose and stuck a hair dryer in on low. After about 30 min the water would start to flow. It’s the line from the pump located under the window to the area under the sink that would freeze.

You will want to use the furnace because that is where the heat comes from to heat the underbelly.

Hi,


I suggest you read this thread:

Winter Camping

Another issue is condensation control. You may need a de-humidifier to keep it from raining inside.

For an overnight trip just have the trailer winterized and then take a jug of water with you for flushing the toilet. For longer stays you are going to have to heat tape and insulate the water lines and add tank heaters to the tanks.

I'm in the process of getting mine ready for the winter (I'm living out of it again for work) and I have exposed lines/tanks. I've purchased 'Easy-Heat' heat tape for the water lines, added a valve to shut the water off to my outside water sprayer, stuck on tank heaters 'UltraHeat', and am getting ready to add skirting (1" foam insulation protected by chipboard around the bottom of the whole trailer). I should be good for the -20*F that was experienced last year.

Thanks to all who replied. Your comments have really helped me come up with a strategy on what I need to do to properly prepare for winter camping!

73,(ham farewell greeting, not age...) the usafgeezer...