Cold Weather RVing

Off topic...but, 1500 miles in THREE days ..:E:E:E .. I must be getting OLD....:B....Dennis

Thanks for all the great advice!! Love this forum.

J-Rooster wrote:
Don't forget to bring a ladder in case it snows to get the snow off the top of the slide toppers.

Very good point! We started to leave an RV park in Red River Ski, NM area one morning after sitting for 4 days with the slides out and the temps were -10 that morning. The slide toppers had frozen water in the fabric due to the sun shining during the day and refreezing under the snow on them at night. I had to stand on a ladder and beat the ice off each topper as my wife brought the slides in inches at a time. Another lesson learned was to only open the slides as needed when snowing.

Tinstar wrote:
If your basement isn't heated, heat it. Put small ceramic heaters down there to keep it above 32. A few hundred watts is all it would take I would think.

We used two different RV's for skiing in the winter and survived in temps at -15 by using these type of heaters in the wet bay, one being a Fleetwood. Without an electrical hookup we ran the generator and when parked, depending on the temperature and the availability of electicity, we would run it then as needed.

Don't forget to bring a ladder in case it snows to get the snow off the top of the slide toppers.

rgatijnet1 wrote:
Every year we do most of our travel in the Winter months. As we have found out, a lot of other people also enjoy traveling in the Winter months because of the lack of crowds. We will usually be out for months and in Mid-January we once shared the entire Grand Canyon Village RV park with only 5 other guests.
We never have trouble finding a place to park the RV. Many times you will hear about people talking about "permanent" residents at the various RV parks. Trust me, they do not make all of those people leave during the Winter and many parks have transient spaces available during the Winter. If you are one of those that likes to schedule your stops, start calling and making arrangements now. For us, we never make reservations and always manage to find a place to park. We also carry tire chains that we have had to use to get in to and out of some RV parks that haven't cleared the roads. The highways are almost always cleared, especially if you stick with major highways as you travel.
During the Winter we always try to keep the fresh water tank topped off. We never hook up the water hose or sewer line except to empty the waste tanks or top off the fresh water. We have camped in sub zero temps and never had our tanks freeze.

They make a thermostatically controlled plug that you put in to a standard outlet and it will turn on a heater or light. This is how we keep the wet compartment heated when we travel. If you do not have a 120 volt inverter outlet in your wet compartment, it is easy enough as a DIY project or to have an electrician install a GFI for you to use when parked or while on the road.
We have roof top heat pump AC's that work down to about 32 degrees. We also have a portable heat pump AC that is our primary heat source when the temp drops below 32.
In addition to the heat pump, if we need a little more heat, we use the portable electric heaters. We very seldom use our propane furnace except maybe to take the chill off first thing in the morning. We don't really mind temps in the 60's inside the RV and we use an electric blanket at night. Our big mountain dog loves the cold and can't wait to play in the snow when we travel.

Hear! Hear! Cudos to you, you experience all the rv life and understand weather limitations . Educated people like you can help many others.

Here is a link to Flying J stations. You can use it to find Flying J's that have a sewer dump as well as propane. If you keep some type of heat in your wet compartment, none of the valves or your pump will freeze, even in sub-zero weather. We find that a thermostatically controlled 100 watt bulb in the wet compartment is all we need. Our wet bay is insulated but if yours is not, it may take a 150 watt bulb.
Flying J RV amenities

Personally, I wouldn't do it in mid-Jan. We live in west central Il. "Normal" Jan. temp. is one thing but 15 or 20 below zero is a possibility. As long as you are using the coach and have the furnace on you might avoid freezing everything but your dump valves will freeze and you may not find any dump stations anyway. If you hook to city water your hose will freeze. Once we got caught having to camp at around 5 degrees and all of the above happened even though nothing inside the coach froze. All of the potable water faucets in the campground froze solid. There will be few if any campgrounds open though some private ones are. We go from here to Florida in Jan. and I leave the RV winterized until several hundred miles south and use water out of jugs.

agree with Rgatijnet and Effy. Our unit is older than yours and have never frozen up. We also travel more in Winter. Keeps your fuel top off and use the unit.

Every year we do most of our travel in the Winter months. As we have found out, a lot of other people also enjoy traveling in the Winter months because of the lack of crowds. We will usually be out for months and in Mid-January we once shared the entire Grand Canyon Village RV park with only 5 other guests.
We never have trouble finding a place to park the RV. Many times you will hear about people talking about "permanent" residents at the various RV parks. Trust me, they do not make all of those people leave during the Winter and many parks have transient spaces available during the Winter. If you are one of those that likes to schedule your stops, start calling and making arrangements now. For us, we never make reservations and always manage to find a place to park. We also carry tire chains that we have had to use to get in to and out of some RV parks that haven't cleared the roads. The highways are almost always cleared, especially if you stick with major highways as you travel.
During the Winter we always try to keep the fresh water tank topped off. We never hook up the water hose or sewer line except to empty the waste tanks or top off the fresh water. We have camped in sub zero temps and never had our tanks freeze.
They make a thermostatically controlled plug that you put in to a standard outlet and it will turn on a heater or light. This is how we keep the wet compartment heated when we travel. If you do not have a 120 volt inverter outlet in your wet compartment, it is easy enough as a DIY project or to have an electrician install a GFI for you to use when parked or while on the road.
We have roof top heat pump AC's that work down to about 32 degrees. We also have a portable heat pump AC that is our primary heat source when the temp drops below 32. In addition to the heat pump, if we need a little more heat, we use the portable electric heaters. We very seldom use our propane furnace except maybe to take the chill off first thing in the morning. We don't really mind temps in the 60's inside the RV and we use an electric blanket at night. Our big mountain dog loves the cold and can't wait to play in the snow when we travel.