Water & Traveling in Winter

Windshield washer fluid could poison the septic system of the next campground you stop at to dump, also may be bad for your sewer system connectors and valve. If you must, use RV antifreeze, it is relatively harmless will accomplish the same and probably cost the same or less.

rondeb wrote:
If we are going to be traveling with below freezing temps, we have always felt there is a risk your water lines freezing going down the road. If we are going to be driving during freezing temps, we do not unwinterize. Just carry water to drink and flush in emergencies and we use the parks showers and toilets. Once we get to warmer weather we unwinterize. We have had to winterize on the road many times rather than risk freezing going down the road. If you are traveling during the day and the temps are above freezing (no problem) and the temps are going below feezeing only during the night, then use a lightbulb in your water outlet compartment and put a heating pad on low on the water pump. Using your gas furnace will keep everything from freezing during the night. We do not keep water in our fresh water when we are traveleing in freezing temps. We just don't ever put water back into our lines once winterized while traveling in freezing temps. Just not worth the worry. Easy to carry drinking water and emergency flush water and use the parks facilities. Well this is just how we do it.

How we do it as well. Use windshield washer fluid to flush toilet. You will feel so much more secure doing it this way.

If we are going to be traveling with below freezing temps, we have always felt there is a risk your water lines freezing going down the road. If we are going to be driving during freezing temps, we do not unwinterize. Just carry water to drink and flush in emergencies and we use the parks showers and toilets. Once we get to warmer weather we unwinterize. We have had to winterize on the road many times rather than risk freezing going down the road. If you are traveling during the day and the temps are above freezing (no problem) and the temps are going below feezeing only during the night, then use a lightbulb in your water outlet compartment and put a heating pad on low on the water pump. Using your gas furnace will keep everything from freezing during the night. We do not keep water in our fresh water when we are traveleing in freezing temps. We just don't ever put water back into our lines once winterized while traveling in freezing temps. Just not worth the worry. Easy to carry drinking water and emergency flush water and use the parks facilities. Well this is just how we do it.

We travel every year at Christmas and have been in freezing and below temps many times. We have only had a water line freeze one time. That was when we were camping at the beach in a TT. The gas line from the LP had a lining go bad and stopped up the hose. We had no heat all night and it was 15 degrees outside. We were new at camping and didn't have an electric heater either. We were unaware of the broken line till the sun came out and the lines thawed. It went from nothing to spraying water instantly. Fun fun..

You are OK if those numbers are the actual temperatures. Just now for this part of the country, that is the "average" or "normal" temperature range for this time of year, i.e. the fat middle part of a statistical distribution.

But that "normal" doesn't mean the same thing in the middle of the country as it does near the coasts, where your temperatures are moderated by ocean heat sinks. Arctic air masses move down quickly, pushing temperatures on the plains and in the midwest well below "normal" and frosts well into central Texas and within 100 miles of the coast in the Gulf Coast states. At other times, we get masses of warm moist air that give use balmy winter days in the middle of the air mass, severe winter storms at the contact with the Arctic air (which in December is often as far south as Dallas).

The past few days, temperatures have been 15-30 F above "normal" which means we won't see freezing overnight. But we've already had temperatures 30 F below normal for a week at a time, which at this time of year means you might see lows close to 0 F and no highs above freezing.

So plan for the possibility, whether that means re-winterizing enroute, providing extra heating, or modifying your route or trip plan to stay in warmer areas.

We have lots of experience with cold temps (too much) being originally from Rochester, NY. Over the years we have frozen the water hose a couple of times and once froze the stinky slinky, threw it away. I don't remember any internal freezes and the includes a week in sub 32 temps at my son's house. Burned a lot of propane and kept a work light lit in the utility bay, love those inefficient light bulbs.

The temps you are talking about should cause no problem. The contents of the grey and black tanks contain many dissolved materials which lower the freeze temp and the Fresh Water tank, if kept full, will take an awful long time to freeze at the temps you are talking about. The coach we had the most winter time in was an '04 Southwind 36E 8 years of love and use.

FILE UNDER I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER! Daytime temps in high 20's. Water bay temps in 30's when coach is sitting still due to heater in water bay. Hit the road and the wind sucks the heat out of the water bay and freezes the pipe. After I stopped, the heater warmed up the water bay and pipes unfroze. No damage. Lesson learned.

You'll be fine. They won't freeze in those temps if it's just night temps.

johnsonbert wrote:
It is important to remember that while going down the road in near-freezing temps or lower, that there is a windchill factor that can affect areas not heated or exposed to the elements while driving.

Hmmmm...can you explain how that happens? Windchill factor is only applicable to living bodies. Wind will add to the heat loss due to convection, but the temperature of the object WILL NOT be lower than ambient. For us humans, it will feel colder because we're losing heat at a faster rate AS IF it were colder. But, in effect, the actual temperature IS NOT any lower than ambient.

The effect you noticed while travelling isn't due to "windchill" as we call it. It's due to additional convective heat loss. In other words, you can travel all day and night at 33 degrees at any rate of speed or in any kind of wind, and the water still will not freeze. :)

As to the original poster's temperature range, you should have no worries.

You'll have to be concerned when the day time highs are near or below freezing and/or the night time temps dip down to the low 20's or high teens. If the daytime highs are in the 40's and you only have a few hours during the evening in the high 20's, you should be fine.

~Rick

It is important to remember that while going down the road in near-freezing temps or lower, that there is a windchill factor that can affect areas not heated or exposed to the elements while driving. I have experienced that before. Hope this may help. Happy Trails Bert