Never done this before- Cross USA plans

Weather sites will give you historical data for any city.

As an a person that lived on the east coast most of his life and now a frequent traveler in the late fall and early winter, let me provide you with this advice.
Carry at least a smart phone to keep track of weather.
Always have at least three days of food and water on board.
Keep the propane tank at least half full.
Be ready to change plans fast.
If you stick to interstates, you may still get shut down for a day, but it can be longer and you just have to be ready.

Matt

DanShep wrote:
Me and two other blokes have some time off in November and December. We want to purchase a smaller motor RV (thinking like Winnebago Riata) and traveling from Vermont to Cali, down to Florida and back up to Vermont.

My concern is the weather in the northern states in November. Like, do people think its okay to go through say Montana?

I know I have a lot of research to do here, but generally what are peoples first impressions to the idea of a cross USA tour in November. I'm thinking mostly about plumbing. For that leg of the trip, are you better off draining the wells and pipes? Winterizing with chemical?

Any advice is greatly appreciated and sought.

Thanks,

Dan

An alternative to investigate would be to rent an RV for your trip. Eliminates dealing with the mechanical soundness of the vechicle i.e tires etc. Recommend you buy the Good Sam Emerengcy Roadside service policy in case of a mechanical breakdown.

You'll notice that all the people saying stay south are from the south.
They have no idea what the weather is like in Nov in the northern states.
Highways don't stay closed forever in the north, just like in Vermont.

LynnandCarol wrote:
You had better take a more southern route! Very cold and snowy that time of year. Road conditions not good either.

X2 traveling in Nov.Dec. could find yourself with weather delays/stay overs which could interrupt your planned schedule:(

How old a rig?
Anything older than 5-7 years will ABSOLUTELY need new tires. NO matter how much tread is on the tire the age of the tire will make it VERY prone to a blowout.
Sitting in the sun without use is horrible for tires.

I would leave the route open until the last minute. A really strong Alberta Clipper could wreck havoc on the northern states. Some states will require chains for the mountain passes if there is snow.
It will be almost impossible to keep a RV warm much below 15 degrees outside temp and most campgrounds will be closed making it more of a challenge to find water and dump sewer unless you patronize FlyingJ and pay for dumping.

If it were me I would do Vermont to Florida to San Diego taking time to camp on the beaches of Louisiana and Texas. From San Diego I would go North to LA and do the Pacific coast highway to San Francisco (going South is better than north on the highway but we take what we can get) then drive up to Portland or maybe even Seattle. Then I would do Reno(weather permitting)and Vegas (really cheap hotel rooms abound in Vegas baby. After Vegas I would travel through Laughlin to Oatman (old mining town taken over by free spirit type people) Then on to Kingman and weather permitting old route 66 to the Grand canyon.

There are parts of the west already getting snow so if you don't stay more south you are liable to get into bad weather any time now. The weather out here is so unpredictable too, it can be 70 deg here one day and 2 feet of snow the next!

Chris

You had better take a more southern route! Very cold and snowy that time of year. Road conditions not good either.