Question about camping in the winter

Thank so much everyone. Several people have mentioned the furnace which runs on propane. We recently got our tank filled so we should be good on that, but our heat pump runs on electricity and it works great too. Is there any reason to choose the furnace over the heat pump? I'm hopeful that daytime temps will be in 40's and just below freezing at night. This is sad that we have had our RV for a year and still have so much to learn. Which isn't to say we haven't already learned a lot because we are first time RV owners and went into this knowing nothing so we have come a long way and we are loving it! :)

A lot depends on the RV.. Many Class A's have enclosed tanks in a heated compartment.. Most of those are rated for temps down to 20 degrees with the furnace running as the only heat. They do tell you to open cabnet doors and drawers but.. Know where your pipes are (you don't need to open EVERYTHING, Just the ones that have pipes behind them).

Many trailers have exposed pipes. I worry about those at low temps.

I am in upstate SC. the weather here is slightly warmer than Nashville but come end of Jan, 20s are likely.

I fill the on-board water tank, Unhook and if it's going to freeze DRAIN the water hose and pressure regulator..

I also have a string of incandescent rope lights. ducttaped to the hose (Fancy Duct Tape, the kind with patterns to look good) with excess rope wraped around the regulator.

But it is safer still to drain the hose.

I have added electric heat in the wet bay... Still, when I was up in MI (I could not leave till Thanksgiving, Doctor's orders) I had some lines freeze. No damage, Just had to add more basement heat.

They make peal and stick tank heaters.. I used a string of C-9 Christmas tree bulbs (Around 24 lamps as I recall) these are 9 watt incandescent lamps. so that's 216 watts, plus a 100 watt rough service "Trouble lamp" and I added a 150 watt "Space heater" when it froze... 2 hours later it was flowing again.

There is a problem I need to shoot but .. Well, got to leave SOMETHING for next week. (I arrived down here black Friday and every day it's not raining, and some times even if it is. I have something minor to fix.. yesterday it was some sewing and adding a ground wire to a lamp, today it was laundry, Tomorrow more sewing (it was in the dirty lalundry basket) Sat is's choir practice, Sunday church and change campground.. Monday I may get to the light string, I suspect a broken lamp.

Yes, the suggestion is to fill your fresh water tank and then disconnect and store the fresh water hose. Then use your water pump to supply water and only connect the fresh water hose long enough to refill the tank.

Get an electric heater for nights as that tin box gets really cold. Plenty of blankets will help also, and feign sleep until your spouse gets up and makes the coffee and heats up the place.

EydieG wrote:
Although we have had our RV a year, we didn't use it last winter so we are still learning. ... Our heat works really well so our coach stays warm. Thanks for any advice! :)

Sounds like your furnace hasn't been used in below freezing temps yet. Make sure you have plenty of propane and you might even want to pick up a small electric heater to supplement the furnace.

When your hose was disconnected - did you have enough water to flush the toilet at night?

I've camped a few times where I would disconnect the hose at night - but I always ran enough water into the onboard fresh water tank to have water at night.

For a week long camp, it will likely be easier to just fill the freshwater tank and disconnect the freshwater hose. Only reconnect once every day or two to add water as you need, then stow the hose.

That way you don't have to get up a zero dark thirty and connect the hose so the wife can make coffee, and you are not out in the dark disconnecting it after having to wait for her to finish her shower.

Sorry everyone but now I am so confused :) Are you saying we should use the water from the fresh tank instead of city water? What we did last month was just disconnect the hose at night and then connect it back during the daytime. We are from middle Georgia and most of our RV trips so far have been to Florida so we aren't really used to much cold weather.

Seeing you have a Newmar you already have one of the best for cold weather. We can go a whole week without dumping or refilling our tanks for 2 of us using shower and toilet only in the coach. Enjoy yourself.

Thanks Larry! By onboard tank, are you talking about the fresh water tank?

Your Dutch Star should have heated water compartment. Fill up your onboard tank every day. Disconnect hose and put inside a compartment. Dump when necessary and fill when needed and you should not have a problem. It is usually not that cold here but lately we have been as cold as anywhere. Below freezing is all it takes. Come on and enjoy Larry