Going south IN the winter...

I travel several times a winter, sometimes in bitter cold weather since I’m on a schedule. It’s one of the reasons why a motorhome is a better choice for me, I can keep the whole house warm without having to run the furnace. The dash heater provides more than enough BTU’s to ensure that when I stop it’s already warm enough, the furnace then only has to maintain the temperature not get it warmed up.

Beauty of it is, you got a house on wheels. Weather or traffic gets too bad, pull over, fire up the generator and heater and crack a beer or 6!

We've been driving from Michigan to FL for decades, with various RVs. As others have said, a 10-day weather forecast is your friend. Also - most RVs are actually pretty sure-footed in the snow and ice: we drove our 28' Class C through a minor blizzard with no problems; and got caught in the Great Atlanta Ice Storm of 2013 pulling our 32' 5er. In both cases, having "winter driving skillz" got us through. Another trip back home with the 5er, we experienced temps in the single digits. But for the most part, the drives were the same: clear-ish weather, too much traffic....LOL!...and the need to really flush road salt from the underside of the RV. Go for it - a good dose of Florida sunshine is awesome!

Thanks everyone - the responses have confirmed my sensibilities. We will be on a more fixed schedule, as we are tied to break times for kids. My original plan was to store in FL throughout the winter, as we are planning to be there in August and December - but then I started to question whether that was necessary. You've all confirmed that my original plan is likely the best one. We'll camp there in August, store it, drive down in December, then drive back down in the spring to pick it up.

Check out the Weather Channel weekly planner maps. I have that bookmarked.

Good one over the world picture.

Been running from central IL to south of Myrtle Beach in Dec for about a decade. Haven't been caught yet but my travel time is flexible. That is just a two day pull though.

As others have said, watch the weather reports and adjust your departure accordingly. We've left the Adirondacks in upstate NY the first week of January for the past 6 years, and have rarely had to deal with worse than a dusting of fresh snow on the roads. We always build a few "weather days" into our schedule so we can stay an extra day or so someplace if needed due to changes in conditions before we reach anyplace we have a fixed reservation. So far, we've actually only needed to hold up an extra day once when icy roads were forecast overnight on I-77 heading from Virginia down into North Carolina.

My first year "snow-birding" we had to leave after Christmas.

I was not going to chance it! I found a place in Kentucky that would store my camper for $1. per foot/ month. I drove it down in late October.

$40. for Peace of Mind.

The following year we were able to leave early December. I watched the weather CLOSELY! We ended up leaving 3 days early because of storm warnings.

We got out just in time. The day after we left there was a 100 car pile-up on I90 west in Erie, PA.

It is ludicrous to think you can control any vehicle on icy roads let alone driving a set-up you are less experienced with.

BTW - Even when we leave in early December, I monitor the weather for my entire route from Rochester, NY to at least Georgia. After all, I could leave NY in nice weather and drive right into an ice storm in Southern Ohio for example.



WATCH: 100 Car Pile-Up in Buffalo on Interstate 90

We did a decade and a half of christmas trips to Florida, from PA, pulling a travel trailer. The advice to avoid traveling in storms, and to get far enough south to avoid the worst weather, ASAP, is probably the best. We got burned once, in the noreaster that shut down DC for a week. We ended up crawling through VA for a day and a half in 30" of snow. We never departed in bad weather, and made sure to leave the house by 5 AM and drive until we saw palm trees. Which for us, means a first overnight in SC.

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pick the travel weather.. so NO FIXED DATES...to depart.

hardest part.. digging out the trailer ..... to start the trip.

5 years ago.. January.. a storm was coming.. so I planed to depart a day sooner.... got up and 6 inches of snow everywhere...

I still went.. 30 miles south .. roads were good.

We've been heading south from SE WI for four years now, usually in late February. Like most have stated here, watch your weather reports and let that be your guide!

Two years ago we "missed" an eight inch snow storm by ONE day, it's all about timing! We left the Milwaukee area a day ahead of schedule, spent the night in the southern tip of Illinois where it had barely snowed at all while up the road in Champaign they got eight inches! By the time we pulled out on the second day the roads we barely wet. Watch the weather and travel when it makes the most sense.

Depending on temperature we de-winterize in southern Illinois or south of Memphis on our second day on the road. Usually by then we feel we're out of the "danger zone".

Dan