We're visiting friends and our Lance model 880 sitting on our 1-ton Ford in the driveway, overnight temps will drop to the mid 20's. No one inside, only the refrigerator on, and NO AC Hookup - Battery only. Do not want to winterize the water system with anti-freeze for a 4-day layover.Suggestions on how to keep the inside warm enough to prevent pipes freezing, but not drain down the batteries too much? Or is it hopeless?Ideas I have: Open all taps with pump off; leave water heater on (plenty of propane); leave inside cupboard doors open for pipesContrary or additional suggestions?- Dave in Bend Oregon

Leaving cupboard doors open only works to provide inside heated air to the pipes. If you don't have a furnace/heater running, this probably won't help much.

With furnace on and interior temp at 60 degrees, cupboards open our MH would be okay. Except for the drain pipe running sise to side at the very bottom of the floor with only the metal under skin "insulating" it. If you have a pipe like that put $2 worth of antifreeze down the sink.Low point drains and the like also tend to freeze up on our rig at -10 C, 15 F. A sock or glove over the valve stops that.

Leave all the faucets open and put pink stuff in drains . or you could leave a faucet with a slight drip when going to bed so that the pump comes on once in a while. Check to see if pump still work in the morning. If it freezes use a hair dryer to thaw. Remember it takes hours of below 32 for the water to freeze. SO if daytime is above freezing you could be ok

You are playing with fire! :B IMO. My son did something like this in Sep 2012 and ended up having to replace the plastic water valve on the commode.

Several years ago I was using my RV occasionally during the winter and did not want to completely winterize after each trip using the pink antifreeze because of the hassle. What I did do was blow out the water lines using an air compressor (40 psi) after every trip. My rationale was that the lines could not freeze if there was no water in them. I did put antifreeze in the P-traps though. It worked then and never did crack a line. I know it got cold enough because the copper water pipes in my cabin cracked in several spots during the freeze.

Camper Parked; Freezing Overnight; No One Inside

dgcarlson
Explorer
Oct 25, 2013
Thanks for all suggestions. No ac, so other ideas are relevant. Headed off now to the cold country.
MNtundraRet
Navigator
Oct 25, 2013
Since it is now the 25Th and after the fact, I am going to assume that nothing happened......

:Z

.... or ...

:h

... something happened and he is too embarrassed to tell us. :o
lane_hog
Explorer II
Oct 25, 2013
Blowing out the lines has always worked for us in week-long freezes.
Harvey51
Explorer
Oct 24, 2013
If you don't have any heat in the house, you should winterize. Ours can be done in 20 minutes with less than $5 worth of pink antifreeze.
With heat, no problem for the toilet (door open so bathroom is heated). Not a bad idea to put a jug of water or antifreeze as close to the pump as possible - water has a large heat capacity (10 times the same mass of metal) and will keep the area around it from freezing for a few hours.

The plastic water pipes are a little flexible so somewhat resistant to ice breaking. Our fresh water drain tap froze a few times but no harm was done.

I have a wireless thermometer I can use to watch the house temperature from inside the house; easy to keep an eye on it in the middle of the night and avoid going out if the temperature is above freezing.

I am surprised to hear it is so cool way down south. We've only gone a degree or two below freezing three nights here so far in northern Alberta.
SanCap
Explorer
Oct 23, 2013
Why not put you rig in a campground nearby and enjoy your visit with your friends instead of worrying about frozen pipes and such.

Jim
BurbMan
Explorer II
Oct 23, 2013
RoyB wrote:
Go get a 50-foot or longer extension cord and run out to the truck from the garage and plug in a oil-filled heater...

That would be my plan A...if that's not possible, then plan B:

Leave all the cabinet doors open, turn on the furnace and set the t-stat at 40*. Be sure all roof vents etc are closed. If the sun hits the camper on one side leave the blind or shade up on that window.

During the day the sun will keep the inside of the camper warm, and if inside temps drop below 40 at night the furnace will come as a last resort.

Even with one battery this should get you by for a couple days.
skipnchar
Explorer
Oct 23, 2013
Turn heat on low and it should be ok
MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Oct 23, 2013
I had to do this a lot. Five stops 13 days in the winter. The "major" issue I ran into was water supply stuff near the floor and curiously enough, the hot water heater. The stupid metal relief valve sucked enough heat out of the tank that it actually cooled down more than other stuff inside (!) Even leaving a stove burner on very low did not do all that much for floor temperatures. What I needed was a circulation fan and at that time I did not have a 12-volt fan with me. I hate winterizing when it's only for a short time!

So I ended up draining and blowing all the water out of the system and using carried-in jugs of water.
RoyB
Explorer II
Oct 23, 2013
Go get a 50-foot or longer extension cord and run out to the truck from the garage and plug in a oil-filled heater...

If you are going to be doing this alot then you probably should pick up a good HD 50-FOOT 10-GAUGE (10-3) Extension cord and a RV30A-15A LONG Adapter (WALMART) and then connect your trailer 30AMP SHORE POWER Cable to this setup plugged into a garage 120VAC receptacle. Having this setup just makes it easier to run an 12-0VAC extension cord inside your trailer. You can plug the oil-filled heater above into one of the trailer 120VAC receptacles inside the trailer now. I would not set higher than a #3 setting on the oil filled heater.

We do this all the time with our setup at various places we go to. Can run everything in our 30AMP trailer but if running the air conditioner or high wattage microwave we have to just have that unit turned on otherwise it will trip the garage breaker.

Do not use these small 30A-15A adapters as they will get hot on you over time and may do damage to your connectors.

This is what you DON'T want to happen using the small RV30A-15A adapters

Roy Ken
olygene
Explorer
Oct 23, 2013
Several years ago I was using my RV occasionally during the winter and did not want to completely winterize after each trip using the pink antifreeze because of the hassle. What I did do was blow out the water lines using an air compressor (40 psi) after every trip. My rationale was that the lines could not freeze if there was no water in them. I did put antifreeze in the P-traps though. It worked then and never did crack a line. I know it got cold enough because the copper water pipes in my cabin cracked in several spots during the freeze.