Below freezing advice

I am dewinterized right now in northeast PA. Freezing temps today with 4" of snow expected.

I went camping last week in an active snowstorm. I drained all my lines, took out heater element for 100% draining, blew air through all lines and dumped windshield washer fluid in each drain elbow. Good to go, I'll worry about sanitizing the system by April 15th.

I hope to dewinterize this weekend, despite the fact that temps will still be down around 30 degrees at night during the following week. During the day it will be in the 50s.

Well, we survived the trip. Only problem was the spigot froze both mornings and didn't thaw until around noon.
Thanks for all the advice, that's the coldest we've ever camped so far.

Stovepipe wrote:
Is it feasible to use the black tank during the winter when the camper is otherwise winterized? I realize if the furnace is on it wouldn't be a problem but what about single digit temps and furnace off? Seems like I've heard of people just pouring a little antifreeze down the toilet after using it. Could the tank get damaged in that scenario?

My answer is that it depends. Everyone's circumstances are different based on weather, design of trailer, etc.

I take DS camping a few times during the winter, but our lowest temp that we will go camping is around 25F at night. I keep ~ 1/3 gallon of antifreeze in the black tank throughout the winter, plus a little in the toilet bowl. I leave it in there while camping for us to go #1 only. I just take a jug of water and pour a little in the toilet every time we use it. I am fortunate to have a sewer cleanout right behind where I park the trailer, so when we get home, I pour a couple of 5 gallon buckets of water in the tank, drain it, then put another 1/3 gallon of antifreeze back in the tank to protect the waste valve.

This works for us. However, if you are camping in much colder temps than us, YMMV.

Hi,

What are the daily highs going to be?

Is it feasible to use the black tank during the winter when the camper is otherwise winterized? I realize if the furnace is on it wouldn't be a problem but what about single digit temps and furnace off? Seems like I've heard of people just pouring a little antifreeze down the toilet after using it. Could the tank get damaged in that scenario?

We camp all the time in our off-road POPUP camper which has a fresh water tank and inside plumbing for that as well as a hot water water heater etc... We also do not have any under belly membrane covering.

We do just fine by unhooking any water connections and running heat inside the trailer on the very cold nights.

We also are setup for doing a quick drain of the trailer fresh water low points which also drains the hot water water tank to some degree if we open the hot water faucet. Once all of the water gets drained from the low water point we can do a quick blow-out of the water lines using our tankless 12VDC air compressor connected to the city water inlet port using an air adapter... Then we just add some pink stuff to the couple of p-traps we have.

All of this just takes a few minutes and we can start using the water system again by just adding fresh water the next day to the fresh water tank or hook back up to city water.

Have camped thru some low single digit temps doing this here in the high country of VA-TN-NC-GA camp sites.

We also have all of our cabinets that are interconnected around our floorspace using internal small vents and use a 12VDC vent fan on one end to force air movement through all of the cabinets. this helps big time keeping our internal warm air inside our cabinets...

Not really a big deal for us camping during the winter months... Having a bigger trailer might be more of a problem...

Our winters here in Northern Neck Virginia are not harsh at all - It may get down to freezing overnite but usually warms back up the next day.

The only thing that has ever frozen up for us water forgetting to unhook the water hose connection to the camp ground pedestal one cold night.

Roy Ken

Don't know if this would make any difference, but do you have something, even some old blue tarps, that could be cut to a size sort of like a "skirting" and taped to the trailer. Certainly won't be attractive, but if you can block any wind it might help.

Even here in West TN, our beautiful 70+ degrees a couple of days ago is long gone. Back to cold, grey, cold, drizzly, cold, miserable. We were supposed to be in FL for baseball this week and had to cancel, but watched the game on MLB....lovely mid 80's, sunny, gorgeous and one in the win column....just not fair!

We have noticed that if the temps just dip to the mid 20's in the early morning, and then warm back up, we will not have any problems.

but I would be a bit concerned if my exposed cold water lines were to freeze solid after 5 or 6 hours.

I would definitely keep the furnace humming by keeping the interior temps nice and warm. That heat will radiate to the exposed exterior of your rig.