Camping In Snow

0 experience pulling a rig in snow

I've done it a lot but I drove in the snow for a living.Chains/chains and more chains!A 4X4 is a big help but chains are still needed in steep mountain roads.The trailer will push your tow vehicle and pass you on corners and the trailer brakes alone will put the trailer into a slide without chains.

The WDH hitch is your enemy on a solid snow packed road!

If you decide to do it(I recommend not too with a travel trailer) use chains on both the tow vehicle and trailer even if it is just one set on the trailer and even consider one on the front tire.Studs all around would be better than nothing.

Loosing control is multiplied 10X+ pulling a heavy travel trailer on solid snow packed mountain roads and I see wrecks even with snowmobile trailers way way to much from lack of towing experience on snow packed roads and people to lazy to put chains on!

Get a smaller Motorhome and stud it up for driving and camping on snowy roads.There much safer and easier to use in those conditions.

I lived 40 years in Idaho's Tahoe(McCall Idaho)where it snowed almost year around.

SteveAE wrote:
DO IT!
It's great fun.

What to bring....a positive attitude. Everything else will fall into place. If you want specific hints, feel free to PM me and we can discuss it.

Steve

p.s.; if you can arrange it, please send Oregon some more snow so we can get back out snow camping ourselves....before the season ends.

Im sorry to say but I think our season is about done. Our rockchucks have woke up and running around. Gunna be bad this summer.

A couple of questions. Are you going to be camping off your batteries or being plugged into shore power somewhere.

If it is going to be batteries then I suggest you do some dry runs at home to find out how many batteries you are going to need for what you plan on using. Adding more batteries also means adding a beefed up converter/charger system as well. Then you also have to add a way to re-charge your batteries. Most of us plan our battery system to be large enough to run all we want to run in a one day/night run off the batteries and then using a small generator the next morning connected to the trailer to re-charge the batteries in a three hour generator run time using smart mode charging. If you are just going to use flashlights and candles then the battery might hold up a couple of days. I'd rather use more things than flashlights and candles when we camp off the power grid.

If you are planning on being plugged into shore power each day/night then things get easier electrical wise. In both cases however you have to worry about how much propane you are going to need to run heat. The furnace takes alot of propane and the furnace blower eats up alot of battery power if you not plugged into shore power. Logistics is another problem keeping all these thing available to use especially when located in a new to you place and not knowing where to go to get the supplies you need.

Being a stranger to area can get you into big trouble if you get snowed in somewhere and no way to dig your self out. Could even be life threatening...

One has to build on PLAN Bs which you can only learn by experience sometimes...

Making DRY runs from your driveway just like you want to be camping will provide you with alot of learning what you will need to plan for.

For us it is alot of fun camping off the power grid but it does take good planning - We found out real quick you just can't go there and expect to last very long without alot of planning and beefed up battery system changes. Now for us it is almost second nature. Took a couple of years for us to get to this point and not have to worry about running out of resources when we go off the power grid.

We did alot of camping in the back yard at first or at our local Westmoreland State Park just 25 miles away.... Being close to home makes it great adjusting your new systems to work out for you.

We do quite well using our 255AH battery bank and 2KW Honda Generator to connect to our trailer setup to run the 60AMP Converter/charger to re-charge our batteries each day.

We normally draw around 20AMPs or so from 6PM to 11PM from our battery bank in addition to the normal 1-2 parasitic 24/7 drains. This is using a small INVERTER for some of the 120VAC items and 12VDC direct connected to the battery bank. This will deplete our battery bank down to it 50% charge state by 8AM the next morning when we can re-charge it back up to its 90% charge state when we are usually allowed to run our generator at the camp grounds. Most places we go to here on the East side of the US all have generator run time restrictions in place - even the Natl Forest sites.

Its all in the planning...
Roy and Carolyn

Ruidoso, NM? The town weather looks fairly mild. Or are you higher up on some mountain?

If the overnight lows will be 25 or lower this could be a real adventure.

DO IT!
It's great fun.

What to bring....a positive attitude. Everything else will fall into place. If you want specific hints, feel free to PM me and we can discuss it.

Steve

p.s.; if you can arrange it, please send Oregon some more snow so we can get back out snow camping ourselves....before the season ends.

2wd? Don't do it. If you do, plan on getting stuck and burning lots of propane. If you had 4x4 it may just be a matter of burning lots of propane. I was in Denver in November when it dropped below zero and burned 30 pounds a day plus an electric heater in a 5er. I'm from Michigan and spend time in Houston during the winter. This is nice, real nice. I was actually sweating today. :)