My wife wants to camp in the driveway
It’s winter in Indiana and my wife “misses” the camper. It’s about 1/2 mile from our home in a storage facility. She is asking me to bring it home and warm it up so she can enjoy it in the drive...
Forum Discussion
hey traildog, I'm just right around your corner ... 2 doors down from the Old German Baptist Church, just north of 400 South, Anderson. Look for the house with the Montana 5er in the drive way!
We use our camper all winter long, especially since we're in the country and have nice space to park it. We've been driveway camping for 20 years now over the winter, 10 years at the current house.
Even though our Montana is rated for zero degree weather, it takes an incredible amount of propane to keep the underbelly heated so pipes won't freeze. We just got this camper in October. So, I went ahead and winterized and been using a combination of propane and electric space heaters, plus the on-board electric fire place. Works very well, still, runs through a lot of propane though. But, Modern Trailer in Anderson is just 5 miles up the road and getting propane fill-ups is no problem for me.
About using it in the winter? Like I said, I've wintereized, but we have always kept a port-a-potty in the bathroom. It's a lot more convenient than freezing your back-side darting in the house at 2:00 am. In the morning, just take the port-a-potty bucket into the house and dump it down the toilet. I add water to it to rinse it from the bathtub, and then dump that down the toilet again. Rinse twice and take it back out to the camper. No chemicals, no smells, no mess, easy and works well. Been doing this for ... probably 20 years now.
We keep a container of water in the camper. Of course the refrigerator is always on, so we keep drinks in there and some milk. I'm a milk drinker.
I keep the covers over the sinks as a reminder to not dump anything liquid down the sinks, and keep a tub on the counter to put dirty dishes or liquids in, rather than using the sink and getting water down the sink trap.
In the morning, the dirty dishes (if there are any), come back into the house, get washed and then taken right back out again. After a few days, you get into a system and it's really a no-brainer after a while. You just do it and don't even think about it any more.
The trade off? Well....
You get to sleep in the camper every night. You get to hang out in the camper all day and night if you want. You get to watch television, play games, have fun, and just enjoy the camper. Once inside the camper, it doesn't matter if you are the top of Mount Everest or at the bottom of the Dead Sea. The inside of the camper is home!
In the late fall, I kept water in the fresh water tank so I wouldn't have to keep water hoses hooked up all the time. And I use a blue-tote to dump my black tank into my septic system. This has worked well for the 10 years we've lived here. When we lived in Carmel, 10 years there with a TT, I dumped the black water into the house sewer clean out. Worked well for 10 years there too.
If you have the ability to park your camper at home, then yes...by all means, do the winter driveway camp. You can pick up a bucket insert type port-a-potty at WalMart in the camping section. Last I checked, Anderson WalMart still had them.
The only thing about winter camping, when it's calling for snow, we'll go ahead and pull all the slides in. I don't want stuff freezing on the roof of the slide outs and then something happen and I'll need to pull the slides in. So, I always pull the slides in when snowing. We can still enjoy the camper, the bed, the television, keep it warm, and snuggley. After the snow is over, pull the slides back out.
That's how we do it. I'd love to meet you someday! Good luck! And ... remember ... happy wife, happy life. Bring that camper home!
We use our camper all winter long, especially since we're in the country and have nice space to park it. We've been driveway camping for 20 years now over the winter, 10 years at the current house.
Even though our Montana is rated for zero degree weather, it takes an incredible amount of propane to keep the underbelly heated so pipes won't freeze. We just got this camper in October. So, I went ahead and winterized and been using a combination of propane and electric space heaters, plus the on-board electric fire place. Works very well, still, runs through a lot of propane though. But, Modern Trailer in Anderson is just 5 miles up the road and getting propane fill-ups is no problem for me.
About using it in the winter? Like I said, I've wintereized, but we have always kept a port-a-potty in the bathroom. It's a lot more convenient than freezing your back-side darting in the house at 2:00 am. In the morning, just take the port-a-potty bucket into the house and dump it down the toilet. I add water to it to rinse it from the bathtub, and then dump that down the toilet again. Rinse twice and take it back out to the camper. No chemicals, no smells, no mess, easy and works well. Been doing this for ... probably 20 years now.
We keep a container of water in the camper. Of course the refrigerator is always on, so we keep drinks in there and some milk. I'm a milk drinker.
I keep the covers over the sinks as a reminder to not dump anything liquid down the sinks, and keep a tub on the counter to put dirty dishes or liquids in, rather than using the sink and getting water down the sink trap.
In the morning, the dirty dishes (if there are any), come back into the house, get washed and then taken right back out again. After a few days, you get into a system and it's really a no-brainer after a while. You just do it and don't even think about it any more.
The trade off? Well....
You get to sleep in the camper every night. You get to hang out in the camper all day and night if you want. You get to watch television, play games, have fun, and just enjoy the camper. Once inside the camper, it doesn't matter if you are the top of Mount Everest or at the bottom of the Dead Sea. The inside of the camper is home!
In the late fall, I kept water in the fresh water tank so I wouldn't have to keep water hoses hooked up all the time. And I use a blue-tote to dump my black tank into my septic system. This has worked well for the 10 years we've lived here. When we lived in Carmel, 10 years there with a TT, I dumped the black water into the house sewer clean out. Worked well for 10 years there too.
If you have the ability to park your camper at home, then yes...by all means, do the winter driveway camp. You can pick up a bucket insert type port-a-potty at WalMart in the camping section. Last I checked, Anderson WalMart still had them.
The only thing about winter camping, when it's calling for snow, we'll go ahead and pull all the slides in. I don't want stuff freezing on the roof of the slide outs and then something happen and I'll need to pull the slides in. So, I always pull the slides in when snowing. We can still enjoy the camper, the bed, the television, keep it warm, and snuggley. After the snow is over, pull the slides back out.
That's how we do it. I'd love to meet you someday! Good luck! And ... remember ... happy wife, happy life. Bring that camper home!
