Near-freezing temperatures

westend wrote:

Ken O wrote:
I have a little story...
About 5 years ago I was spending the winter on I-10 running between AZ and FL. Coming out of Phoenix in February, and going into Deming, NM, a cold front came on like the area has never seen before.

I found a CG in Deming to hunker down. For four days the temps were well below zero, and didn't get to zero until about noon. I put the water hookup hose in the bath to keep it thawed, and just put hooked it up when needed. But, the city water main froze anyways. The CG supplied water in gallon milk jugs in the laundry room.

I was worried about the grey/black valve breaking with the water, as I still was using the sink, toilet, etc. Stuff did freeze up hard, but nothing broke. It was quite an experience, the trailer got much smaller since I couldn't get out and do anything.

I've done the whole winter trips a few times, and had lots of below freezing temps, and don't worry about the plumbing. I ended up buying a S&B in FL, so the RV is back in MI with RV AF in it now.

Hope your trip goes well. Buy a small quartz heater, might as well use the power you paid for at the CG, instead of your propane.

I believe things get distorted with time or you mistyped "below zero" instead of "below freezing". In Deming, the record low for Feb. is -.8f.

Not sure but I think we were in Deming at the same time and it was -5F.

Not sure if it was the same park but we left the dump valves open and the hose was a solid mass of ice towards the end of the cold snap.

We did put a small electric heater in the underbelly (carefully placed so it was away from anything that might catch fire).

The park refused to sell propane to people outside the park as they were running low. We were going thru a 30# tank per day.

To the OPs question: just not an issue if you are using the rig and will have the heat on.

Ken O wrote:
I have a little story...
About 5 years ago I was spending the winter on I-10 running between AZ and FL. Coming out of Phoenix in February, and going into Deming, NM, a cold front came on like the area has never seen before.

I found a CG in Deming to hunker down. For four days the temps were well below zero, and didn't get to zero until about noon. I put the water hookup hose in the bath to keep it thawed, and just put hooked it up when needed. But, the city water main froze anyways. The CG supplied water in gallon milk jugs in the laundry room.

I was worried about the grey/black valve breaking with the water, as I still was using the sink, toilet, etc. Stuff did freeze up hard, but nothing broke. It was quite an experience, the trailer got much smaller since I couldn't get out and do anything.

I've done the whole winter trips a few times, and had lots of below freezing temps, and don't worry about the plumbing. I ended up buying a S&B in FL, so the RV is back in MI with RV AF in it now.

Hope your trip goes well. Buy a small quartz heater, might as well use the power you paid for at the CG, instead of your propane.

I believe things get distorted with time or you mistyped "below zero" instead of "below freezing". In Deming, the record low for Feb. is -.8f.

I have a little story...
About 5 years ago I was spending the winter on I-10 running between AZ and FL. Coming out of Phoenix in February, and going into Deming, NM, a cold front came on like the area has never seen before.

I found a CG in Deming to hunker down. For four days the temps were well below zero, and didn't get to zero until about noon. I put the water hookup hose in the bath to keep it thawed, and just put hooked it up when needed. But, the city water main froze anyways. The CG supplied water in gallon milk jugs in the laundry room.

I was worried about the grey/black valve breaking with the water, as I still was using the sink, toilet, etc. Stuff did freeze up hard, but nothing broke. It was quite an experience, the trailer got much smaller since I couldn't get out and do anything.

I've done the whole winter trips a few times, and had lots of below freezing temps, and don't worry about the plumbing. I ended up buying a S&B in FL, so the RV is back in MI with RV AF in it now.

Hope your trip goes well. Buy a small quartz heater, might as well use the power you paid for at the CG, instead of your propane.

If it's only going to 34 like you said then you have nothing at all to worry about. Water freezes at 32 no matter where you are. :)

Check your propane daily and at least an hour before the local propane supply closes.
While in use most RVs are good to 25 overnight.

Bring a hair dryer just in case it drops less than 32F, but 34-36F is not going to be a problem.
Sometimes i use the hair dryer on the dump valve if it gets a wee bit frosty .

^^^What Roy said. Disconnect the fresh water hose and use your tank. Open a few cabinet doors to make sure plenty of heat gets to the plumbing against a wall. Your tanks will be fine.

About the only thing I do when the temps get down close to freezing is disconnect the fresh water hose from the city water port. This is the same thing I do at the house. Always disconnect the water hose from the house...

On the inside of the trailer I would just open up the cabinet door where the hot water heater is located and make crack open he doors under the kitchen area where water lines are located.

We camp alot in the late fall and early winter months here in our OFF-ROAD POPUP trailer. I did install a fan located the main entrance wall and my layout has all my cabinets connected all around the wall from the main entrance area to through my wrap around seating and through the cabinets along the wall to the tent bed area we always sleep in. I installed the small round plastic vent from LOWES so I can pull warm inside air through all the cabinets with this fan on. Works great. One of my wrap around seating has the shore line cable access port and when it is opened I can pull in outside air around the interior in the summer days...

It got down to 31 degrees here in Northern neck VA last night and is already back up to 46 degrees outside. This is probably what you will see in Ark.

Unless it is a hard freeze over a couple of days one should not have any problems. Nothing is frozen the next day...

In our case as we like to be out in the camping off-grid in the cold weather we also can do a quick blow-out method of using a small tankless air compressor attached to the city water port and blow all of the water out of the lines and most of the hot water heater, Then add some pink stuff to the the couple of P-traps we have. After draining the fresh water tank we are pretty safe from freezing camping over night. The next morning then when things warm up good we just add fresh water back to the the fresh water tank and continue on camping. This only takes a few minutes to do with the draining of the fresh water tank taking the longest time to do. This is what we do if it gets to in the 20s over night...

We used to live in the Wichita Falls area and it would get down right cold there at any given moment haha... The blue northerns would come thru in a big hurry... We loved to camp up at Wichita Mtns Wildlife Refuge at Medicine Park in Okla just a few miles north of Lawton.

I wouldn't worry too much about getting down to freezing over night unless it is going to get down in the 20s and last for a few days in what you would call a hard freeze. Like when the creeks freeze over...

This is what we do at any rate around here and SKYLINE DRIVE and BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY high country... We did all of this tent camping until we got out 2008 OFF-ROAD camper and started using it...

Our style of camping is waking up at a creekside place back off some Natl Forest service road somewhere and get our bon-fire going and watch the fish jump in the mornings...

Not much in any RV TRAVEL situations. We do make a run to Gatlingburg TN during the fall sometimes to the Smoky Mtns to see some Leaves colors which is some 450 miles away. All of the other RV camping we do is local here and love the high country Natl Parks where we can get off to ourselves for a week or so somewhere...


Setup at Camp Doris in Wichita Mtns Wildlife Refuge

Roy Ken

Fill up your water tank, your city water hose may freeze if the temp drops, then you can use your onboard water with the pump.

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