Whats the coldest you've camped w/o problems

I don't get the whole put water in your fresh tank. If the temps are going to be in the mid to upper 20's at night but get into the 40's during the day why not just disconnect and drain your hose before going to bed. Wake up and connect it. Outside of using the restroom why do you need water in the middle of the night. Everything will go down the toilet when you open the valve. Why introduce more water into things like a fresh tank and water pump for a night or two.

You may find that your furnace does not keep you as warm as you'd like. We just camped for 3 nights and it got down to only around 34-35F one night. Even though we have decent insulation, the furnace ran non-stop all night and almost non-stop in the daytime even though it warmed up outside. We went and bought small ceramic heater and the heater alone was enough to keep us plenty warm. Problem is with the heated underbellies, there is a duct off the furnace that just dumps warm in there that ends up going straight outside - not very efficient. We had our dealer remove the coroplast to do some upgrades and I think there could be more gaps than when it came from the factory. It *might* help to seal up openings, cracks and gaps you may have in the coroplast material. I used an IR gun and with only the electric heater on, the floor was only 2-4F colder than the walls and ceiling so to me that means the heated underbelly is beneficial mostly to prevent freezing. I'm actually thinking about putting a damper in the duct run into the underbelly space (we don't expect to ever go camping in sub-freezing temps).

Another thing to watch is condensation. You should leave a vent or two open a crack to let moisture escape. It may be tempting to minimize the escape of air, buy if you let moisture build for any length of time and/or frequently, it can lead to damage to the structure, and other things like the luan ceiling. In addition to cooking and showering, the more people in a TT plus pets can lead to a lot of moisture buildup. A hygrometer might be a useful thing to have for winter camping. You might also check all the weep holes in windows so that water can freely drain away.

Large humidity level fluctuations (such as in between winter storage and winter use) can cause wood to swell and shrink enough to cause cabinet joinery to come apart and other damage. When went camping this past weekend, we found wood trim around 3 doors had warped like wavy gravy from the humidity level increase from just sitting in our driveway for the past month or so (it's rained a LOT here lately).

If just camping for 2-3 days, some just stay winterized and use the CG restrooms (if in a CG), bottled water, disposable plates & cutlery, etc.

Coldest we've camped in is 21 degrees. Ran the heater, no problems.

myredracer wrote:
You may find that your furnace does not keep you as warm as you'd like. We just camped for 3 nights and it got down to only around 34-35F one night. Even though we have decent insulation, the furnace ran non-stop all night and almost non-stop in the daytime even though it warmed up outside. We went and bought small ceramic heater and the heater alone was enough to keep us plenty warm. Problem is with the heated underbellies, there is a duct off the furnace that just dumps warm in there that ends up going straight outside - not very efficient. It *might* help to seal up openings, cracks and gaps you may have in the coroplast material. I used an IR gun and with only the electric heater on, the floor was only 2-4F colder than the walls and ceiling so to me that means the heated underbelly is beneficial mostly to prevent freezing.

If the furnace is running non-stop in the mid 30's, you either don't have good insulation or there is something else wrong (did you leave a window open?)

To the OP's question:
- As long as we are in the trailer with the heat on, down to the mid 20's, we don't do anything special other than open the tank valves so there is no water in the black/gray tanks to freeze. (the fresh water tank gets heat off the furnace duct, so it's typically fine with moderate cold.
- We got caught in NM one time with a few days down to -5F, other than burning a tank of propane a day, it was fine. We did put a small space heater in the underbelly (carefully placed so nothing could catch fire). We did lose the sewer hose as it filled solid with ice and we didn't wait for it to thaw before we had to leave.

One window cracked open and one vent slightly open. I think what it might be is too much heated air escaping out from the underbelly space due to the dealer removing and reinstalling it. They had to cut it into 3 sections and I have a feeling it's not sealed up as good as it should be. There are 3 heat outlets inside and I know that the air flow is not well balanced either which doesn't help. The bathroom is toasty warm while the bedroom and living area are on the chilly side and I'm guessing there's a lot of CFMs being dumped into the underbelly.

valhalla360 wrote:

myredracer wrote:
You may find that your furnace does not keep you as warm as you'd like. We just camped for 3 nights and it got down to only around 34-35F one night. Even though we have decent insulation, the furnace ran non-stop all night and almost non-stop in the daytime even though it warmed up outside. We went and bought small ceramic heater and the heater alone was enough to keep us plenty warm. Problem is with the heated underbellies, there is a duct off the furnace that just dumps warm in there that ends up going straight outside - not very efficient. It *might* help to seal up openings, cracks and gaps you may have in the coroplast material. I used an IR gun and with only the electric heater on, the floor was only 2-4F colder than the walls and ceiling so to me that means the heated underbelly is beneficial mostly to prevent freezing.

If the furnace is running non-stop in the mid 30's, you either don't have good insulation or there is something else wrong (did you leave a window open?)

To the OP's question:
- As long as we are in the trailer with the heat on, down to the mid 20's, we don't do anything special other than open the tank valves so there is no water in the black/gray tanks to freeze. (the fresh water tank gets heat off the furnace duct, so it's typically fine with moderate cold.
- We got caught in NM one time with a few days down to -5F, other than burning a tank of propane a day, it was fine. We did put a small space heater in the underbelly (carefully placed so nothing could catch fire). We did lose the sewer hose as it filled solid with ice and we didn't wait for it to thaw before we had to leave.

Our first winter TT camping was last Thanksgiving in a stock "3 season" camper with only antifreeze available as extra preparation - not "without problems" - our short story here:
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27386400.cfm

Cecilt wrote:
I don't get the whole put water in your fresh tank. If the temps are going to be in the mid to upper 20's at night but get into the 40's during the day why not just disconnect and drain your hose before going to bed. Wake up and connect it. Outside of using the restroom why do you need water in the middle of the night. Everything will go down the toilet when you open the valve. Why introduce more water into things like a fresh tank and water pump for a night or two.

That is why I filled the fresh water tank (in order to use the restroom/toilet). "Everything" doesn't always go down my toilet when you open the valve. You must have a much better toilet than I do? :h

We've spent a number of nights down around 20 and this isn't a huge problem as long as your furnace works OK. But it's not without problem. For example, you can't hook up to water because your hose will freeze solid. Just make sure your storage tank is full. Also, your valves will be frozen in the morning so that you can't dump your tanks. We've survived OK down to 7 degrees with wind but then all outside faucets in the campground froze and some broke so could only get water from inside a heated building. Never would do it on purpose.

The Canadians have anyone in the lower US beat when it comes to cold.

I recall this spring chatting with a young couple who lived in central B.C. somewheres... I had mentioned Michigan being in the North (from my point of view) and the man exclaimed quite correctly we don't consider that North :)

Back to the poster's question ... This January I camped for a weekend at a state park, it was about -15F (-26C) at night, and around 0 to 5F during the day.

My electric heater ran 24x7 and the propane furnace would cycle on and off at night. My fridge was off, the water lines winterized. I had a bucket in the head and a 5 gallon water container in the sink for drinking, hand washing, etc. I cooked soup and such for lunches, but went into town for dinner, didn't want to dirty up pots and pans and such, without the sink to wash them.

If I may ask a parallel question - many of you mention using your water systems in these temperatures... keeping the waste liquid seems a small challenge compared to getting rid of it. so I ask, are you dumping your waste tanks at your site or the side of the road? Every single licensed septic around here closes in Nov, and by January the little ports and their padlocks will be buried under feet of snow. I suppose there are pit toilets that stay open here and there, so is walking the honey wagon to the outhouse a daily activity?

Thanks for the replies. Looks like I'm going camping!