Winter Camping

We live in the Southeast so our winters are not as cold as most if not all of the people who have posted in this thread.

We love to camp in the winter time and have learned what works for us. We have been camping when its down in the teens at night and makes it in the thirties for the day time high.

Need to make sure you are able to keep the water supply warm enough as well keeping it liquid once its been used. You can purchase water hoses with electric heaters or add them to your current hoses. We also throw insulating blanket over the water supply pipe coming up out of the ground. We do not have them but I understand there are heaters for the dump tanks. They are intended to keep it above freezing.

We use ceramic heaters to supplement the furnace in the RV as I am not keen on running the RV furnace while I sleep.

We also realize that we need to bring a lot more clothes so we can bundle up when we do our outside activities.

Our TT does not stay comfortably warm when we camp during the winter. But we tend to make the best of the situation.

The best part for us is the campgrounds tend to be near empty.

Enjoy.

The OP said the TT was insulated for winter. That can mean a lot of things but, if it is and the tanks are enclosed and heated it should be fine. As was mentioned, sometimes the dump valves are not enclosed. If that's the case, dump some RV antifreeze into the holding tanks when they are empty so the antifreeze gets down to the valves.

Electric hookup is the most convenient winter option but, not necessary. My Arctic Fox has storm windows which really help. We camp in winter at temps to below zero and use the entire water system. I have no trouble keeping the temps inside at 70 during the day and turn the heat down to 60-65 at night.

Fill your FW tank during the day when the sun is out and then disconnect the hose and put it where it won't freeze. If camping without hookups, you will need a minimum of two, big batteries and a generator. You'll have to run the generator at least a couple of hours every day.

Had a class A some years ago and dry camped almost every weekend in winter. Had storm windows, (which I made), 4 batteries and ran the generator a couple of hours every day. We were always comfortable and everything worked.

Going every weekend I kept the MH at home and plugged in with the heat on low. The TT is stored elsewhere and only used a couple of time per winter so I winterize. Doesn't take that long to blow out the water lines and put in some pink stuff and then flush it out when it's time to go.

In Colorado there are a lot of commercial parks that are opened year around and some state parks. All have, at least, electric. Winter is a beautiful time to camp.

Planning on going to a cg in LeRoy, NY, a Passport America cg open year round to watch SuperBowl from my camper, great town, campground, and hoping for some lake effect snow squalls.

I was in Pulaski, NY two years ago salmon fishing. The forecast said sunny skies with a chance of a few lake effect snow squalls. It was clear and sunny when I woke up at 7:00. About 8:00am a squall started and by the time I checked out of the hotel there was 8" of snow. I am not a glutton for punishment..

Biggest issue is trying to find a CG that is open year round, and has bathhouses.

cpaharley2008 wrote:
Planning on going to a cg in LeRoy, NY, a Passport America cg open year round to watch SuperBowl from my camper, great town, campground, and hoping for some lake effect snow squalls.

If you want lake effect then Welleslley Island is for you. The trip North of Syracuse is the undisputed Lake effect spot in New York State.

Planning on going to a cg in LeRoy, NY, a Passport America cg open year round to watch SuperBowl from my camper, great town, campground, and hoping for some lake effect snow squalls.

Camping road trip is a site that lists cg open in the winter. I have a 4 season trailer, insulated tanks and windows and extra insulation. Camp down -0- without any issues. You will need electric and a heated water hose. Good luck

We will be winterizing our TH next weekend but that does not mean the camping has stopped for the year. I will camp up until the end of December and starting again by early March but do not use most of the plumbing system because of the fear of freezing up. If you are resourceful, there are ways to be very comfortable.
Take fresh water with in blue containers of similar.
Use a garden sprayer fashioned with a shower nozzle as your shower source.(Heat water on stove before pouring into garden sprayer.)
Drain grey water into appropriate container after showering if below freezing.
Use portable commode as toilet. (Most campgrounds have vault toilets which can easily be used for dumping.)
Heating can be as normal by using the furnace or electric heater depending on electricity source.
Enjoy the outdoors during some of the best times of the year.

On my screen door, I use a combination of plexiglass ( bottom section ) and "ghetto plastic" ( shrink plastic ) on the top section for winter use. I try to choose where I position the camper so the door side faces south, so I can have some free solar heating/sunshine thru the doorway thru part of the day. It makes it seem more "open" having the sun shine in, and especially if it is a calm day, even though the screen door is not insulated, I still get a net heat gain from the sunlight coming in. My dog loves laying there in the sun by the door....it's a good go for a dog !

And the campgrounds and walking trails are usually almost deserted in winter. It's like having an entire park to yourself.

EDIT: I like state parks in winter because I have electric hookup. Makes it easy to heat with a small ceramic/electric heater.

We winterize below 10 degrees F. We use bottled water for cooking. We flush the commode with RV anti-freeze. Depending on how much water we put down the drains we add RV anti-freeze in the drains also.

If your grey and black water dump valves are external you have to be really careful of freezing. Some of the 4 season RVs have dump valves and fittings within heated compartments.