Traveling in Winter

[Retired48]

Looking for advice and insight for our 1st trip:
We will be leaving upstate NY in late December for a 3 month trip/stay in Florida . We plan on spending two nights getting there.
Our class c has been winterized and will be when we leave. I am looking for any and all advice on the do,s and don’ts.
Thanks in advance

[charlestonsouth]

RVman, When you heat with your propane furnace at the Flying J, how do you use the fan (which I think is electric) to force the heat around the fifth wheel? Do you just let the fan run off the battery during the night?

[RVman3252]

We leave Ohio in January for Florida also... and pretty much do as everyone mentioned above, however we do use our 5th Wheel the entire trip. We watch the weather close before leaving to not run in snow or ice. We put a full day of driving the 1st day. We like above bring water with us for brushing teeth and coffee. We normally spend the night at a Flying J, which has RV designated parking areas. We heat with our propane furnace and sleep in the 5th Wheel. In the morning if temperatures are above 30, we will un-winterize that morning at the Flying J... they have freshwater, sewer dump and propane right there. Our 2nd night is normally fine temperature-wise... We have been doing this for over 20 years.

RVman / John

[Jack_Spratt]

Coastal route I-95 is often 10-15 degrees warmer than I-81
You should be able to get out of the freezing weather in one day.

[magicbus]

Hard to argued with brilliance. 😛

Dave

[8ntw8tn]

We tried most of the methods related above for a few years. Then we decided,for several reasons,to just eliminate the problem. We now leave before it freezes and don't return until the last freeze is over. 😉

[BarneyS]

When we travelled from Michigan to Florida each January we would leave the trailer winterized until we reached a point South where we could count on it not freezing. That was usually someplace in Georgia or North Florida on the second night.

We would take a couple of gallons jugs of water and keep them in the truck so they wouldn't freeze during the day and use for brushing teeth, making coffee, etc. We would use a bit of antifreeze for flushing the toilet for those midnight visits.

There were a couple of campgrounds that we knew were open on the way down and would usually stay at them. The water was shut off but their restrooms were usually open and heated. They were also usually almost empty so we could most often find a spot right next to or very near the restroom.

This worked very well unless the temps were VERY cold (below 0 deg F) when we would just take a hotel room for the night. We did this routine for about 17 or 18 years until a couple of years ago when we quit traveling.
Barney

[Flyfisherman128]

We don't leave NY or winterize.. we just stay where we are 😞

[Retired48]

Thank you all for the great information

[pianotuna]

Hi,

It is a class C, so the living quarters will be comfortable.

You may wish to read the winter camping thread sticky under the full time forum.

I use an inverter and various kinds of heaters to keep some areas from freezing.

[Bowti]

rr2254545 wrote:
Hotel use for the first few nights, I check on Google earth to make sure I have plenty of room for the motor home with tow car

This is what we do too. It is so nice to walk into a warm motel room, instead of trying to set up a ice cold trailer with an even colder bed.
We stay in areas with dining places within walking distances and select motels with warm continental breakfasts to have after a nice hot shower to start our day.
We will have plenty of time to enjoy our trailer after we reach our destination.

[rr2254545]

Hotel use for the first few nights, I check on Google earth to make sure I have plenty of room for the motor home with tow car

[K_Charles]

The same as above, sometimes when you stop for the first night you can put water in the tank if the weather is good.

[magicbus]

We do this every winter. It is usually 20 degrees when we leave New England so we stay winterized until nighttime temperatures are above freezing. We take a 2 gallon jug of fresh water for drinking and washing and leave a gallon of RV antifreeze in the bathroom for flushing. Usually by the second night we fill the fresh water tank and are good to go.

Dave

[Lwiddis]

Watch the weather reports and don’t dewinterize until you are sure temps will stay above 30F. Enjoy!