Will motor home freeze traveling in cold weather?

[Thetollies]

We would like to travel to Texas, but the weather in Mo is very cold, and we would like to know if we run the gas furnace on the motor home while traveling, will that keep the water lines, sewer lines & etc from freezing????

[buta4]

joebedford wrote:

buta4 wrote:
True, it will freeze faster but will not go below 32%.

32% of what?

OOps! Brain fa#t, sorry.
.. Water freezes at 32%.
.. At 32%, it will freeze.
.. Above 32% it will not freeze, just will get to the above 32% ambient temp faster with wind.

[pyoung47]

Just wait until you get here before adding water. It would be a seriously major pain in the rear to re-plumb your RV.

[joebedford]

buta4 wrote:
True, it will freeze faster but will not go below 32%.

32% of what?

[buta4]

Hank MI wrote:

John&Joey wrote:

The_Painting_Teacher wrote:
My understanding, which could be incorrect, is wind has no "wind chill" factor on any inanimate object.

You are absolutely correct. A jug of water in 33 degree temps and 40mph winds will not freeze.

The term "feels like" is only true for those things that can feel.

The temp of an inanimate won't go below the outside temp but like a human it will cool down much faster in stronger winds. A MH isn't air tight, winds will have an effect just like on a house. Water won't freeze above 32 but below 32 it will freeze faster if the winds are strong, it is a factor.

True, it will freeze faster but will not go below 32%.

[Hank_MI]

John&Joey wrote:

The_Painting_Teacher wrote:
My understanding, which could be incorrect, is wind has no "wind chill" factor on any inanimate object.

You are absolutely correct. A jug of water in 33 degree temps and 40mph winds will not freeze.

The term "feels like" is only true for those things that can feel.

The temp of an inanimate won't go below the outside temp but like a human it will cool down much faster in stronger winds. A MH isn't air tight, winds will have an effect just like on a house. Water won't freeze above 32 but below 32 it will freeze faster if the winds are strong, it is a factor.

[buta4]

mpierce wrote:
Probably not. Unless ALL lines are enclosed in heated areas, the wind will freeze them.

Actually, Wind Chill has no effect on water freezing. If it's 40% outside and the wind chill is 25%, the water will not freeze, but you may.

Basically, wind chill affects humans and animals, not inanimate objects such as steel, Fiberglass, etc. These items can freeze but through pretty cold temps only, not wind chill.

[John_Joey]

The_Painting_Teacher wrote:
My understanding, which could be incorrect, is wind has no "wind chill" factor on any inanimate object.

You are absolutely correct. A jug of water in 33 degree temps and 40mph winds will not freeze.

The term "feels like" is only true for those things that can feel.

[The_Painting_Te]

mpierce wrote:
Probably not. Unless ALL lines are enclosed in heated areas, the wind will freeze them.

My understanding, which could be incorrect, is wind has no "wind chill" factor on any inanimate object. Only life forms that produce body heat are affected. As I said ... could be inaccurate. As for the OP's question, I don't think temps near freezing would be a problem. Camp on!

[Gadget_Guy1]

nelson wrote:
I would not put water in the lines, Use jugs of water for what you need and you ahould be fine.

This is what we have always done just to be safe. If stuff freezes in the holding tanks I am not concerned. I don't put any domestic water in the tank and lines until we are past the freezing issues.

[John_Joey]

As always it's better to be safe then sorry, but...

Your MH more then likely has a heated basement where all the furnace ducts are ran along with the water lines. Your MH will also keep your coach batteries charged as you're driving. There will be constant movement in your tanks stopping any freezing from occurring. Sewer lines are empty, they just carry waste away. You're going from highs of 30's and lows of teens to 70's so it's just going to keep getting better with every mile.

On our way north in the spring we would always hit a point in IA where we had to make a run for it. we'd turned on the furnace, and never had a problem with freezing lines in our MH.

[RoyB]

There may be another issue with running the standard RV furnace depending on how you are setup. Burning your propane is not an issue but the furnace 12VDC blower system will drain a good 6-8AMPS from your coach battery. This is a pretty big 12VDC drain. Depending on how you are setup it might drain your coach battery below 50% charge state in as little as 6-8 hours of being on the road. Hopefully your Motorhome charging system would keep up with the coach 12VDC power drain when on the road...

No problem here if your motorhome is using the AQUA-HOT Hydronic hot water heating system.

This is a big deal with the pulled trailers...

Roy Ken

[Shot-N-Az]

Frankly, if your furnace heats the basement, I wouldn't be concerned.

[Cobra21]

tandkj wrote:
All of your lines should have been winterized by now. Just leave the pink stuff in until you get to TX and then summerize. Re-winterize before going back north if necessary. Cost should be less than $20 and you are safe.

This is the "Peace of Mind" method. You don't have to think twice about it!

[Macktee]

I agree with Nelson, to be on the safe side, no water in lines. But depending on how cold it is you will probably have to run the furnace to keep warm, as the chassis heat probably won't be enough at times. When we travelled in our Diplomat we had to have it on coming south.
Macktee