Cold-ish weather camping

[JAC1982]

We are headed up to WY in a little over a week and will be boondocking for 5-6 days. The weather forecast is 65-70 during the day, but dropping to 30-32 at night. We have tank heaters available, do we need to use them or should we be OK since it's not prolonged cold weather and we will be using the furnace?

[memtb]

Stanfordstander wrote:

azdryheat wrote:
Just pile on he blankets at night and leave the heater off.

I agree. This works for me too.

Doesn’t water start getting hard somewhere below 32 F ? memtb

[Stanfordstander]

azdryheat wrote:
Just pile on he blankets at night and leave the heater off.

I agree. This works for me too.

[memtb]

JAC1982, Most importantly.....did you enjoy yourselves? :@ memtb

[Michelle_S]

You might also consider upgrading to 40 Lb LP Tanks, would give you a little more run time. I've purchased them at Tractor Supply.

[JAC1982]

Well, we surived the Wyo-Nado as they're calling it. Somehow, we just had the high winds and cold temps on Monday night into Tuesday, but very little snow. 100 miles south and north of us got pounded with a ton of wet heavy snow.

We found the onboard Onan LP generator is pretty hungry, so we ended up borrowing a Honda 2000 generator to keep us running electric-wise, to conserve our propane for the furnace. We also used the fireplace as a space heater as needed. We burned through our 4 30lb bottles in a little over 4 days. Thankfully it was warmer the other days and we had no shade, so the heat didn't need to be on during the day most of the days.

We plan on getting our own small portable generator to supplement the Onan for situations just like this.

[Ride_S40T]

Your most vulnerable points on the RV are (likely), in this order:

1. Low point drains or valves that are exposed
2. Lines
3. Tanks

The tanks are the safest even with just an occasional run of the heat.

When we had our TT, we always wrapped the low points with towels and bungie cords. We got down to upper 20's a few times and even those didn't freeze.

Your mileage may vary.

[RAS43]

JTrac wrote:
We are supposed to be in Estes Park, Co next Tuesday. The Weather Channel says a high of 31 and a low of 23 with 70% chance of snow. I may push it back a day.

Forecast is for 6-13" of snow in RMNP Monday thru Tuesday. Good luck!!

[JAC1982]

richclover wrote:

JTrac wrote:
We are supposed to be in Estes Park, Co next Tuesday. The Weather Channel says a high of 31 and a low of 23 with 70% chance of snow. I may push it back a day.

KSL Weather (Salt Lake), forecast says 89 today, 92 tomorrow then a high of 44 for Tuesday, low 27. That’s for my town in WY. After a record hot, dry August I’m ready for the first September snow.

Since I’d never done it to the new 5’er, I loaded up my generator and compressor. Headed to the storage lot and blew out the plumbing, low pressure air, of course. Learned a few more things about the new camper.

We’re hoping the summer camping crowds will be gone after Labor Day. Looking forward to the September and October boondocks trips. The new 5’er needs a cold weather test 😉

Being in SW WY you're probably familiar with where we are going, the Upper Green. I use the weather.com app on my phone and pull up the weather for Cora and it's now saying on Tuesday a high of 48 and a low of 19! I guess we will get to test out the tank heaters after all. I'll take cooler weather like this over it being hot any day though. We've had enough of that this year. May skip the RZR riding that day though. Rest of the week looks gorgeous!

[JAC1982]

JTrac wrote:
We are supposed to be in Estes Park, Co next Tuesday. The Weather Channel says a high of 31 and a low of 23 with 70% chance of snow. I may push it back a day.

Yup and the day before it's going to be nearly 100. That's Rocky Mountain weather for ya! It will be warmer up in WY where we are going than down here at home!

[richclover]

JTrac wrote:
We are supposed to be in Estes Park, Co next Tuesday. The Weather Channel says a high of 31 and a low of 23 with 70% chance of snow. I may push it back a day.

KSL Weather (Salt Lake), forecast says 89 today, 92 tomorrow then a high of 44 for Tuesday, low 27. That’s for my town in WY. After a record hot, dry August I’m ready for the first September snow.

Since I’d never done it to the new 5’er, I loaded up my generator and compressor. Headed to the storage lot and blew out the plumbing, low pressure air, of course. Learned a few more things about the new camper.

We’re hoping the summer camping crowds will be gone after Labor Day. Looking forward to the September and October boondocks trips. The new 5’er needs a cold weather test 😉

[ppine]

The elk rut gets serious in a couple of weeks.
After you see the Park, try some of the areas around it, which will be nice and quiet in comparison.

[memtb]

JTrac wrote:
We are supposed to be in Estes Park, Co next Tuesday. The Weather Channel says a high of 31 and a low of 23 with 70% chance of snow. I may push it back a day.

Estes Park should be getting beautiful, and as a plus, the elk should be going into full rut soon! A great time to be in the Rockies! memtb

[memtb]

pnichols wrote:

memtb wrote:

ppine wrote:

garyp4951 wrote:
I'm moving to Wyoming. lol

I tried that in 1987. Town was 7,200 feet. YOu can plant tomatoes in late June. The aspens start to turn in the third week in August. You have to like winter, since it is most of the year.

It was minus 38 degrees F in my driveway. Not the wind chill, the temperature. It is the windiest state. It is much colder in the nearby mountains.

We like it this way!! Helps keep the population under control. We need a few good, cold winters to drive out a couple hundred thousand folks.....it’s getting too crowded! memtb

How about the opposite ... heat... like from open flames? Maybe CA's recent fires will drive out a few here, too.

We did move our RV, temporarily, to another place in case we had to evac, but thankfully it wasn't necessary. My favorite Native American chant is now "stay away iona"! 😉

P.S.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iona,_South_Dakota

pnichols, Heat, that’s a real problem! I can put on more clothes for the cold.....but, to remain legal......I can only remove part of my clothing! memtb

[JTrac]

We are supposed to be in Estes Park, Co next Tuesday. The Weather Channel says a high of 31 and a low of 23 with 70% chance of snow. I may push it back a day.