RV's too old to park in their campground???

Photomike wrote:

Cheryl_B wrote:
How cold does it really have to get before you have to be concerned with frozen holding tanks and water lines? I mean, does it have to be below freezing for more than just a night?

A simple answer is yes, one night with cold temps will not freeze you up, unless it is crazy cold (-25C or colder) !!!

I have actually had water in my tanks when it has gotten cold (-15C or 5F) and never had a problem. This past week have had a few nights at (-9, -7, -4 Celsius) and still not a problem. The big thing is that at this time of the year the daytime temperatures are still high enough (+1 or more) to clear up any ice during the day so it has to start over at night to refreeze. Also as long as you are using water and running the water heater during the next day or night then you will be fine with the lines as the ice will be cleared out.

Now if the daytime temps were in the same range (-10 or -15C) it would worry me that it would start to freeze up and would never truly thaw and it would just get worse and you would have a blockage that would stop the flow altogether in a day or two.

That being said unless you get an insane hard freeze like -25 or - 30 C your system should not have a problem with a single freeze up. The problem happens when you have a freeze and a blockage gets in the line and then it thaws or you have liquid further down the line and then that freezes with ice blockages on both sides of the liquid. Once you get a frozen blockage in the line and the water cannot expand down the pipes then you get pipes that will crack on the next freeze-up. In cold weather I leave my pump off and the taps open to allow any expansion to happen through the pipes and that helps to minimize any blow outs. Also either leave your hot water heater on or if a manual pilot light then leave that on.

As for the storage tank if it is fully inside then it has to get REAL cold to freeze. In temps that are in the -10C range the inside of my camper will only drop to -2 or -3C without the heat on and then will warm up fast in the sun to +6 or 10 even with outside temps that are cooler. If the tank is under the RV and gets no heating it will cool off and in a couple days turn to slush and a day or two later freeze, even in close to freezing temps.

Side note on RV anti freeze - In real cold weather you will see the RV antifreeze turn to slush and this is fine. What it is doing is stopping any hard freezes that cause blockages. Again I leave my tapes open so that air and any expansion can happen without blow outs, just to be safe.

Thank you. I don't expect to do any hard-core winter camping, I just asked the question in case I got caught in a cold snap while visiting family up north. You never know when something will creep out of Canada. I know that if it goes below freezing overnight and then above freezing during the day, I should be fine.

That's all I meant. I was asking if it got below freezing for a full day or two, should I worry. Sounds like if I keep the fluids moving and the tanks full, I can skate by. (No pun intended.)