RVing in the winter

[Cmccain13]

Hey all, so I'm a month in to living in my RV and loving it, the thing is I want to start roaming around out of Texas and I'm nervous about colder temperatures. There are a few places I want to go to but the temperatures will get into the high 20's during the night but get back up to the 45's ish during the day. When occupying the rig should I be worries about pipe freezes and stuff? what should I keep in mind? or should I even be concerned since it wont always be sub zero temps?

[Matt_Colie]

Cmccain13 wrote:
man there is so much i need to learn, i guess alot of it will be through here and then trial and error lol. I want to go through this and make no mistakes but i think that will be an unrealistic expectation.

Cory,

I hope you realize that most of us were born knowing all this - Right!!

Yes, you have a lot to learn. So did we. Some we were taught and some we learned by experience (like not letting the drinking water hose get frozen solid). So, print what you have here and read it all a few more times and if you are really smart and lucky (I think I might rather be lucky), you won't have any of the problems above. You will have troubles on the road, but that is all part of the experience.

Travel In Health.

Matt

[Yosemite_Sam1]

Cmccain13 wrote:

Yosemite Sam1 wrote:
Went winter camping in Yosemite for about a week on those temperature ranges with exposed pipes underneath with no problems.

Oh this is great, this is where i am going in September and was worried about that place as well. 🙂 thanks

My best ever camping, the very lovely and awesome Yosemite in winter snow.

Enjoy (though that might be overcrowded yet).

[Cmccain13]

Matt_Colie wrote:
Cory,

You have a lot of very good advice here.

The hose is a real favorite of mine. I missed that once and DW and I had to carry the rigid 25' hose out into the sun without bending it and then carry it back to the tap so we could put water pressure on it and get liquid in it so I could drain and roll it up. If you band a frozen hose, they often crack. I wish I could have figured out how to save all the cylindrical ice cubes......

Another thing I carried from sailing that served me well was to always have provisions for 3 days. That means food, water and fuel. When we used to travel in the late part of the year, we often had to hold up a day for weather. One time, it was two. The storm was only one day, but it took another day for things to be clear enough that we would not be in the way of people that had to be out there.

Be ready for few open camp grounds and many with no water available.

Matt

man there is so much i need to learn, i guess alot of it will be through here and then trial and error lol. I want to go through this and make no mistakes but i think that will be an unrealistic expectation.

[Cmccain13]

pianotuna wrote:
Cmccain13,

Below 27 F you need to start taking precautions.

There is a wonderful thread in the full time forum on Winter camping.

My personal 'best' is -34 F.

WOW that is cold, and good to know i will explore that forumas well thank you!

[Cmccain13]

Yosemite Sam1 wrote:
Went winter camping in Yosemite for about a week on those temperature ranges with exposed pipes underneath with no problems.

Oh this is great, this is where i am going in September and was worried about that place as well. 🙂 thanks

[pianotuna]

Cmccain13,

Below 27 F you need to start taking precautions.

There is a wonderful thread in the full time forum on Winter camping.

My personal 'best' is -34 F.

[Yosemite_Sam1]

Went winter camping in Yosemite for about a week on those temperature ranges with exposed pipes underneath with no problems.

[Matt_Colie]

Cory,

You have a lot of very good advice here.

The hose is a real favorite of mine. I missed that once and DW and I had to carry the rigid 25' hose out into the sun without bending it and then carry it back to the tap so we could put water pressure on it and get liquid in it so I could drain and roll it up. If you band a frozen hose, they often crack. I wish I could have figured out how to save all the cylindrical ice cubes......

Another thing I carried from sailing that served me well was to always have provisions for 3 days. That means food, water and fuel. When we used to travel in the late part of the year, we often had to hold up a day for weather. One time, it was two. The storm was only one day, but it took another day for things to be clear enough that we would not be in the way of people that had to be out there.

Be ready for few open camp grounds and many with no water available.

Matt

[bobndot]

Do u have a slide ? If u do , its best to be able to have use of your rv with it pulled in. Its warmer and uses less LP when its in.
If it snows you will need to clear the slideout roof before you can pull it back in. You’ll need to be able to access your roof and carry a broom. Slideout awnings make that task more of a chore. Wind blows the snow under the topper trapping it.

You should also have a hair dryer to thaw a slightly frozen dump valve.

Your water hose will freeze at night , fill your water tank and run the pump. Remove your water hose from the spigot and hang it over the ladder so it drains and is ready to use when the temps return back up.

[Grit_dog]

Figure out what is exposed on your rig and how to handle those areas if it gets really cold. (Drain, insulate, heat tape)
Otherwise no one can predict how cold you can run with water before having issues with freezing.
Although generally freezing at night and above freezing during the day is not an issue.

[Cmccain13]

DrewE wrote:
I don't think it will be a big problem; how cold you can reasonably go depends on the design of the motorhome. If you have enclosed tanks (typically with a furnace vent outlet in the enclosure), you can go a lot lower than the high 20's with the heat on. If the tanks and plumbing are exposed to view underneath, it's much less cold capable. I think most motorhomes have enclosed pipes at the least.

The furnace does use a good bit of propane, but around 30 degrees outside it shouldn't need to work overly hard. Definitely keep an eye on the propane level and refill as needed. I could probably go a week or two under such conditions in my motorhome before needing refilling, and it doesn't have exceptional propane capacity or insulation.
awesome thanks for the heads up. I was reading and they said that electric space heaters weren't a good thing to use in an RV.
Be prepared for some draftiness and condensation on the windows. If you have an electric camp site (and I'd suggest that you look for them), running one or two space heaters, preferably on low, in the cool areas can help a lot with making things more comfortable and with reducing the propane consumption somewhat.

[DrewE]

I don't think it will be a big problem; how cold you can reasonably go depends on the design of the motorhome. If you have enclosed tanks (typically with a furnace vent outlet in the enclosure), you can go a lot lower than the high 20's with the heat on. If the tanks and plumbing are exposed to view underneath, it's much less cold capable. I think most motorhomes have enclosed pipes at the least.

The furnace does use a good bit of propane, but around 30 degrees outside it shouldn't need to work overly hard. Definitely keep an eye on the propane level and refill as needed. I could probably go a week or two under such conditions in my motorhome before needing refilling, and it doesn't have exceptional propane capacity or insulation.

Be prepared for some draftiness and condensation on the windows. If you have an electric camp site (and I'd suggest that you look for them), running one or two space heaters, preferably on low, in the cool areas can help a lot with making things more comfortable and with reducing the propane consumption somewhat.

[ppine]

Upper 20s is nothing to worry about, especially if you are occupying your rig.

[Cmccain13]

2112 wrote:
Do you have an enclosed underbelly, or is this a motorhome?

I'm in a motorhome so it will be exposed kind of. if you mean non insulated.

[2112]

Do you have an enclosed underbelly, or is this a motorhome?