Camping in sub freezing weather

way2roll wrote:
Those are pretty demanding temps even for a sticks and bricks house. I am not sure I would risk un-winterizing my plumbing at all if temps would be consistently below 0. Sure you have heated tanks but how much LP? Trying to run your heat in those temps for extended periods of time will burn through a lot of LP. Not sure what FW you have but even with ducted air to the plumbing and tanks, there is still a lot of risk in a length of plumbing or a pump or trap to freeze. If I am staying in below freezing temps, I will winterize, take bottled water and use CG facilities for showers. I wouldn't risk it, but that's me. Most production RV's aren't built to withstand sub zero temps for very long. At or below freezing maybe, but you are talking 20-30 degrees below freezing.

Gosh, I couldn't agree more. I work with a local RV dealer a lot and we trade work war stories. We have a pretty large population of full-timers in the area (mostly down on their luck, not snowbirds) and winters are especially tough on them and their equipment. While we don't get many, if any, subzero temperatures in the winter, our nights can be cold, teens, and our days can stay cold, 20s, and the wear and tear on furnaces and other RV systems in those temperatures is tremendous. They spend their winters thawing out these rigs and retrofitting furnaces that have died, replacing frozen pipes, trying to make systems work. As my buddy says, on a cold night an RV furnace might run all night long with no stop just to try to keep the RV at a livable temperature. No telling if any of that heat is making its way to the tanks or some of the underbelly or basement plumbing. Even if a basement or underbelly is sealed and ducted, is the excess heat coming off the furnace enough to get to all the nooks and crannies and really keep things warm. The more financially fit full-timers in our area are located in established RV parks, rent large propane tanks from a local supplier, and put insulation and skirts underneath their rigs, often at great expense. In our temps this works and few of them have huge issues, but for the less financially stable, this is not realistic. I have this feeling that taking your rig out in subzero weather and trying to run its systems, especially your water and plumbing systems, will not be good for you in the long run.