Camping in sub freezing weather

clintbrooks1767 wrote:
Hello all,

I'm new to RVing. Just bought a 5th wheel. I'm going to take it to Angel Fire NM this January and go snow skiing. I've been skiing in NM for almost 20 years and the temperature routinely can get to 20 or 30 degrees BELOW freezing.

My unit has a fully enclosed ducted/heated underbelly, heated basement, and heated storage tanks. I know I need to protect my water hose (if the resort has their city water turned on). I will turn on my tank heaters and plan to run my furnace while driving if I we encounter sub freezing temps during our drive. I will only plan on placing my sewer hose out when dumping and return to heated basement after use.

Can anyone who's been camping in sub freezing temperatures provide me with any advice? I'm trying to avoid common rookie mistakes encountered while camping in very cold weather.

Thank you in advance.

so by 20 to 30 degrees below freezing I am assuming you mean 0F(-17.8C) if this is the case depending what you are camping in you may be fine. My 5th wheel is good to go at -7.6F (-22C) as it has the polar package. of course our going to use a lot more propane at -18C I was only getting 2 to 3 nights off a 30lb propane bottle. depending how long your going to be there for there are several things you can do to make it warmer and decrease your propane usage. if you have power you can put a few heat lamps under the trailer and use something to insulate it all around, like an insulated skirt, straw bales, foam boards......you can also use electric heaters inside to help the furnace. I have a couple friends that full time in there rv's and they employ these kind of things and live pretty comfterably.

for a short stay if you have some sort of skirt or material that you can put on to stop the air from blowing under the unit that will help.

Steve