Cold weather rv'ing

[luberhill]

Ok soooo if we want to camp in cold or close to freezing weather,,,can we add rv antifreeze to the fresh water tank and use it for the toilet ??
How much do you add per gallon of water ?? I assume you don't shower with this water, correct ?....we could bring bottled water to drink...

is it ok to run the fridge in cold weather ??

[srt20]

We camp in winter in northern WI.

Fully winterize the RV, blow out all lines, and rv antifreeze to traps, etc.
We only use the toilet in winter and dump rv antifreeze to flush.
We don't use fridge, its cold enough outside for whatever needs to be cold.
We are plugged in at our seasonal site for furnace electricity.
We have the standard 30lbs propane tanks plus we added a 100lbs propane tank to the regulator.
The campground we are at has a shower in the back of the bar/grill that is available to us in winter.
Obviously, when not in bed I go number 1 outside.

We have about 6-7 families that camp all winter long at the campground.


Heck, one of the guys even brought up a snowblower to leave there to clean up driveways and fire pit areas.

[Grit_dog]

luberhill wrote:
??? I thought the fridge and water heater woulld run on propane??...I'm looking at motorhomes not tt..so if the waterpump is 12v it won't run if your battery dies?? So even when plugged in or on generator still won't work if coach battery is dead?

Fridge will run on propane but still needs 12V power for the controls. Heater in the fridge is what switches ac/DC/LP.
Water pump won't work nor will anything else if the batteries they're hooked to are dead.
However as soon as you plug in, the inverter should allow some 12v draw and will be charging the battery(s) back up in a typical setup.

[eichacsj]

luberhill wrote:
??? I thought the fridge and water heater would run on propane??...I'm looking at motorhomes not tt..so if the waterpump is 12v it won't run if your battery dies?? So even when plugged in or on generator still won't work if coach battery is dead?

Yes they run on propane unless you set it to run on 110 by the switch.

[lc0338]

part 1

part 2

Motorhomes and travel traiers have a converter which is basically a battery charger. when plugged in to 110 volt the converter keeps the 12 volt batteries charged

[bikendan]

Google "the 12 Volt Side of Life I and II".

it'll teach the basics of RV electrical systems.

[luberhill]

??? I thought the fridge and water heater woulld run on propane??...I'm looking at motorhomes not tt..so if the waterpump is 12v it won't run if your battery dies?? So even when plugged in or on generator still won't work if coach battery is dead?

[eichacsj]

luberhill wrote:
First off I don't have an rv yet,im looking. Now what about the water pump? Does that run off the coach batteries

On a TT everything runs off batteries unless you switch the hot water heater or fridge to run off 110. Some older TT if you go used may have a couple of lights that will be 110. Otherwise 110 just charges as you use.

[coolbreeze01]

luberhill wrote:
First off I don't have an rv yet,im looking. Now what about the water pump? Does that run off the coach batteries

The water pump is 12V.

[luberhill]

First off I don't have an rv yet,im looking. Now what about the water pump? Does that run off the coach batteries

[gregirish1954]

luberhill, based on my experience winter camping can be delightful and rewarding on several levels.

Your question has generated a lot of supportive and relevant information, but I noticed a couple posts on this thread that were not directly helpful and hope that won't dissuade you from giving it a try.

After all, the only way to become experienced and seasoned at winter camping is to get out there and do it, and it seems to me that by asking questions here on this Beginning RVing forum, which is exactly what it's for, you already are trying to learn more about how your RV works.

Clearly you live in an area with prolonged freezing temperatures so just use what you already know about living below freezing, add in a little extra knowledge, (Such as that gained from throwing out specific questions to this community) throw in some common sense and take baby steps, such as starting with a weekend trip early in the season with freezing nights but above freezing days.

I did my learning about winter RVing before the days of forums such as this and definitely made some mistakes along the way. It was a little uncomfortable at times but I picked myself up, dusted myself off, (looked around to make sure nobody saw me make a fool of myself) and went on, knowing how 'not' to do at least one more thing. . .

[ramgunner]

DrewE wrote:
A lot depends on how your RV is constructed with regards to cold weather operation.

...You do have to use water from the fresh water tank rather than leaving a hose hooked up to the campground water supply (connecting only to fill the tank and disconnecting and draining out the hose afterwards).

We kept ours hooked up through -1F temps last year using a Valterra heated water hose, and a segment of heat tape on the tap coming out of the ground. Never froze, and we kept the fresh water tank full just in case. In our case, all of the tanks have 12VDC heaters.

[GordonThree]

Water takes a lot of time to freeze actually. Look at the tiny amount of water in an ice cube tray, and that takes hours to freeze. If it's only freezing for you a few hours a day and the rest of the time is 40s-50s, there's no problem at all.

Twice before I added external heat to my coach, the gray and black tank did not freeze, but the dump valves did. There's significantly more surface area and less volume at the valve than there is in the tank. Having the tank full of 30 something degree water isn't enough to thaw the valves either. Now the valves are wrapped in foil, with heat trace over it, and then insulation and gorilla tape. Heat trace gets switched on whenever it's 35F or colder, and has it's own thermostat to turn on/off as needed.

[eichacsj]

luberhill wrote:

eichacsj wrote:
Mostly travel (Denver, Seattle) and camp in winter. We do not add anything, I keep the fresh water as full as possible and don't drain the grey/black until needed. We use the fridge. We are in below freezing commonly, we do not have heat pads. Never had a problem.

One thing we do different is we ONLY use the furnace (70-74, cycles about 20 min on 20 min off at zeroish, we also updated to the digital thermostat, it cycles better). If you use supplemental heat it will not run the heater enough and heat does not get to the tanks.

BTW we use bottled water for drinking.

Enjoy camping in snow is awesome! Make sure you have chains for TV.

sooo...if you are in a place with no electric hook p what runs the furnace ?? And traveling home you don't worry about the tanks freezing ?? Water heater ??

Furnace runs on 12v regardless if you are plugged in or not, to clarify we do not run the furnace while driving. Water freezing while driving; hasn't yet and we travel in below weather commonly, but like I said I travel full (fresh, gray, black) as possible.

[BuckyBadger]

luberhill wrote:
Ok soooo if we want to camp in cold or close to freezing weather,,,can we add rv antifreeze to the fresh water tank and use it for the toilet ??
How much do you add per gallon of water ?? I assume you don't shower with this water, correct ?....we could bring bottled water to drink...

is it ok to run the fridge in cold weather ??

I camp in the early spring and late fall after I winterize and use a portable toilet