Do we need to winterize for a few days in Yellowstone?

Nothing will freeze until the temp gets below 32 and stays there for several hours.

Even then, nothing will likely be damaged IF no pressure builds up.

I think if you heat the cabin, turn off the water pump and leave the faucets open you should be fine. Leaving the hot water heater on if you can would be good too.

I assume you don't have tank heaters. If you do, no worries at all. If you don't, leave cabinets open a bit overnight, so the heat from the furnace can reach more of the water lines. Definitely keep the water heater on while in camp. If temperatures are to be below freezing overnight, fill your freshwater tank enough for what you'll need in the night and disconnect your water hose, so the hose doesn't freeze up.

We've camped there under these conditions several times and had no problems. Good luck!

We went to Yellowstone a few years ago about this time of year and we had snow on 2 of the 4 nights we were there. We did not take any precautions and there was no problem with the temperature.

This could be a hard fall frost in Yellowstone. They are predicting 26 Sat night and 24 Sunday night. Just watch the temps closely. This is just a quick storm but could bring in some really low temps. They were predicting snow at lower elevations (5000 ft) but don't know if that will happen. Looks like Cody will only be down to low 40s.

kknowlton wrote:
I assume you don't have tank heaters. If you do, no worries at all. If you don't, leave cabinets open a bit overnight, so the heat from the furnace can reach more of the water lines. Definitely keep the water heater on while in camp. If temperatures are to be below freezing overnight, fill your freshwater tank enough for what you'll need in the night and disconnect your water hose, so the hose doesn't freeze up.

We've camped there under these conditions several times and had no problems. Good luck!

Yes, as said, leave the cabinets open, but, set your heater thermostat to 40 - 50 and bundle up under good blankets. What you're looking for is to keep the inside temp from freezing but not warm enough that your heater has to run all night and you end up with dead or low batteries in the morning . If you have a Heater Buddy use that first thing in the morning when you get up. They're safe to run at night, but we prefer not to and instead set the thermostat as stated and I jump up first thing in the morning and turn on the heater buddy.

It would help to know the year and model of RV that you are taking. ALso if the tanks are under the RV, or in a basement compartment.

I have a Fleetwood Bounder, and the salesman said I could camp in 10F weather, as long as the furnace stays on and keeps the inside around 70, then the basement will stay above 40, and nothing will freeze.

I have camped in 19F weather, no problems, and I used everything. I never winterized my RV until I moved to Oregon, and it actually spent time in the winter not in use. While in a campground at 20F outside, I was running a electric heater near my water pump (keeping the basement under my bed warm to about 55F) and 2 more electric heaters inside. The electric rate around here it is less expensive than running the propane furnace.

Have fun on your trip!

Fred.

We have a 2003 Shasta class C. Does that help?

Thank you so much for your help!

I've done OK in an environment where daytime temperatures were 40-50 F, night temperatures in the high 20s for a few hours. However, all of my fresh water tankage is in heated space, all of the fresh water plumbing runs are either in heated space or immediately under the flooring and still insulated from outside temperatures.

My waste tanks (with heating pads) are in unheated space, but whether or not contents are frozen does not matter until it is time to dump. I dump when I am in someplace warm enough.

I know nothing about the plumbing of Shasta RVs generally, and I suspect it is different model to model, as it is for other brands. This is something you need to analyze yourself, what is in heated space, what is exposed to sub-freezing temperatures, and how long will those spaces be subjected to freezing.

This is assuming that you will be running your furnace full time, to keep living areas at comfortable tempatures, so that heat loss will keep utility spaces above freezing most of the time. If you are not going to be running your furnace, it is best to winterize, and use the RV in winterized mode, which for most designs means no running water.

My tanks are under the trailer. Not insulated. And not heated.

I've camped in mid teen weather with mid 40s by day. Only run the heater while sleeping and set it at 68. Never once has anything froze.

Keep your furnace at 50 or 55 at night (to prevent the fan from running your battery down) and the cabinet doors open. You will be fine. We spent 2 weeks there in September of 2011. The only problem we had was learning that we could not keep the furnace on 70 all night, battery deader'n a doornail about 2am.

Furnace on 50 all night, first one up turns it back up to 70 and jumps back in bed for 20 minutes, all is right with the world.