winter rv'ing

[guygaland2newfs]

We need to be in Harrisburg Pa the weekend of the 15th of Feb. We will be RVing at the motorama for 2 nites. Looking at the weather, none of the nights will be even close to 30 degrees. We have a (new to us) 2006 Holiday Rambler, 37 ft. with a basement. It is winterized. It has a heater in the control compartment but we don't think it will heat the pipes. The pipes appear to be between the enclosed compartments and the floor of the motorhome. How do we access these pipes to send heat to that area of the RV or is it just not smart to try using the RV. The site has electric only. What solutions have you come up with? If it is possible to go through with this trip, how would you handle the black tank? (using the toilet) which would be the only thing we make use of.

[koda55]

The end of December we were in the upper northeast Pa for 2 weeks. We had no problems with our pipes or tanks. We had full tank of fresh water. Had snow and ice. The furnaces kept the rv at 73 degrees and the tank area warm. Of course we did have to fill up two times with propane.

[johnwalkerpa1]

guygaland2newfs wrote:
We need to be in Harrisburg Pa the weekend of the 15th of Feb. We will be RVing at the motorama for 2 nites. Looking at the weather, none of the nights will be even close to 30 degrees. We have a (new to us) 2006 Holiday Rambler, 37 ft. with a basement. It is winterized. It has a heater in the control compartment but we don't think it will heat the pipes. The pipes appear to be between the enclosed compartments and the floor of the motorhome. How do we access these pipes to send heat to that area of the RV or is it just not smart to try using the RV. The site has electric only. What solutions have you come up with? If it is possible to go through with this trip, how would you handle the black tank? (using the toilet) which would be the only thing we make use of.

This winter has been one of the coldest in decades in this part of PA so it could be a problem.

If you really only want to use the toilet you can always just keep your water drained and use jugs of water to flush (assuming you can keep the jugs from freezing "upstairs"). Its unlikely that the black tank itself will freeze solid, but put in a little of the pink stuff to be sure.

There have even been a few time that I have used jugs of the pink antifreeze to flush the toilet. Not practical for heavy toilet use but may work for limited use.

[Heavy_Metal_Doc]

Every year I have been at Motorama it seemed to be the absolute coldest weekend of the winter...after a long day in the barely heated arenas, I'll take a reasonable hotel room for nights on that trip.

[WyoTraveler]

Your MH furnace vents heat the basement where the tanks and pipes are located. In addition I think you have an additional electric heater in the wet bay. The icy roads could be more of a problem.

[Dutch_12078]

The night before last we spent the night at a KOA in Jonestown, PA, just north of Harrisburg. The temps were in the low teens, but we managed quite nicely in our nearly 20 year old Coachmen 33' motorhome. The furnace kept us at a comfortable 72 deg F, and our water system worked fine, with no problems. Our water and waste bays have 2-1/2" flex ducts fed from the main heating duct, that keep the tanks warm enough not to freeze. We do open the sink cabinet doors at night though, to make sure the pipes don't freeze. We also keep the water heater on at night in those temps. Last night and today we're at Ft Chiswell RV Park near the I-81/I-74 intersection in Virginia where the over night low was 2 deg F. The Coachmen still kept us comfortable, although the furnace did run almost non-stop until the temp warmed up a bit this morning. The only issue this time, was that a short pipe to our accumulator tank froze, causing the pump to cycle every time a faucet was opened. About 10 minutes work with a hair dryer fixed that. Tomorrow we head for St George, SC, and the weather will be warming up considerably.

The likelihood is that you'll be fine in your HR with reasonable precautions such as opening the cabinets.

[HappyKayakers]

For just 2 nights, it wouldn't be worth it to me to take an RV in that weather. Just too many problems at those temps, not to mention the drive there and back, possibly on snowy, icy roads.