cold weather camping

Virtually every early spring and late fall here in Oregon. Icicles hanging off the sides of the trailer. Frozen rivulets down the sides from the windows. Only one time did I have frozen lines, and never any damage.

Stars101 wrote:

Lantley wrote:
I will camp in 20º overnight weather. While I have camped in colder, below 20ºF gets to be to much work/hassle.
I'm camping for fun and relaxation. Not trying to simulate a survival mission.
As long as day time temps are above freezing. Cold weather camping is doable without a lot of additional drama or heartache

x2 -- Best synopsis of "winter" camping, at least the type that my family does.

Except for mid summer, this is our normal routine. Freezing at night, warm up in the day.

Both in a tent and in the trailer. Great time in both.

As tent campers, part of the fun of winter is a nighttime snowfall around the campfire - pretty hard to achieve with good cheer without $400 sleeping bags, $500 tents and other high-end gear. Oh, and decent Tequila from CostCo doesn't hurt either! :)

We camped in below zero F a lot in the U.P. of Michigan and in Ontario Canada in winter and have for over 40 years in our several quality built truck Ccampers. Still do some! Had a 36' Carriage 5th wheel on our acreage in Northern Michigan for 16 years and we used in winter for snowmobiling and a weekend getaways. A falling tree totalled it so we use the Lance TC now. Still own the acreage but due to my wife's disability now we go south (west of Gainesville, FL) with our other 5th wheel from about mid January till mid March the last 7 years since we'd sold our place down there in south Florida in 2007. A royal PIA and very expensive to have a nice place in S. Florida and keep it and the property maintained 12 months a year and only using it about 1 to 2-1/2 months a year!

The coldest temp we had in winter when in our RV's was -30F but it was only that cold for a few hours before it warmed up to around zero F during the day. That was on Drummond Island in the U.P. of Michigan on the far east side in our Lance TC. -13 F night and -5 F daytimr steady temps is about as cold as we were in for several days in the Lance and were very comfortable. Still own the acreage but due to my wife's disability now, we go south with our other 5th wheel about mid January till mid/late March so she can get away from ice as falling for her is not an option.

Below zero in and RV can be very comfortable, warm, and enjoyable if you have an upscale well insulated RV with storm windows etc and had sealed any and all cracks and/or air leaks properly. Never had our RV water/lines freeze yet. Use a couple gallons of -25 to -35 degree windshield washer fluid in our holding tanks or in the Lance TC use the tall Porta Potti with windshield low temp fluid in the rinse tank and dump at home or any bathroom or even a pit toilet. Yes, when it's really cold, we use the sponge bath method and it's works fine for a week or so. Yes, you can wash your hair too when wanted. You just don't waste water and use it wisely.

Has never frozen yet even when the heat is off or traveling. Also, I installed a sewer dump line in our home's backyard to dump our RV tanks into when desired or wanted. We could care less if the dump station are closed for winter, ours at home is always open! We love winter camping as it's gorgeous scenery and the deer/animals can be seen right from the RV or when snowmobiling/crosscountry siiing since the leaves had fallen in heavily forested Michigan. The cheapies in RV's don't do well at all in even +10 to +15 F as they are poorly insulated on all 6 sides and like virtually being outside with the drafts and cold. Feet freeze and your head boils and any liquid in the cupboards freezes. No thank you as we'd learned many many years ago and got wise!

We generally end up in some pretty frigid temps during part of November and December. We try to hold out as long as possible for the holidays before snow birding to SW Florida.

This morning when I got up it was -2 windshield. Fun.....

In Cottonwood Arizona right now, yesterday was 25* overnight as well as I believ last night. where we are is about 5* colder than in town. we don't have an issue in cold weather other than we are wimps, we would rather have it warm. but anyhow, freezing isn't an issue with us, insides are warm and cozy at between 68* and 70* and no freezing pipes as all is contained in the enclosed underbelly. The only issue is that if you are hooked up, your supply hose could freeze. We always make sure we have full water tanks and extra water whenever and wherever we go. Good Luck & Be Safe ! ! !

I’ve done it many times in sub zero weather. Mostly winter hunting and scouting trips in the mountains. That was typically in my wall tent or PU, I rarely used my TT, it just wasn’t suitable for getting well back off the pavement in the weather conditions. Winter camping trips I usually stay in the lower elevations of AZ which can be below freezing but not sub zero. Most of my camping, though, is at high elevations in the spring to fall.

Just starting on my 3rd winter in Delaware. I was one of 6 RVs at Delaware Seashore state park CG this weekend. It got to the upper 20's at night, which is warm in my book. I'm getting ready for another looooong winter. It will be 19 Wednesday AM.
I am glad they are back open as I missed them last year. Killens pond State Park is a bit of a ride for me. When the temps hit the single digits, I high tail it to a Motel. I can stay warm enough, but the pipes don't.

This is our first time with continual below freezing temps 26 degrees right now 10:25 AM low last night was 18 and it didn't make it above 31 yesterday. We have spent winters in Florida and Texas where there were overnight freezes but it always made it up to the 40's or more during the day. Right now I'm getting ready to go have a propane refill in one of the tanks. If it weren't for our planned trip to Alaska next Spring/Summer we wouldn't be here in Coffeyville Kansas doing the Amazon Workcamper thing.