Cool weather camping

Billinwoodland wrote:
Agreed, but you are going to go through a lot of propane. If near civilization, it's not an issue. If you are camping 60 miles from the nearest fill up, it might be.

For what it's worth:

We so far have only camped where it is "cold" at night - not in situations where it remains cold throughout the day. I have no desire to camp for days on end in constant temperatures below freezing - or constant temperatures in even the 30's. I'll leave that up to the hunters.

How much propane one might go through of course depends upon many factors. One of the most important ones other than how low the outside temperature goes - is how big is the volume you must keep warm?

We chose a relatively small Class C (24 feet) for, among other considerations, ease of maintaining it's interior comfort in all kinds of weather when drycamping. The sleeping, bathroom, and cab areas of it can be blocked off with built-in curtains that it came stock with. In freezing daytime temperatures, we'd of course keep only the kitchen, dinnette, and lounge chair total area heated to conserve propane and still be comfortable at an interior temperature of, say, 68-70 degrees. At night we block off only the cab area, but set the propane furnace control at 58-63 degrees to maintain a nice level of "get up in the middle of the night" comfort.

Our RV came with a winterization package which includes 12 volt heated grey and black tanks and a built-in battery storage compartment large enough for dual 6 volt or 12 volt deep cycle batteries. The fresh water tank is kept warm by propane furnace outlet tubes that pass right by it in the same cabinet. The RV's propane tank is also 18 gallons, which is not bad for a small RV. I estimate that we should be able to get by drycamping for 3-4 days in 24/7 freezing temperatures on our propane tank capacity.

Of course another main problem with winter camping is keeping the batteries charged up. This is no small challenge to do when the sun cannot be counted on to do it if one has solar ... which we don't. We have three ways to charge our dual Group 31 deep cycle batteries when drycamping - the main engine's alternator, the built-in generator fueled from the main 55 gallon gas tank, and a small Honda generator with spare gas for it that we carry along for backup. Of course whenever the main engine alternator is used for battery charging the RV can at the same time be heated by the cab heater, and whenever the built-in generator is used for battery charging the RV can at the same time be heated with a couple of 1500 watt electric heaters - thus saving some propane using either charging choice.

It never hurts to be ready for a large variety of camping situations in case they should arise, which we tried to keep in mind when we bought our rig.

All this talk is really getting me anxious for my two planned winter camping weekends.
Probably early December and again in late January.
There's just something remarkably peaceful for me about waking up and brewing a big pot of coffee over the fire pit before a big breakfast, followed by some mountain biking around the deserted grounds.

pnichols wrote:
Some of you guys are amazing! Unlike some of you, we're not into merely keeping our bodies warm when sleeping while letting the rest of the RV interior freeze.

There's tons of easy ways to keep just our bodies warm for sleeping. Backpackers and outdoor adventurers having been doing that for centuries. But one of the reasons we bought a self-contained RV is so we could keep it's interior at the same comfortable temperatures as we keep the stick house interior during weather extremes. Staying as comfortable snuggled up in our RV as in our stick house in cold weather or hot weather is a fun challenge to self-contained camping, IMHO.

Agreed, but you are going to go through a lot of propane. If near civilization, it's not an issue. If you are camping 60 miles from the nearest fill up, it might be.

I don't heat my S&B much, either, except when I have people over :).

Some of you guys are amazing! Unlike some of you, we're not into merely keeping our bodies warm when sleeping while letting the rest of the RV interior freeze.

There's tons of easy ways to keep just our bodies warm for sleeping. Backpackers and outdoor adventurers having been doing that for centuries. But one of the reasons we bought a self-contained RV is so we could keep it's interior at the same comfortable temperatures as we keep the stick house interior during weather extremes. Staying as comfortable snuggled up in our RV as in our stick house in cold weather or hot weather is a fun challenge to self-contained camping, IMHO.

My two cousins and I spent a January weekend in my hybid. I slept on the front dinette, and they shared the rear tent bed. Kept the front bed closed. No PUGS, no reflex, just threw an old bed sheet up over the tent end as an extra layer. Also put a big sheet of couragated cardboard under the mattress as an extra cold blocker. Regular sheets and one blanket. Outside temps ran 20* to 27* inside stayed right where set at 65* with the blower running approximately 1/3 of the nite.
Picture taken before setting up camp

Camping in a teardrop all I need is my 100lb fur heater. Between me and the dog I have to keep a window and the roof vent cracked a bit. I do have a small heater but have not used it yet, camped in the snow as low as 0 Fahrenheit.
I love winter camping, snow muffle a so much sound and I usually have the campground to myself.

wbwood wrote:
For those of you that dry camp in cooler weather without running the heater, what type of blankets do you use? Do you use sleeping bags?

Since our TC doesn't have a furnace, we have no choice other than body heat, to stay warm at night. And since it's a small space, we MUST keep some fresh air moving through the camper or else it gets too damp from condensation inside. We have blankets for those nicely-cool nights; and then yes, we'll open sleeping bags to use as comforters for the nights that get down to the low 40's. Any colder than that, then we seek electric for our heater.

I have tent-camped in temps in the mid-20's; so anything warmer than that seems fine to me....LOL!

A cold-weather nighttime tip: if you know it's going to get cold, sleep in a hooded sweatshirt, and pull the hood over your head (or wear a stocking cap). You lose a LOT of body heat from your head.

memory foam topper, TONS of puffy comforters = toast!

Run the heat minimally until we go to bed, then either shut it off or put it on lowest possible. Wife/me is first one up so up goes the heat a little to make it liveable.

Just bought a Mr. heater that we will run when awake.

Love cold weather camping! Hate the heat for sleeping...okay during day but not night.

We love to sleep cool and use high thread count cotton sheets most of the year. When things get cooler we switch to micro-fiber fleece sheets which make a huge difference. We then also use a fleece blanket, and a thick micro-fiber filled comforter. My wife will sometimes use an additional very thick micro-fiber "throw" over the top. . . she has less insulation than I do. We also have a 2" thick memory foam topper on the mattress which seems to hold body heat better.

I mostly sleep without clothing, but add more, top and bottom, as it gets colder.

If it gets really cold and we have 120v AC we use a heated mattress pad, and an oil-filled radiator in the bedroom.

We had a very special night in Essex, MT south of Glacier NP in October a few years ago. It was starting to get dark and beginning to snow. We stopped at a road-house (Snow Slip Inn) where I saw hunter's trailers parked behind. I asked if we could also park behind the inn and hook-up and they said yes, but it would cost $5. Well. . . OK. We went in for dinner, which was $6.75 for the best chicken fried steak, gravy and hand cut fries that I have ever had. Cocktails were $2 each ($2.50 with mixer). It was a great gathering of local families who we enjoyed the evening with. The best part was going out the back door to the MH, with the heater and the mattress pad on. It got down to 12F that night, a blizzard had closed the pass East of there, and we followed snow plows over the next morning. It was nice to be warm (and safe).