Does anyone else use their camper after winterizing?

[imq707s]

We winterized our 19ft Zinger a month ago, but we’re thinking about taking it out in a few weeks to do some camping. I’m planning on not using the water at all, but I would be firing up the heater to keep us warm…. I figure that it’s got to be better than tent camping. Does anyone else do this? Are there any other issues that I would run into when doing this?

[Bucky_Badger]

When the snow flies or it gets 35 or below at night i'm dome. Too expensive to heat

[rbpru]

I am with the group that just dry camps with electric and uses the wash house.

We do carry a water jug for cooking and night time potty trips.

Since they are usually weekend affairs, snowshoeing or hiking, we can get by with an electric heater and save the propane.

Salt on the roads is a problem but it does not keep us from driving our car. A spring wash and TT paint touch up is required after a few years anyway.

If you are a real winter bug, a four season TT might be a good choice but for a couple of trips a year, our 25 ft Dutchmen does just fine.

[K-9_HANDLER]

Yes. It serves as both a Christmas present hiding/storage locker and Santas work shop for assembly and wrapping. With the furnace, electric, lights and radio it is perfect.

[SoundGuy]

TomandDebbieMi wrote:
if i knew how to post picture i would 😞

Upload your pic(s) here, copy the link created, and paste it into your rv.net post. It would be helpful though if you included in the link "width=450" something similar so the pic isn't too large (like those above) which in turn forces us all to scroll to read the text. Use the preview function before you post so you can see how large your pic will be.

As for the subject of this thread we don't winter camp but if we did I'd leave the trailer's water system winterized and simply use the heated campground bath house for showering, place a porta potti in the shower area and not use the toilet, and draw water from 7 gal potable water Aquatainers located inside the camper.

[TomandDebbieMi]

WE go every other weekend here in Michigan because DW gets wired up if she is in thehouse to long in the winter... TT is stored at campground in northern Michigan, the shower/bath house is open all year and heated. No water or sewer at site, so we use porta potty and water from home. We do have electric hook up so i fire up the furnace to get the place up to temp, then 2 elec. heaters take over from there. I am currently at the campground at the inside temp is 68, outside temp is 7 We have roof vent open with fan spinning, have R3.3 foam insulation board covering 3 large windows. We have zero condensation problem...we have Cable TV and Wi fi also.. Live is tough I tell ya!!!! :B if i knew how to post picture i would 😞

[fallsrider]

Absolutely. I take DS out for one-nighters frequently during the winter. We went Friday night as a matter of fact. I keep everything simple, and we use Toilet in a Bag for bathroom duty.

[oldokie]

removed

[tatest]

Somw winters here (since 2005) we used the RV 4-6 times since first winterizing (usually last time out in September or early October) and before dewinterizing for the summer (late April or first time out in May).

I don't think I've ever taken it out to use winterized, as the occasions for going out have been either a warn spell in winter, or to travel to someplace warmer. That means dewinterizing before I go, or after I get to somewhere warm enough.

I don't see winterizing as a season finality, I think on my most active winter I dewinterized/rewinterized five times between first winteriztion in fall and last dewinteriztion in spring. each cycle takes less than an hour an less than $10 in materials using RV/Marine plumbing antifreeze.

My RV, if weather is cold enough to need the plumbing protected, we are not really comfortable living in it. Dewinterized, we can cope with nights in the low 20s F if most of the day is above frezing. At 20 F, our RV is comfortable, but goes through LPG pretty quickly. You experience may vary, depending on construction of your RV. Some cope better with cold weather than do others.

[73guna]

My son and I went camping a few weeks back near Yankton Sd.
I didnt dewinterize the camper.
No one else in the campground so we could pee where ever we wanted.:B

[All_I_could_aff]

bcbouy wrote:
where i work,3 of us store our tt.pop up and pop up camper at the back of the yard.all are plugged into the 30 amp we had installed and we use our campers to catch a few hrs. of sleep between shifts if we work a double.not exactly camping but we do it several times over the winter.

I'm with you! I also store my trailer at work, except we have no electricity or running water... Just a big gravel equipment storage lot. It makes a great place to break for lunch, listen to radio/watch tv on breaks thanks to solar!

9 months out of the year I keep the fresh water tanks full for hand washing, and even the occasional shower. I top it off once in a while with my two 7 gallon jugs.

[CavemanCharlie]

I do it all the time. I just carry jugs of water and use a port-potti in the bathroom.

Make sure you dump some pink anti-freeze through the drain traps when you get back home. Just in case someone accidentally dumped some water down the drain without thinking.

I'm not going to be doing it today. 26 below zero f last night and a high of 0 today. No way I could keep that drafty old camper warm in that weather. lol

[RinconVTR]

Dick_B wrote:
You could flush with pink stuff.

Ha. I thought only I did that. lol

But its never for more than 2 nights and only 1-2 times. We bring a 5 gallon jug for drinking water. That's about it.

[GordonThree]

I tried winterizing by just opening the low drains once, and faucets inside. then, because of my ocd, I figured I'd hook up air and give 'r a blow too.

Glad I did, since there was several gallons of water still in the lines that did not drain out the low point. Who knows how much damage that water freezing could have done. Spending the extra few minutes blowing probably saved me $100s.

Even with blowing, I couldn't figure out how to purge the pump, pressure bladder and strainer bucket without taking them apart, so I ran some pink stuff through.

[bcbouy]

where i work,3 of us store our tt.pop up and pop up camper at the back of the yard.all are plugged into the 30 amp we had installed and we use our campers to catch a few hrs. of sleep between shifts if we work a double.not exactly camping but we do it several times over the winter.