Relocating south, heated tanks or not ?

[Gisty]

I have a few questions today and I didn't want to split them up between forums. My wife and I have a 2011 coachmen chaparral 28RBS trailer. We are looking at whether we would be able to live in it year round in the Myrtle Beach area of South Carolina or possibly on the Southern coast of Florida. The trailer does not have heated tanks currently, but that would be something that we could have installed before the weather changes if need be. Eventually we would like to get into a different camper altogether, so this in a way would be temporary until we switch or find an apartment for us and our 3 dogs. We have stayed in our camper for extended periods of time already, so we don't have any issues with space in it. My worries are simply the temperature without having the camper winterized. I have spoken with a few people all of which give different opinions including my Father whom has traveled all over the country with his class A rv. Any information would be greatly appreciated as we are hoping to finalize our plans soon and start preparing.

[hddecker]

Gisty wrote:
We have 2 Boston Terriers and a French Bulldog. Both breeds are small so we have never had an issue when camping locally or when we traveled to Virginia Beach KOA last April. I did explain to my wife that it may be harder for us to relocate and move into an apartment with 3 small animals, but also that some campgrounds have certain restrictions as well. If we do stay in the Myrtle Beach area it will most likely be at the KOA due to cost. Everything else I have priced out is near or over $1,000 a month. We just can't afford something such as that. My wife does have a friend that stays at the Fiesta Key RV resort in Florida and she keeps trying to get us to come stay down there. We prefer South Carolina since we vacationed there and absolutely loved it. My animals are very important to me and I just can't see parting with any for the sake of being able to stay somewhere.

Another person with their priorities right. Between our dogs and camping our dogs give us more joy. Now camping and our dogs together, what can I say. It's uncanny how dogs can tell when your down in the dumps and they can bring you back to reality with just a lick.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Since the tanks are enclosed add a 120 volt outlet and a small electric heater with a mechanical thermostat.

[Gisty]

We have 2 Boston Terriers and a French Bulldog. Both breeds are small so we have never had an issue when camping locally or when we traveled to Virginia Beach KOA last April. I did explain to my wife that it may be harder for us to relocate and move into an apartment with 3 small animals, but also that some campgrounds have certain restrictions as well. If we do stay in the Myrtle Beach area it will most likely be at the KOA due to cost. Everything else I have priced out is near or over $1,000 a month. We just can't afford something such as that. My wife does have a friend that stays at the Fiesta Key RV resort in Florida and she keeps trying to get us to come stay down there. We prefer South Carolina since we vacationed there and absolutely loved it. My animals are very important to me and I just can't see parting with any for the sake of being able to stay somewhere.

[Gisty]

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

Are the existing tanks enclosed?

They currently are, yes.

[hddecker]

dadmomh wrote:
MB might be a bit iffy the way the climate is moving all over the place, but the add-on heat pads could solve that problem. We go to Lakeland, FL toward the 3rd or 4th week of March every year. The past couple of years it's been miserably cold and very windy. Overnight temps got just to freezing, but warmed up a bit by mid morning. If you're thinking further south I wouldn't be concerned.

Question? Are you thinking of moving into a retirement type community or an RV Resort type?? We were mentally packed and ready to go when we came home last March until we found that virtually all communities like that are limiting newcomers to no more than 2 dogs. Current residents were grandfathered. We had 5 at the time, but only admitted to 4 since Mickey was so old and we didn't expect him to be with us. So now we're at 4 and still unable to make the move we want so badly. But our doggies trump the move, so TN is still home and will be until....hopefully a long time. Something you might want to check if any of this applies to you.

I'm glad to see you have your priorities straight. Love me love my dogs. We have three and that number will not change, we have a three dog limit in our town.

We just got our third dog in January this year, she's a ten eyar old American Staffordshire Terrier. She was in doggy jail October year when we got home from our trip. I kept checking the SPCA web site and she was still there at Christmas. I told my wife we are going to let her adopt us in January if she is still there.

Since getting this sweet little lady we have talked about what happens when we lose one of the kids and have agreed that we are going to adopt seniors now.

[hddecker]

I would worry about the valves freezing up, before the tanks. I made the mistake od not finding a dump station before we hit the road home from our sons place at Chritmas four years ago.

When we got home three and a half hours later, I stopped at the local sani-dump and find both vavles frozen solid. I had to put a heater under the TT overnight to thaw them.

After leaning that leason, I got one of those water pipe heater tapes and wrapped it around the dump pipe and valves.

[dadmomh]

Understand the changes on the dog limit even for camping. We've never had a problem with it because we only take one of ours with us for local camping. For longer trips, either DS#1 doesn't go and is here with the doggies or in March we have 2 awesome neighbors that dog-sit. On Hybrid Explorer some time ago there was a lengthy thread re this because the campers had made plans and then found out it was a 1 dog limit. Not happy. Being HUGE dog people we understood their frustration - ran on for about 8 pages - but being HUGE dog people we were able to understand the reasons behind the rule. There are times we've wished there were a site limit to the number of screaming, out-of-control kiddos, but not the case.

We were so, so ready to make our intended move and disappointed doesn't describe it when things fell apart. I gave it my best shot at getting the management to budge with no success. He said he'd had several problems recently and just had to make a hard and fast rule....2! Feel pretty sure the campgrounds have run into the same problems and now the rule is the rule. Definitely something campers with more than 1 pet going along, check the rules before heading out. I've noticed a few that have breed specific rules and I hate that, they really need "owner specific" IMHO, but that's another subject entirely.

[Oaklevel]

Never had heated tanks & never had the tanks freeze. Stayed winter in Myrtle Beach at times. The only time we have had anything freeze was the fresh water hose.

[dhust]

majorgator wrote:
... I can attest that nowhere in FL would I expect to need heated tanks. ...

And nowhere in Florida would I expect to have an ice storm but it happened this past January.



We spent 1 full day stuck because all the bridges were iced over (about 1/2 inch of ice) in Crestview (an hour from Pensacola). Of course, when the sun came out it was gone in about an hour.

That being said, I agree that you will not need heated tanks. I never winterize my trailer here, and we usually get a week when the temperatures get below freezing overnight. But they get above freezing during the day.

[wannavolunteerF]

I live in south GA, but our temp is usually not much warmer than MB. I used my TT off and on all winter last year as guest housing. I did disconnect the Fresh water hose and use water from the tank, the nights it was really cold. Over Christmas holidays, my DD & SIL used the trailer and we just kept heat at a level suitable for my 6 month old granddaughter and didn't have to worry about tanks. When I stayed in the trailer, I kept temp a little lower. Other times, when freezing weather was predicted, I just kept the heat on at about 50-55. My tanks are only heated by the fact that the ducts are just above the tanks, but the bottom is enclosed.

[Mr__Camper]

...on the other hand, we've run into a significant number of RV parks that limit campers to two dogs and even some of them wanted an additional charge per pet per day. We moved on down the road.

[dadmomh]

MB might be a bit iffy the way the climate is moving all over the place, but the add-on heat pads could solve that problem. We go to Lakeland, FL toward the 3rd or 4th week of March every year. The past couple of years it's been miserably cold and very windy. Overnight temps got just to freezing, but warmed up a bit by mid morning. If you're thinking further south I wouldn't be concerned.

Question? Are you thinking of moving into a retirement type community or an RV Resort type?? We were mentally packed and ready to go when we came home last March until we found that virtually all communities like that are limiting newcomers to no more than 2 dogs. Current residents were grandfathered. We had 5 at the time, but only admitted to 4 since Mickey was so old and we didn't expect him to be with us. So now we're at 4 and still unable to make the move we want so badly. But our doggies trump the move, so TN is still home and will be until....hopefully a long time. Something you might want to check if any of this applies to you.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Are the existing tanks enclosed?

[Community Alumni]

We live in Myrtle Beach in the winter. Over the part couple of years we've had spells of 2-3 days in a row where the temps went to the low 20's and never got up above freezing.

When we are there and it's freezing we leave the grey tank open and let the bathroom sink run at just above a drizzle. We use ceramic heaters daytime and run the furnace at night. I have heated tanks but many of our camping friends do not.

When return home to Montreal for the holidays etc..., I winterize the trailer before I store it; drain the hw heater, drain the tanks and pump rv anti-freeze throughout the system.