Winterizing While Living In Unit

[dreamers2010]

We are living in our Montana and will be stuck in cold weather this winter. What do we need to do to winterize? Obiously, we can not put antifreeze in our water.

All input will be welcome.

Thanks, Judy

[wersqu]

You will need to get some heat tape for your water/hose line from the faucet. There are also a few hoses that have the heating element in them alerady. I would also suggest going to a local LP dealer and renting a larger LP tank or two depending on their recomendation. Inside when cold weather hits, leave the cupboard doors open where there are water lines running. Small electric space heaters help with drafts. We also use an electric blanket. These worked for us here in Wisconsin for short term winter weather, two weeks or less. I hope it helps.

[hookman]

There was a couple on the website that lived in Alaska all winter and now have a bed and breakfast there. I don't remember their name but someone here will come by with their name. If you can talk with them they would a great source of information.

[swanny]

Not ideal but, I have used that silver insulation material ( like you use on a car windshield in the summer.) I cut it to fit windows and use a small piece of velcro to hold it in place. I then stick the covers on the inside of the windows. This helps hold the cold out and heat in. cover ac and vents.

[Carl n Susan]

Icehouse is the MOC name of the couple who live in Alaska and spent a winter (or two?) in their Montana. You can find them in the "Members" list and e-mail them.

Second best is Steve Reigle (sreigle) who masochistically spends his winters in Kansas in his Montana. He has lots of experience of what works and what doesn't. He likely will see this thread at some point, but you can PM or e-mail him.

Lastly, you can try the "Search" function. Both of those folks, and many others, have contributed their tips and tricks over the years.

[wingerphil]

We winter in Indiana in our 3400RL and here is our preperations.

We bought removable vinyl skirting here: http://www.ezsnapdirect.com/products/rv-skirting if you are only going to be in the cold one season you might want to just use the foam board you can get at Lowes, Home depot etc. but you do want to skirt the bottom, it helps a bunch.

We bought a heated hose here: http://www.pirithose.com/ these work great and are safe for drinking water. You can also buy a heat tape at the hardware store in various lengths, use electrical tape to hold it onto your hose and then cover the entire hose with the foam 4' insulation tubes from Lowes (Home Depot, Menards etc). Just plug it in and the water stays flowing. We do let the faucet dribble a small stream when the temps drop below zero overnight just to be safe.

I use a 3" PVC pipe in place of my slinky type sewer hose. This way I can keep the sewer pipe at an angle so it drains good. I leave my grey tanks open all winter and drain the black as needed. You can use the slinky hose but make sure you have a straight run with a decent angle or the "water" could pool in the hose and freeze.

I bought a cheap battery operated remote wireless thermometer at Walmart and mounted it in the convienance center by the water hook ups. I mounted the read out for it inside the 5th wheel so I can moniter the temp. in the basement.

I also ran an extension cord from the campground post into the basement using an adapter onto the 30 amp plug on the post. I plugged a small ceremic heater into this cord and sat it into the laundry basket that we access with the hatch in the hall way. I keep the thermostat on it fairly low so it would only come on if the basement temp dropped below 50 or so. This was just a safety measure to avoid any freezing problems.

We have a space heater in the living room and another in the bedroom and use these to help out the furnace when needed.

Last winter during the coldest weeks we went through about 100lbs of LP every 10 days or so. We did have a seperate 100lb tank. I hooked it up by buying a seperate hose at camping world and hooking that up to our on board LP regulator in place of one of the 30lb tanks. I also installed one of these: http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/l...ator-valve.htm it lights up when the regulator switches LP tanks so you know when one tank is empty and needs refilled.

Last winter we had no freeze ups and were pretty comfortable all winter long. Hope this helps you some.

[rames14]

Judy -
There is a section below called Brrr It's Cold Outside - Winter Camping. There are a lot of good suggestions there from members including Steve Riegel. We camp into the 20's, and some of those suggestions were simple that would work for us as well. Good luck.

[Wiesehan]

Another thing you can do is fill your fresh water tank and disconnect and drain your water hoses when it dips below freezing and use the water in your tank. I did this in Texas last year whenever the temp dropped and would reconnect to fresh water when temps came back up. We also used electric heater in addition to furnace, but be sure your furnace runs enough to keep belly warm or you will have problems with frozen lines.
Don

[dreamers2010]

Well we got thru the first freeze without problems. However, this was not what they call a "hard freeze". Not sure what all DH did but he worked on getting it ready.

Thanks for all your comments.

Judy

[Rondo]

Judy-- I don't know if you have subscriptions to the Woodall's Camping Life or not but if you go to campinglife.com and check out the articles in the December edition you will find an article on "Winter Camping Prep" by Brad Clayton. It has some good suggestions on winter prepping your unit. ALSO if you go to trailerlife.com, there is also another article on "Keeping Warm" by Chris Hemer on keeping warm in the winter in your unit. Both of these articles are excellent and both have suggestions even those of us that do not do much winter camping or camp when it starts to get really cool or cold! If you can't get either one of the articles, email or PM me and I'll send them to you!