Traveling in sub-freezing temperatures

[Keith Hughes]

We heading out on a trip next month in our 2021 3121RL fifth wheel and may be towing at times when the outside temperature is below freezing. The longest period of time we may be unhooked from campground hookups and on the road on any given day would be seven hours. We do have a residential fridge, 300 watt solar panel on the roof and an Onan 5500 onboard propane generator.

What would be your suggestions to keep our pipes/hot water heater/waste tanks from the possibility of freezing?
1. Run furnace?
2. Keep tank heaters on?
3. Run generator to provide power and keep lead acid batteries from being drained too low?

If not any of these first three items, open low point drains and all spigots and drain plumbing system leaving low point drains and spigots open during travel?

TIA!

[DutchmenSport]

Before traveling, if the camper is currently winterized, leave it that way until you reach a warmer climate. That's what we do.

If you know you are going to be in-and-out of a freeze zone multiple times over multiple days, then blowing your water lines with an air compressor at the beginning of each days journey is an alternative. By blowing, you are not putting any chemicals in your system that needs to be flushed out when you reach your destination.

Also, empty the holding tanks at the start of the day. This is easier than attempting to monitor them or keep them heated with limited power.

If you are truly in-and-out for just a day or so, a couple days, then another alternative is to leave the camper winterized and carry bottled water and a port-a-potty you can dump once you reach a spot where you are safe to unwinterize. Of course, you won't be able to shower, but you can take a cat-bath and clean up the smelly parts of the body though with heated water on the stove top.

When we travel (leave Indiana) and head South, if we know we will not make it far enough to get out of the freeze zone, we leave the camper winterized until we are clear (usually once we reach the Southern border of Tennessee we feel pretty safe to unwinterize. We'll plan an overnight in a KOA with full hook-ups just so we can do this.

Of course, heading back north, we'll reverse the route and Re-winterize at the same location and then head on home.

My suggestion if you are in and out of the freeze zone ... use the compressed air blow method, drain your water heater, drain your holding tanks. Use bottled water and a port-a-potty. Nothing goes down the kitchen sink drain .... nothing. And sink, toilet, and shower in the bathroom are not used.

[Mark7]

I just got back from a trip from -14˚ to 75˚and back down to -10˚!

We were already winterized when we left and only took dry goods, nothing that could not freeze or that we had to keep cold. We opted to go to a grocery store when we got there, so nothing to worry about there.

We had a lot of extra RV antifreeze with us so we used that to flush the toilet IF we had to stop for convenience stops along the way.

We de-winterized the when we were far enough south to avoid damage from frost.

Coming back north, we traveled for the most part in daylight hours when the temps were still in the 40's, and at night would run our furnace to sleep. When we got in the danger zone for frost again, somewhere in northern Kansas we stopped for the night and winterized the RV, got everything packed into totes and down the center so no need to put the slides out later, and let the furnace run while we were on the road. We monitored the temp in the RV on the last 270 mile leg in single digit temps and it never got below 42˚ in there.

Good luck and stay safe!

[Pburger]

I have traveled in winter to the point where I had to thaw out my truck sit to error codes popping up. But my trailer was fine. I am a full timer. I left the tank heaters on but not the heater and didn’t have any issues with my trailer. My truck said it was -14.