New to RVs, going on first trip in January - any semi cold weather tips?

[newowneroldmontana]

Oh--also, I don't have an ice maker, so I don't know about disconnecting that water line. Sounds like a good idea.

[timandsusan]

We learned about cold weather our 1st year when we were in Bryce NP in October of 2006. We arrived a day early for our reservation at the park. So, we were convinced to dry camp--new experience for us. What happened??
Early in the AM, the furnace shut down because our single 12vdc battery was shot! No heat. No hookup. Yes we were OK but cold. Thank goodness Ruby's was open for a great breakfast with HOT coffee.
So--what did I do for future RVing. Installed a second 12vdc battery--no more issues. I have had 2 batteries for the past 23 years--not the same batteries! Also got a very good jumper cable!

[C&P RV]

Cold weather camping can be a real experience. We used to go snow skiing in ours so lots of experience even in sub-zero weather - some of it good and some not so good. Here are a few tips from things we learned over the years.
1- Regardless of having a heated hose, it's a good idea to have water in the tank on board. Some places require you to turn the water off / disconnect when the temps are below freezing so their pipes don't break.
2- Make sure the campground you choose has water on year around.
3- When the temps are consistently at or below freezing you MUST run the propane furnace. The water lines run adjacent to the duct work in the floor. Your underbelly is sealed with a reflectix type material and the heat blows into the underbelly to help keep the lines from freezing as well as the tanks. We always used electric heat (fireplace and ceramic style heaters) as well, but made sure the furnace ran as well.
4- Tank heaters work, but they may not work at the valve for your drains. On more than one occasion the tanks were liquid, but the knife valve had a thin layer of frozen water at the gasket that prevented the valve from opening. We used a hair dryer to get it open.
5- Make sure your sewer line is empty after each time you dump. When it freezes it usually rips so carry a spare!!
6- Since you have the ice maker & GE fridge, be sure to turn off the water to the ice maker under the sink, then use the low water drain (under the RV - blue line between sink and slide with fridge) to drain the water from the ice maker supply line.
7- When one propane tank empties, get it refilled as soon as practical. The furnace will go through propane when the temps are below freezing and the days aren't sunny.
8- Keep flexibility in your travel schedule. Towing on icy roads is not fun!!
9- As others have said, seal up the hole into the convenience center - the propane heat blows into that area as well. Keep your compartment doors closed as well when it's below freezing.
10- If you happen to be in a place where it snows, consider getting on the roof and use a broom to sweep off the slides at a minimum. Depending on when you move next, it's possible to get an ice dam on the slide that will make it hard to retract the slide to travel.

Not sure where you plan to stay in the Asheville area, but Asheville Bear Creek and Rutledge Lake have both been open in the winter in the past.

Good luck and safe travels!

[newowneroldmontana]

Another thing to note about Alabama weather in the wintertime is that what the temperature is in any given place depends on who you ask!

This morning at 7:00am in my little Alabama town, Weather.com (Google weather) said it was 28 degrees, Accuweather said it was 20 degrees, and Weather Underground said it was 24 degrees. Zooming in closer to my specific road, Weather Underground said 23.

Who's right? Who knows!? I used to try to figure it out with outdoor thermometers, but got different readings with those, too. And all of the individual forecast lows were wrong, in relation to what they say is the temperature now--so I have no idea how cold it really got overnight.

I'm certain it's been below freezing here since around 11pm. And it'll probably be above freezing by around 9am this morning. (And those three websites all predict a high of 58 or 59 degrees today, which is probably close to accurate, though the high temp doesn't really matter.)

Water always freezes at 32 degrees, no matter what the internet or TV says--so I've found that a good rule of thumb, in Alabama at least, is to prepare for freezing temperatures any time anyone predicts a low of 40 degrees or below for where you are.

[thedinobots]

Update on how things went.

We’re currently in Nashville and it got down close to 0 degrees plus we got at least 4-6 inches of snow.

Running the furnace was absolutely necessary to heat the RV and the basement - space heaters were not enough - but even the furnace was still not warm enough - how do I know? Because our water pump froze the first night and popped the fuse.

I put a little space heater down in the basement and a heat lamp and it’s warm enough now - the heat lamp alone wasn’t enough to thaw the water pump but both did the trick. If we run the heat lamp right away next time, it may be enough to keep it from freezing without using the space heater.

It’s thawed out now and we’re all good.

We opted for using a heated hose, and even with that the water spigot outside froze - so we torched it to melt the ice and insulated it ourselves because the campground didn’t wrap it and then left a small drip in the bathroom faucet (advised to do so by the campground).

We’ve been good since, water stayed flowing the next couple of nights. The heated hose works great!

We set the furnace to 55-60 and then the space heaters do the rest and we have been able to stay mid 60s for the most part.

The only thing we haven’t fixed is the water line to the fridge which is frozen, but isn’t really a big deal.

Thanks for all the tips, really helpful!

[DutchmenSport]

Thanks for coming back with an updated on this thread. It sounds like you are now a "seasoned" camper for sure. You've figured out how to do it in really, really cold weather! Congrats!

We left Indiana on December 26 and headed for St. Francisville, Louisiana to work as a camp host for the State Park system. Well, so much for escaping the cold.... it was 17 degrees last night here. And tonight is suppose to be about the same. Yucks! I ran through 2 thirty pound propane tanks this week. Today, I just filled up the 3rd time since we've been here. After tomorrow (Wednesday), is suppose to start getting warmer again. That one day of 70 degree weather was fabulous though!

[newowneroldmontana]

Originally Posted by thedinobots

Update on how things went.


Thanks for all the tips, really helpful!

Thanks for posting this update! I've been thinking about you guys and wondering how it's been going for you.

And you're welcome for all the good advice! It sure was good advice I gave you. (I'm currently frozen up, without water in the RV this morning. )

[newowneroldmontana]

My water's back on! What a relief!

When I was full-timing in a campground in Alabama for 3 years, I wrapped the spigot and the water hose with heat tape and put a space heater in the basement every year, and used space heaters inside, and everything was fine. Now that I'm on my own property in Alabama, my electricity access is 30 amps instead of 50 amps, and the electricity situation is a little precarious in other ways--so I've been getting by with just dripping (or streaming) the faucets overnight.

But not this time--wow--this extended cold snap is very unusual. It had already been below freezing for a long time by 3:30am Wednesday morning, but I still had a steady stream of water coming out of my faucet then. But by the time I checked again at 5:15am, it was 9 degrees outside and there was no water.

I've been too busy to try to thaw things out, so I just left the faucet open and hoped things would thaw on their own. And about a half hour ago, they did!

So you were very smart to ask about all this before you started your trip. I'm glad others told you you'd need your furnace and your fresh water tank. (And I'm surprised the campground doesn't protect their spigots on their own, and that they let you drip your water--even suggested that you should drip your water. I guess every campground really is different, in how they do things.)

It'll be above freezing mostly through tomorrow night here in Alabama, but then we'll start on another 40 hours or so below freezing--and I see that Nashville's going to be below freezing for the next three and a half days! Dang! Have a good time, and stay warm!

[thedinobots]

Originally Posted by newowneroldmontana

My water's back on! What a relief!

When I was full-timing in a campground in Alabama for 3 years, I wrapped the spigot and the water hose with heat tape and put a space heater in the basement every year, and used space heaters inside, and everything was fine. Now that I'm on my own property in Alabama, my electricity access is 30 amps instead of 50 amps, and the electricity situation is a little precarious in other ways--so I've been getting by with just dripping (or streaming) the faucets overnight.

But not this time--wow--this extended cold snap is very unusual. It had already been below freezing for a long time by 3:30am Wednesday morning, but I still had a steady stream of water coming out of my faucet then. But by the time I checked again at 5:15am, it was 9 degrees outside and there was no water.

I've been too busy to try to thaw things out, so I just left the faucet open and hoped things would thaw on their own. And about a half hour ago, they did!

So you were very smart to ask about all this before you started your trip. I'm glad others told you you'd need your furnace and your fresh water tank. (And I'm surprised the campground doesn't protect their spigots on their own, and that they let you drip your water--even suggested that you should drip your water. I guess every campground really is different, in how they do things.)

It'll be above freezing mostly through tomorrow night here in Alabama, but then we'll start on another 40 hours or so below freezing--and I see that Nashville's going to be below freezing for the next three and a half days! Dang! Have a good time, and stay warm!

We will be in Huntsville tomorrow for about 5 weeks, and it definitely looks a little warmer there so we are looking forward to that!

We were on 110 at our friends place in Mississippi and managed to get by with the furnace and one space heater but it wasn't below freezing so we would have been struggling to keep things from freezing for sure. There, we just used the fresh water tank - filled it during the day when it was warm, disconnected at night.

Being connected continuously here in Nashville has been so much better, except the one night that it froze. We weren't dripping enough water, lesson learned!

The little pup has never spent time in snow, so he is learning all about the cold. He seems to be starting to enojy the snow!

Good luck in the cold!