Cold Weather Camping

magnum12 · 10-13-2020, 07:51 AM

Good morning everyone,
Just a quick question, I am heading up to the north eastern area of Nevada for a week and looks like the nighttime lows will be in the upper teens to low 20's with highs in the low 60's. I already picked up some of the foam pipe insulation for my water hose and actually considering just unhooking it at night and letting the water drain from the hose just to avoid it freezing but what about the hot water tank? I will be plugged into shore power so I will have the hot water tank turned on all the time but with these low's should I be concerned? Also how about the fresh water tank as that will be filled maybe a 1/3rd full?

Jagiven · 10-13-2020, 08:37 AM

I have camped many times in our HTT in the mid to low 20's. Never been an issue. But I have never used it in the teens.

Do disconnect your hose, drain it, ideally coil it up and put it in a cargo hold. It will freeze solid if you do not, and will take all day to thaw out.

I suspect you have an enclosed underbelly with heat?? I like to fill the FW tank full, but we rarely ever have hook up, and I have an open underbelly. I would say you want the tank at least 1/3 full for night and morning use. If your going to see the teens, and have an enclosed heated underbelly you should be fine. More water, more thermal mass, longer it will take to freeze, so no harm in fill it greater than 1/2 full.

Do you have tank heaters? If so, run them if it gets below 25ish.

Will you have sewer connection? If so, disconnect from it at night. Otherwise your flexible hose will fill with frost (condensation from the sewer system).

We tend to keep the cabinets ajar that have water pipes in them. This will allow a little heat to migrate back into some of those areas.

Run your furnace, as it will heat your underbelly (if you have a heated underbelly)

Hot water heater: as long as it is turned on you will be fine. The tankless units have freeze protection, the tanked unit has a thermostat that will just cycle the water heater on as needed.

Stay warm

magnum12 · 10-13-2020, 08:47 AM

Thanks for the info! Unfortunately I do not have a heated underbelly, just that corrugated covering that is now partially missing, long story and no tank heaters. I will be staying at a campground with full hookups but will not hook up the sewer line until right before I leave. Just looked at NOAA again and it looks like the first 2 nights I will be there will be around 18 and then warming up to the low 20's.

Thanks for the tip on keeping the cabinet doors ajar while running the furnace at night.

Jagiven · 10-13-2020, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magnum12

Thanks for the info! Unfortunately I do not have a heated underbelly, just that corrugated covering that is now partially missing, long story and no tank heaters. I will be staying at a campground with full hookups but will not hook up the sewer line until right before I leave. Just looked at NOAA again and it looks like the first 2 nights I will be there will be around 18 and then warming up to the low 20's.

Thanks for the tip on keeping the cabinet doors ajar while running the furnace at night.

The corrugated cover even torn (depending on where) will keep the underbelly warmer than if you did not have it. I would fill your FW tank full!

Another thing you can do, might annoy your neighbors, run a 150watt light bulb under the tanks at night. Surprising how much heat they put out.

If you get up at night, make sure to run some water through both the hot and cold water lines. A little bit of motion will keep them in thawed.

Do you have a sink in a slideout? If so, check were that water line routed, might go under the TT and be exposed. If so, you might just want to blow out the lines at night. It does not need to be perfect, just enough so in the morning you an turn the water back on, and it will flow.

magnum12 · 10-13-2020, 09:35 AM

The corrugated cover is missing from the very front of the trailer back to the black tank, exposing about a 1/3 of the tank. Need to get some of it ordered from the dealer and figure out how I am going to splice it in with the existing.

No slide on my unit and easy enough to open up the cabinet door to let some of the heat from the furnace flow under the sink.

Good idea about running the 150W bulb. I'll see if I can grab one before I leave and play it by ear on how many neighbors I have.

I will definitely fill the FW tank full when I get there.

Gfdfhjjjgddfg · 11-08-2020, 10:50 AM

Keep the water running . Just a trickle

magnum12 · 11-09-2020, 10:24 AM

Good morning everyone, just wanted to give you a quick update. Everything worked without a problem with my coldest mornings running at 20 degrees, two hours before daylight. I did fill the freshwater tank as recommended and did disconnect the freshwater line until later in the day when the temps warmed up. I did also keep the cabinets with waterlines slightly ajar and was really surprised how cold it gets in there. Coffee cups were really cold when I pulled one out of a closed up cabinet.

Again thank you to everyone for the information and tips!

Jagiven · 11-09-2020, 12:40 PM

Hopefully this is the first of many cool weather campouts.

Mgbrown5 · 11-09-2020, 01:03 PM

Make sure your grey tank is open or you will overflow it. I'm speaking from experience unfortunately.

Gfdfhjjjgddfg · 11-09-2020, 05:19 PM

Refrigerator in the winter.
Oven in the summer.
Just like a VW van

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