Winter Camping in our Hybrid

[JCB-K]

We live in Texas and plan to go camping this weekend. There is a chance it will get below freezing. We are all set with bedding etc, but my concern is about the water. I plan on opening our cabinets to protect our water lines, and turning off the outside faucets at night outside. Is the fresh water tank protected enough for the night temps? I was wondering if it was more protected to just fill that and not use the fresh water connection. Does anyone have any other tips for winter camping in your hybrids?

[DocBrown]

Your winter is more like our early spring or late fall.

That said it would have to be below freezing for an extended period to freeze the lines. I'm talking about 10-15 hours. Even then if it's 30 and the heat is on, inside the cabinets will still be above freezing. If it still concerns you shut off the water and disconnect the hose at the spigot.

[Jagiven]

How cold? We go out in ours with the lows down to the mid to low 20's with day time highs in the low 40's or better, without any issues. We do not have an enclosed underbelly, so the tanks are exposed.

I fill the fw tank full. Let the sewer tanks fill. Make sure the fw hose is drained and stowed, or it is stiff, or maybe frozen. If the tanks have water in them, there is a lit of thermal mass and will take some time to freeze. Water also freezes from the top down, so a fuller tank will be fine.

We typically primarily heat with electric. Wee have aftermarket heated mattresses pads. We crack open each side window a few inches to allow the moisture/condensation a place to escape. We also leave the bathroom vent open an inch or so.

Like you sa I d, we just keep the cabinet doors open an inch or two to allow a little extra heat back there. At night if we get up re obtuse the bathroom, we flush, and run a little water through both sink faucets, just in case there is a cold spot in the back wall.

Pretty much every spring and fall we go through this and have not had any issues.

Happy camping, I wish I was with you!

[JCB-K]

Lol My friends from Michigan and Boston remind us regularly that we don’t have a winter. As they are wearing shorts and T-shirts when I’m all bundled up.
This weekend it will get down into the 20s at night. But the rest of the time I think it will be in the 40s during the day. I think I’m going to use our freshwater tank, mainly because we haven’t used it yet and I want to see how that goes.
I also ordered heated mattress pads. Another recommendation from my Michagam friends.
Thanks for the reminder about cracking windows. We went over thanksgiving and that was the 1st time we had condensation. I forgot to crack the windows the 1st night.
Another question. We had condensation under the mattresses as well. I was going to put an extra blanket under them this time. Any other suggestions for under the mattress?
Thanks for responding!

[Sundancer330]

Originally Posted by JCB-K

Another question. We had condensation under the mattresses as well. I was going to put an extra blanket under them this time. Any other suggestions for under the mattress?
Thanks for responding!

You need a thermal break between the mattress and the base or it will condensate when its cold out. I have used this on my boat for years and many have used in their TT with great results. https://www.defender.com/product.jsp?id=1818021

[Jagiven]

Hope you had a good time!

The underside of our mattress sometimes has a little condensation. I do not worry about it. When I breakdown, the mattress is pulled up and can dry out.

I found when I use the electric mattress pad, we have no condensation under the mattress. I also found if I place a fleece blanket on top of the mattress before my sheets, there appears to be no condensation.

[jerdog]

We've done some winter camping here in CA with our hybrid. I fabricated some window fillers out of 1/4" corroplast with reflectix attached and use the "Pop up Gizmos" over each end. works OK in our mild winters here. I wouldn't want to try it in anything below freezing, though.

[JCB-K]

We had a great time. One morning it was 24 when we woke up. So not sure how cold it was over night. We cracked our windows but still had condensation on the ceilings of the tents. I have a reflective blanket I put on the ends in the summer. I put them on the ends the 2nd night with the shiny side down and that solved that problem. I put a wool blanket under our mattress and we used electric heater mattress pads and didn’t have that much condensation under. And what was there the wool blanket absorbed so never made it to the mattress.
For the water I used the fresh water tank and that all worked great. Some of our neighbors used the city water hose and I saw them in the mornings trying to thaw them so they could get water.
We learned some things for our first winter trip. We are ready to go in February again. But if it stayed a little warmer I won’t complain either.