Winter Travel Preparations

[D'Tour]

Hi Folks, this winter will be my first time traveling North. I was wondering if there are any suggestions to prep my RV for colder temperatures and snow handling during our travels.

Thanks!

[Jagiven]

Welcome aboard!

Couple questions, where is Winter Garden? Sounds like Florida to me. How far north are you thinking of going? Weather in Ohio, is a lot different than say the UP or Minnesota.

Big thing to note, most MHs have all their plumbing exposed. If you are going to see extended below 20ish degree weather, more than just an overnight low. You need to address how to keep your plumbing from freezing. Your tanks might have heat pads on them.

What MH do you have?

[Kim Gass]

Will this be the first time you have driven through snow and on ice?

If so try not to drive in it. Stopping distances need to be increased vastly and you should drive as if you have an egg under your gas pedal foot and don't want to break it.

It may be more about your experience than the MH equipment. We have a TT and winterize after our FL visit at the end of Feb. We try to have a full service campground for that little ritual . For us that campground is most likely in NC. Your route will be different.

Otherwise we drive more conservatively though we have 60 years of winter driving experience. We find that driving through snow is relaxing with some caveats..that we can see the road and that trucks are absent. You might consider driving short days to avoid the trucks that seem to get more numerous at night.

[pconroy]

Originally Posted by D'Tour

Hi Folks, this winter will be my first time traveling North. I was wondering if there are any suggestions to prep my RV for colder temperatures and snow handling during our travels.

Thanks!

Like the others have said:
1. Just rriving in it or camping in it?
2. How cold (evening lows, daily highs)?
3. How far north and what month?



Driving and camping during the winter are what some of us do.
Answer those and we'll inundate you with advice.

[JmsNMar]

Hello. Hope you have an enjoyable and safe trip where ever your travels take you. If I may pass on some advice based on my own experiences in cold weather... Purchase a small 5amp portable heater that you can run in your wet bay storage area to keep water lines and your water pump somewhat warm in cold weather. Also, one or two portable heaters to run inside the coach. If you find you can't run two heaters on your plugs without popping the breaker, consider running one off of your microwave plug, which should be on its own circuit. During cold overnights, I recommend leaving the cabinet doors under your sinks open, to allow warm air to circulate around the water lines. All of this is obviously based on you having shore power hookups. Extend-A-Stay propane hookups will allow you to use your furnace more often, without the fear of running your propane dry. Good luck, and Happy Trails...

[D'Tour]

I have a 2019 Jayco Greyhawk 31F it comes equipped with tank heaters, I’m assuming just keep those running to avoid freezing pipes....November travel to Pennsylvania from FL

[pconroy]

Originally Posted by D'Tour

I have a 2019 Jayco Greyhawk 31F it comes equipped with tank heaters, I’m assuming just keep those running to avoid freezing pipes....November travel to Pennsylvania from FL

Nope.
Those are just hot pads on the bottoms of the tanks. I have them too and still froze the pipes.


As long as temperatures are mid 20's, we've always been ok. I'll run a space heater in the "basement" area to keep that from freezing.


One thing that's easy and fool-proof is to just bite the bullet and winterize. Really cold nights, I'll do that rather than risk frozen pipes. It's $8 of Antifreeze and 10 minutes to winterize.

[JmsNMar]

That's a good idea, PConroy. Putting RV antifreeze in the black and gray tanks will fight off freezing in those areas. If planning on using the fresh water on the road, maybe don't put antifreeze there. RV antifreeze comes pretty cheap at Walmart. In a nutshell- in my opinion- there is no exact way of winterizing your coach. I read an article written by a full time RV couple who indicated that a Dyson space heater, in spite of it's high expense- was worth its value in keeping their coach warm. They also indicated only one was needed inside. I bought two $30 portable heaters from Walmart, and although it was still cold inside our coach in temps ranging from -8 to teens, it was manageable.

[pconroy]

Originally Posted by JmsNMar

That's a good idea, PConroy. Putting RV antifreeze in the black and gray tanks will fight off freezing in those areas. If planning on using the fresh water on the road, maybe don't put antifreeze there.

Well you could dump 5 gallons of Vodka into your fresh water tank. Purely as "drinkable antifreeze" of course!!





RV antifreeze in the black and gray then let it get down to the drain valves too. I had those freeze up on me that one cold night.


Like I posted, I was able to wrap almost all of the exposed piping underneath the RV and survive unfrozen. Just that one night, the wind was blowing so whatever residual heat was under the coach got blown away.

And we froze up.


Plan C will be to try to get under there and wrap as much of the pipes as I can get to with some heat cable. Until then I just did a re-winterization in the evening before going to bed. Then flushed it all out next morning when the sun was up and warming.