1st time camper in freezing weather

[Ericl]

I will be heading to one of our state parks tomorrow in South East Texas, Wednesday the temperature is supposed to drop below freezing (29-30). We have never camped in freezing weather, I’ve read that people put antifreeze in their holding tanks, fill the fresh water tanks, open cabinet doors, Wednesday is the only day showing a freeze. My instinct is to open the holding tank valves, And stream a little water out of each fixture, Wrap the valves in towels. Any advice from my northern brothers is surely appreciated. The RV is a 28 RLS.

Thank you

[CAG]

Originally Posted by Ericl

I will be heading to one of our state parks tomorrow in South East Texas, Wednesday the temperature is supposed to drop below freezing (29-30). We have never camped in freezing weather, I’ve read that people put antifreeze in their holding tanks, fill the fresh water tanks, open cabinet doors, Wednesday is the only day showing a freeze. My instinct is to open the holding tank valves, And stream a little water out of each fixture, Wrap the valves in towels. Any advice from my northern brothers is surely appreciated. The RV is a 28 RLS.

Thank you

With a search on cold weather camping in the gold search bar at the top you will find a list of related threads. With cold weather comes the request for this info from users.



At 29-30 degrees I would not worry about freezing unless that 29 is going to be for days.

1. Unhook your water hose. It will probably freeze enough to stop water.

2. Fill you water tank.

3. Don't open the holding tanks. Especially the black tank.

4. If you have heat running inside you can open the doors to storage but in reality 29 is nothing for short periods.

I have camped to 10 F with little issues but then I had a heated underbelly. I still did not worry about 29-30 for a few hours.

[CAG]

https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f...ing-80818.html


Just one of the many from the search engine.

[Jagiven]

We often camp with the over night lows in low to mid 20's. We do nothing to really prep for that type of weather.

Does not sound like you have full hook ups, but just incase you ever do in the future. Disconnect your FW hose, drain it, put it in the cargo hold over night. Otherwise it will be frozen solid in the morning. If you have sewer connections. Disconnect from the CG sewer port (make sure to close your valves). Probably will not be an issue at 29 degrees, but sometime the sewer hose with frost up internally.

Fill you FW tank full. Don't worry about the Grey or Black tanks. 29 degrees, low volume in the tanks, even if it does freeze, there is such little volume the ice will buckle, before damaging the tanks.

In cooler weather, we do open the cabinet doors to let a little warm in. 29 degrees, I probably would not worry, as there is enough heat in the tt to keep the back spaces warm enough.

Low point drains, I have never done anything to them.

Outside shower, I just keep the door closed.

You will be fine!

[CAG]

Low point drains, I have never done anything to them.

After 15-20 years of elk hunting at 8000+ I came to learn (it took a couple of frozen lines) that the low points are the problem.



Water in the low points freezes and the ice wicks up the line to the T in the water line. That stops all water flow in the lines. You get up in the middle of the night, visit the bathroom, flush the toilet and the water pump starts and does not stop because it is getting no water. The line is stopped up.



The low points, and any water line hanging below the underbelly is going to freeze first and will freeze up to the T in the line and beyond. Water stops moving. I learned after about the third time, that I needed to wrap the water lines hanging below the underbelly. Funny, but that stopped the problem of frozen lines.

[norty1]

We are camping 3 days next week with lows forecasted in the low to mid 20's.

We plan to disconnect and drain the water hose and use the pump to flush with a gallon of water backup. Our rig is enclosed and we will have the furnace running to keep the pipes and tanks flowing.

Enjoy!

[Ericl]

Thank you everyone for your replies, I feel I lot more comfortable that I’m not going to wake in the morning and find the sides bulging from frozen Pex lines.

[norty1]

Be sure to use your furnace liberally to keep the inside warm. Open cabinet doors under the sinks. We also use foam pillows in the ceiling vents to reduce heat loss.

[Jagiven]

Originally Posted by norty1

Be sure to use your furnace liberally to keep the inside warm. Open cabinet doors under the sinks. We also use foam pillows in the ceiling vents to reduce heat loss.

LOl, we leave our vents cracked cracked open to reduce condensation.

[RedHorse1]

You are not below freezing for an extended period 5 hrs or more and the temp is not in “hard freeze” territory, I wouldn’t winterize. Maybe disconnect the water.
I’m assuming you have an enclosed underbelly, if not I’d be a little more cautious but don’t think winterize is a requirement.

[curver900]

if it was 25 for 20 hours then worry.. rule of thumb is one hour to freeze up for every degree below freezing.

if you leave the water connected the pressure actually keeps it from freezing longer.

if you are where there is electricity then get a 1500 watt electric heater... it will be much cheaper than running your furnace...
your gray tank and black tank will be just fine as well

[travelingjw]

The one thing I would add to the above comments is to take off your water regulator if it is connected to the outside hose spigot. I was camping in the low 20's and my regulator would not work after this. It was not a cheap one.

[norty1]

I think the discussion may be off track, I for one am inside during this and will plan to be warm anyhow.

[CrowCross]

11/12/19 we stayed at the Cassville-White in Cartersville, GA
Temperature on arrival was 30 deg and 19 deg in the morning.
We had to stay an extra day due to a storm in the Roanoke area.
I ran the tank heaters, disconnected the hose...and was glad I had a space heater. In my opinion space heater is a must.

Ironic thing was the day before we were staying at the Emerald Beach RV Park in Navarre Fla...in short pants and T- shirt.

Next stop was Natural Bridge in Virgina where it was 28 deg on arrival.

I like the idea of opening cabinet door under sinks.

We leave Fri? Sat? to head out to Arizona from the Philly area. I hope it not as cold.

[skids]

Originally Posted by CAG

The low points, and any water line hanging below the underbelly is going to freeze first and will freeze up to the T in the line and beyond. Water stops moving. I learned after about the third time, that I needed to wrap the water lines hanging below the underbelly. Funny, but that stopped the problem of frozen lines.

Wrap the the low point point hoses with what?

[CAG]

Originally Posted by skids

Wrap the the low point point hoses with what?

First time I realized what was causing the freeze I was on a hunt. I used some towels and tied them on with paracord. I then purchased some insulated small bags from Amazon that are designed for your home water faucet. Worked fine.

[Bob K]

Originally Posted by Ericl

Thank you everyone for your replies, I feel I lot more comfortable that I’m not going to wake in the morning and find the sides bulging from frozen Pex lines.

Pressure is what causes lines to burst. If you're worried about freezing, just turn off the pump and open each one of the spigots to relieve standing water pressure in each line. That'll give any ice plenty of room to expand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuPO5hKdo8A

[CAG]

Originally Posted by Bob K

Pressure is what causes lines to burst. If you're worried about freezing, just turn off the pump and open each one of the spigots to relieve standing water pressure in each line. That'll give any ice plenty of room to expand.

No actually the water freezes, expands and cracks plastic elbows, and plastic fixtures on the pump. Because the line is frozen water does not move. Bursting is not a big problem in RVs but frozen, cracked lines are. They then thaw, leak and cause the pump to run to fill lines again.

[Bob K]

Originally Posted by CAG

No actually the water freezes, expands and cracks plastic elbows, and plastic fixtures on the pump.

Yes, that can happen, too, if the ice has no room in which to expand. That's the difference between "bursting" and "cracking".

[Ericl]

Thank you everyone for your responses, I’m happy to say that we made it through the early hours of Temperatures of 28 Deg. I did open the cabinet doors as suggested, and removed the hose from the park spigot.

Thanks again